Day 24: Champaign, Illinois to Crawfordsville, Indiana 80 miles. Flat As a Pancake.

I'm tired again.  But it's a good kind of tired.

There aren't a lot of pictures today because, for most of the day, the scenery that I saw was the back wheel of Gene's bike.  

I started out the morning riding by myself.  About ten miles into the ride, I stopped to shoot a quick video of the miles of soy fields all around me.  As I was finishing up my shot, Jane and Gene, two of our ride leaders (and very accomplished cyclists), rode by.  Jane slowed down and asked me if I'd like to join the two of them in a pace line.  I accepted.  (Turn up the volume on the video.  That last little shout you might hear is Gene coming up beside me as he and Jane ask me to join them.)

It was like old home week.  I haven't ridden in a pace line since I rode with Jane and Gene in Nevada on last year's tour.  Some of you might remember the video that Gene shot of the four of us (I can't remember the other rider from last year's group who was with us) in a pace line riding down I-80 in Nevada.  It was a treat.

At an annual town meeting, they decide who are the happy people and who are the grumpy ones.

Other than a couple of SAG stops and two photo ops, the remaining 70 miles of today's ride was all done with Jane, Gene and me; each of us taking a pull for a mile at a time, i.e., leading the pace line for one mile before switching off to the next rider.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  I got to know Gene's back wheel very well by the end of the ride.  It was at a much higher pace than I have been used to riding and I honestly didn't think I'd last the entire ride with them.  At the end of each of the two SAG stops, I thought I'd just let them go by themselves.  But each time Gene just looked at me, giving me that kind of "come on, you're going to continue with us" nod, and I saddled up for another leg of the day's ride with them.  By the 70th mile, I was exhausted.  But as the winds had picked up a bit with the threat of thunderstorms in the area, I didn't want to deal with the last ten miles on my own, so I gutted it out and finished the day with them.

When we crossed over into Indiana, we lost an hour to Eastern Daylight Time.  There wasn't much to photograph today.  Same corn and soy fields.  Just before leaving Illinois, we did pass Danville Correctional Facility, although I didn't feel the need to take the picture.  It's where many of the recent Governors of the State of Illinois now reside.

When we arrived at our hotel here in Crawfordsville, I noticed that my average speed over the 80 miles was just over 16 miles per hour.  Considering I was riding at a slower pace for those first ten miles and knowing the pace we were riding at, I'd say we were averaging at least 17-18 miles per hour over those 70 miles.  And that was with a steady crosswind from the south.

Tomorrow we head to Indianapolis.  Last day on this leg of my cross country journey.  And I have mixed feelings about that.  Glad it's over, but also wishing I just stayed and continued on to the end in Portsmouth.