Day 16: Abilene to Topeka, Kansas 111 miles. somewhere between 3800 and 4500 feet of climbing (dualing Garmins)

I'm spent.  All I actually want to do right now is crawl into bed.  We've just finished dinner and this is the time everyone goes back to their respective rooms and writes their blogs.  If you saw most of the riders tonight at dinner, you would have witnessed such a quiet crowd, barely getting their forks to their mouths.  None of the typical banter between fast-growing friends.  Today was a long, tough day for most of us.  Even the fast riders felt it today.

[I'll apologize ahead of time for the lack of pictures from parts of today's ride.  My phone conked out in the morning and I didn't get it working again until after some great shots.  I also chose not to take pictures during the various bits of downpours.  I missed some great shots of the brilliant blue skies once the morning rains cleared.  I also missed some wonderful examples of barn art -- hopefully, there will still be opportunities tomorrow -- that reminded me a lot of Amish hex signs on barns in Pennsylvania.]

Today we travelled due East through a very undulating Kansas countryside.  Kansas may not have any mountains, but we're in the Flint Hills and there are plenty of short, steep hills (very similar to Connecticut -- no mountains but bitch'n hills) to wear you down.  We didn't get an elevation map of today's ride, although the one I've seen for tomorrow will more than adequately provide insights into how many hills we climbed today as tomorrow is more of the same.  Some people call these types of hills "rollers" and we were constantly going up and down and up and down.  These hills weren't close enough to enjoy the momentum of the downhill ride to carry us up and over the next hill.  They were spread far enough apart that each climb (in the morning they were merely 3% or 4% climbs but, as the day advanced, they got steeper into the 6% and 7% range) became a new challenge unto itself.

Coming out of breakfast this morning, I was reminded of something I left out of yesterday's blog.  About four miles before entering Abilene, we passed by the National Greyhound Association and all their facilities.  Abilene is, apparently, the Greyhound capital of America.  This morning, many owners were taking their dogs out for their morning constitutionals, in the rain (more on that in a moment).  This weekend was their big convention in Abilene and the hotel was packed with cyclists and dog owners.  The dogs were beautiful and quite friendly.

I also failed to mention the serious repair job Mark, our mechanic, did on my bike last night.  Something in my rear cog shifting got stuck and I wasn't able to shift properly into smaller gears, especially needed for hill climbing.  It took Mark the better part of 80 minutes to find the problem and fix it.  Thank goodness, as today I was in real need of those gearing.

Okay, back to this morning.  We left the hotel in the rain.  The forecast wasn't looking good with at least a 50% chance of thunderstorms all along our ride route.  But, half an hour after leaving Abilene, the clouds began to clear, the rains stopped and the most gorgeous blue skies caught everyone's attention.  Again, sadly, no pictures.  

The rest of the morning ride up to our first SAG stop was a series of sun-swept rolling hills all along horse and cattle farms.  We all noticed how green Kansas was.  It seemed so unusual compared to the past week in Colorado.

Downtown White City.  They were having a town-wide tag sale.  Also notice the brick street.  Almost a lost art.

Sometime in between our departure and our first SAG stop (about 20 miles into the ride), my left pedal broke.  I was able to patch it together to get to the SAG stop at the 35-mile marker.  There Gene, one of our ride leaders, swapped out my pedals for a used pair that were in the van.  They held together for the duration of the ride.  Unfortunately, the bike shops in Topeka were closed and it's likely the one bike shop in St. Joseph, Missouri won't be open tomorrow either so it looks like I'm going to be riding on those pedals until sometime next week.

Downtown Eskeridge.  Okay, so every quaint, local cafe isn't a five-star affair.  I guess I got lucky yesterday.

About ten miles out of our second SAG stop, in Eskeridge, the heavens opened up again.  There had been on and off sprinkles in between, but nothing to worry about.  This second downpour, however, had all the makings of trouble.  I was in no man's land.  Too far to turn back to Eskeridge and ten miles until I got to the nearest thing to a town, Dover.  So I kicked it in an extra gear and hauled ass for Dover.  Soaking wet, I got to the one store in town, famous for their pies, and ducked under the protection of their front porch.  There, with Gene, I waited out the lightning and thunder until it was safe to ride again.  All told, along with a slice of pie and a large cup of hot tea, that was another half an hour off the bike.  (You might need to turn up your sound on the video.  You'll hear how tired I sounded after 90 miles!)

The remainder of the ride was another series of rolling hills through a little drizzle.  I got to the hotel after over eight hours of riding, soaking wet and bone tired.  I'm going to bed early tonight.  Tomorrow is an 89-mile day into St. Joseph, Missouri followed by a much needed rest day.