Day 23: Oacoma to Mitchell

Corn Palace here we come! Who doesn't want to see a building decorated with corn?! But, the better question is, who thought of the idea?

Today was a better day for me. It still wasn't the recovery ride I would've like to have, but at least I was able to hold my own. The riding was a lot like yesterday. Wide open fields with little to look at and rather unpleasant cross winds. But, the worst part of the day was the road surface. I don't think it would've been possible to make it more uncomfortable. For the majority of the day we road on concrete roads where the slabs of concrete weren't connected, so it was just bump, ..., bump, ..., bump, and then about every 100 ft there would be a big bump where they did some crummy repair job. It was NOT fun.

However, we did hit a big milestone today. We reached the halfway point, both in terms of mileage and trip days! We have 23 days remaining with two of those days being rest days.

Tomorrow is another short day, but I suspect it will again be full of cross winds. One thing I have learned on this trip is that I'd climb mountains day and night to avoid wind. I hate wind. I don't ride well in it and it just whips we around.

Day 23 stats:

• distance: 76.3 miles

• elevation gain: 1348 ft

• nutrition:

  • breakfast: french toast, fruit, NuGo protein bar

  • lunch: quesadilla; grilled veggies; fruit; yogurt with granola, fruit, and honey; 1 small coke

  • post-ride: 1 recovery drink, 1 small coke, skratch crispy rice cake, split cashew butter and sour cherry

  • gels: 1

  • bloks: .5

  • 52 oz skratch superfuel, 26 oz zym

Day 24 details - Mitchell to Sioux Falls

• planned distance: 73 miles

• planned elevation gain: 1414 ft