Day 22 - Pueblo to Lamar - 120 miles - longest ride of the tour!

I was informed that my boss and coworkers figure if they can cover for me at work, the least I can do is come up with a blog post. Hmmm. They should try riding 120 miles with wind and unbearable heat! :) Just kidding - I am really grateful (I just spelled that greatful and had to erase it) that they are letting me do this!!

So my friend Ann joined up with us in Pueblo to ride the next leg into St Joe, MO. Welcome to the tour Ann. Let's ride the longest day, shall we? The elevation profile was pretty promising with virtually no climbing to be done. We started off about 7:00 to head out onto the plains of eastern Colorado. It was already warm but not too bad and the wind was pretty well behind us. At the first sag stop, my average speed was almost 19 mph so we were zipping along pretty well. The scenery was different of course, leaving the mountains behind us, heading out into flatter land and a lot more agriculture. The first sag stop came up pretty quickly at 38 miles, just a couple of hours in. We were feeling good and I thought maybe the day would go by quickly despite the long mileage. I had a sneaking suspicion however that the wind might not be kind to us all day. We came into La Junta and were starting to melt so we stopped by Wendy's for a bit of AC and a cold drink. It seemed a bit early for lunch so we kept on to the next sag stop at 75 miles, planning on lunch 10 miles later in Las Animas. Dairy Queen was the place to be in Las Animas. We relaxed there for a bit before heading out for the last 36 miles. Didn't seem like it should be that bad. But remember what I was thinking about the wind? Yep, it switched. And the heat was just melting us. I made my breakaway move about 8 miles before the sag stop. I might have jumped the gun on that one. I managed to stay out front but by the time I got there I was pretty drained. It was in Hasty, Colorado. Yeah, I've never heard of it either. But there was some shade and a cold Coke and fresh cherries. We spent some time there trying to gear ourselves up for the last 19 miles into Lamar. Fiona said she didn't think she'd ever been in temperatures that hot before. She's not a fan. We did some dousing with cold water and set out to finish. We spent over 7 hours riding that day and the last bit felt like forever but we conquered!

Interesting note: We rode by the Arkansas River much of the day on Friday and it was a raging torrent. When we crossed over a bridge with an Arkansas River sign on it just as we entered Lamar, it was not a raging torrent but barely an oversized stream. At least I thought it was interesting. I know. I'm an irrigation geek.

Setting out from Pueblo

No mountains on the horizon!

Getting some yucca and cacti in the fields instead of sagebrush. Weird.

The behind the back shot for the day. No mountains behind either!

I might need a leveling device in my phone.

Ah, that's a little better. Far off vistas!

Cold soda to slow the melting process of our internal organs in Hasty. Nice matching jerseys as well. Fiona bought hers in Pueblo on Saturday. She asked if I minded. I said no, it would be brilliant. :)

The Hasty Post Office. I have no idea if it is still a happening enterprise.