This then leads into what has been my most memorable day on the tour thus far. At the peloton meeting that night we talked about the route to come which was 97 miles with 5700ft of climbing from Willard to Park City, most of which was to occur after mile 60 as we pass through the downtown of Salt Lake. Tension definitely began to rise throughout the evening as we anticipated the longest and most difficult ride thus far. Breakfast was moved up by a half hour (starting at 6am, rather than 6:30), and still there were some that decided to leave even earlier to ensure they would make it the whole way.
I took my time as usual and left just before the sweep team as usual. The roads were great, and the first 60 miles heading into Salt Lake went by fairly quickly. Lunch was provided by a local church, and after a short stop there I began to climb the first of two hills. The grade wasn't near as hard as anticipated from the profile we received the night before, and I was at the top before I could even reach my lactate threshold (see wikipedia for more info on this term). At the top I talked with some locals and they informed me of another hill climb nearby that is much more difficult. So as usual, I rose to the occasion and headed up another mountain pass that was 4miles at 6-9%. The whole way up I couldn't help but recall my days in France with the never ending switchbacks, and the view from the top was spectacular. After taking in the sights I enjoyed the descent and rejoined the route.
The second official cimb of the day took us up an interstate at about 5% for a good 3-4miles. I drafted a few semis as they slowly climbed up the hill at 10-15mph, and then I came up upon a fellow rider who was hanging to the back of a tractor trailer riding a free ticket to the top. Come to find out it was our head chaplain, Len. I busted out laughing at the situation because he was just content as could be cruising along at 5-6mph... I think he did complain about his hand hurting slighlty. Anyway, I took a few pictures to capture the moment. Later as I came to one of our rest stops I showed the pic to several other riders, and after much discussion we determined that this needed to be made into print and presented to Len during the next peloton. So I stopped at a 1 hour photo lab near our destination, and had it developped with the inscription, 'Keep on truckin Len! With love, from all of us on the Sea to Sea tour 08'. Here is the image before photo shop:
Because of my typical late departure, the extra hill climb, as well as the trip to the photo lab, I didn't arrive to camp until 5:30. To my surprise, Nick already set my tent up, so I didn't need to lift a finger. We were at another state park, and this one was even better than the last (despite the long walk to our site). Later that night we went down to our site and had a camp fire, complete with hotdogs which the kitchen ladies kindly donated to us. Aaron played the guitar, and we shared many a story before cashing in our chips around midnight. All around this was one of the most interesting and eventful days of the tour.
Sunday was nice and restful - we had the service in the evening this time so we slept in and had breakfast at a leasurely pace. A bunch of us went into town, Park City, which is an expensive ski town with a really nice main street. There was a flea market going on and a number of us got a free 10 minute massage at one of the booths.
On the way back home I stopped at a Rite-Aid with Jen (tour assistant manager who was in on the whole picture situation) to pick up a frame for the photo of Len. We got back and tried to get everyone to sign the picture as discretely as possible. After the celebration service we began the peloton meeting, and orignally jen and I were going to wait until monday to present the framed photo, but Len must have caught wind of what was going on and made an announcement of a 'rumour' going around camp about him having been pulled up the hill by a semi. He went on to claim that what you couldn't tell from the picture was that he was actually helping push the truck... Anyway, at this point jen ran and grabbed the photo, and I ran up and stole the mic to give my side of the story. It was a rather comical bit, even though I didn't have as much time to plan as I had hoped.
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