Day 24: Mitchell to Sioux Falls

Today was a rather uneventful day. It was relatively short and flat with more wide open farmland. We did have more wind, but I think we managed it fairly well. The idea was to take it easy enough that going into a big day tomorrow we wouldn't be too tired, but not so easy that we were in the heat too long.

The two most exciting things were, (1) we rode about 3 miles of gravel road and (2) my Apple Watch broke. To be fair, my watch actually cracked a couple days ago, but today it completely died. On the day we road through Wall, SD the face somehow cracked. When I put it on in the morning it was fine. When I looked at it at lunch there was crack completely around the face. I have no idea what happened. I was really hoping it would hold together until the trip was over. However, this morning as I was getting ready to ride it completely opened up and died. Steph very nicely tried to find a place for me to go get a new one, but the closest option was just too far away for the amount of time I had. So I guess I'll be going watchless for a little while.

According to the information we were given, Sioux Falls is the largest city in South Dakota at 195,000 people. This is apparently 25% of the South Dakota population, which means that the entire state of South Dakota has a population less than the city of San Francisco. That's crazy!

Tomorrow is a huge day as we make our way from South Dakota to Minnesota. We will likely encounter more wind so I'm off to get my favorite fuel: pizza.

Day 24 stats:

• distance: 74.6 miles

• elevation gain: 1385 ft

• nutrition:

  • breakfast: eggs, muffin, yogurt, biscuit, banana, NuGo protein bar

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

  • post-ride: 1 recovery drink, 1 small coke, smoothie, clif chocolate mint bar, 1 La Croix

  • gels: 3

  • bloks: 0

  • 52 oz skratch superfuel, 26 oz zym

Day 24 details - Sioux Falls to Fairmont, MN

• planned distance: 126 miles

• planned elevation gain: 2088 ft