Riding through the heat

Well, it is now Thursday of the first week of riding… it’s amazing how time flies! It’s great to be back into a relatively familiar routine – things are coming back quickly from the 05 Canadian tour. Not to mention, at least half of the participants are Canadian, so it feels like old hat again.
The first day of riding was long and easy – we had to stay in the bike safety groups that we had from the weekend. We rode out to Golden Beach on the Puget Sound and had breakfast provided for us on the part of a local church. From that point we rolled out in our groups at two minute intervals, it was a pretty cool send-off – felt like the beginning of a stage race, only minus the racing! We took it nice and slow to loosen up the legs and get to know each other – with more than 150 people including support staff, there are still people I don’t know… maybe by jersey I’ll know everyone!
Day two I quickly became labeled as the “ringer” of the group… I left just before the Sweep team (rotating teams pack up the truck and are the last to leave camp) and was the first one to reach Stephen’s pass 30 miles into the ride. I felt right at home climbing 4000ft, however some others didn’t quite enjoy the climb as much as I did! There were a number of waterfalls along the climb that significantly cooled the air, as it was an extremely hot day. This was also Canada Day, and as expected we found ourselves at a bar (they stayed open late just to accommodate us since we were such a large group, maybe 20 +) and proceeded to sing Oh Canada at the top of our lungs!
The heat has continued over the past few days reaching at least 100F on several occasions. Today, Thursday, I was on Sweep duty and so I was the last to leave camp… not a new thing… I don’t know how people manage to leave by 7am, I’m still trying to rub the sleeping sand out of my eyes and shove oatmeal down my throat at that point! Anyway, since we didn’t want to spend all day waiting for the slower riders to finish a bunch of us decided to go out for coffee and visit the local bike shop for an hour and a half. We then meandered along the route which brought us through a beautiful desert valley in central Washington, and we arrived a few hours later at Yakima. Upon arrival the temperature was roughly 100 so it was time for a beer… this seems to be a regular patter:
Wake up… bike…shower…drink a beer… go to sleep, and repeat!
Thus far I have not gone through withdrawl of coffee or beer as Washington coffee shops and bars have proven to provide fine beverages. Let’s hope this continues throughout the country!
The kitchen staff has been doing a great job of providing delicious food for a large group of people, it’s quite an impressive sight to see so many hungry cyclists get fed!
Anyway, I hope you all are well, I’ll keep in touch,
God bless,
Reuben