By lunch break at mile 132, the riders were well over halfway to their double century mark. “I was having my doubts around mile 116,” Kendra said. “But then we stopped and we ate something, and I felt a lot better.” Tim Showalter was even more confident. “It wasn’t even hard yet.” He later added, “I love doing stupid stuff like this.” After a half an hour lunch break, the riders were anxious to get back on road. The afternoon warmed up quite a bit when the sun poked through the clouds, however overall the weather was ideal.

Around mile 155, some of the crew members were starting to lag and feel the mental strain of the long days ride. About that time, a man, who some would later call an angel, met up with the riders. “Ken” appeared to be in his 60’s, and had met the support crew several miles up the road and turned around to ride with the group. Ken ended up being the energy boost that they needed with his stories of 300+ mile bike days in France.

At mile 173, the crew had their final break with the vehicles. By this time it was 6pm, having a gained an hour by crossing into Central Time. Ken said farewell, while Denver joined the riders for the rest of the ride.

In the last stretch, the riders enjoyed the beautiful sunset behind them and the passing trains on the endless tracks beside them. Ironically, Denver ended up having not one but two flats in this last stretch, the only flats of the day.

Finally at the double century mark, the riders stopped to celebrate and snap pictures. But they would have 11 more miles to travel because of the limited campsites options. The trusty support team found a wonderful place next to a lake and off the road. Exhausted, the crew rode into the camp around 9:30pm, after 15.25 hours and 211 miles on the road.

An update on Llamabull, he is spending a second day in the car. His official statement is that he will continue to boycott the ride until more Amigo funds are raised, setting the bar at $2000 starting August 1^st. While he was very impressed that over half of this amount was raised in the first 24 hours of his boycott, Llamabull stubbornly refused to ride until the full amount is raised. A source, who wished not to be identified, said, “I think Llamabull is just too bullheaded to admit it, but he’s just tired, and needs the rest.”

Thank you all for for your thoughts and support throughout the day! And while Llamabull nurses any injuries he may have, continue donating to Amigos, and free Llamabull!

Posted by Denver Steiner

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Trip06. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.