We had another great day of cycling today. The weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing. There was some rain in Missoula this morning but by the time we left it had stopped so we only had wet pavement. We had predominantly tailwinds so the day was a lot easier than it could have been. The highlight of the day was a 20 mile long descent that saw speeds of close to 40 mph.
We ended up doing some off road riding. There was a bridge closing on the route and since Scott and I were the first two riders, they were not able to get word to us in time to use a different route. We talked the construction crew boss in to letting us walk beside the crane but then we had to walk down an embankment and back up to the other side of the bridge which involved lifting our bikes and ourselves over two barbed wire fences and then hiking up an embankment and pulling our bikes up behind us. We only lost about 15 minutes and were quickly back on course.
For no more than I've ridden this year, I feel great. I'm not really sure why except maybe I have some residual fitness left over from May of last year when I rode across the country. I was so strong and fit then from the training and the actual trip that I think it is helping me now 16 months later. I've been riding for nearly 30 years now and I think that part of it is almost muscle memory. Riding is so automatic that those muscles just remember what to do despite not having had recent hard training.
Tomorrow we start in the upper 30's and head for Ennis so the first hour or so will be a bit chilly. But it's a short day of less than 90 miles so we should get in nice and early.
I'm guessing you really enjoyed paralleling the rail roads along that bit of the route. Hope today's "short" 90 miles was beautiful and all tailwind. We will find out soon. Enjoy.
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