Written by 
Today’s ride was one of those rides where everything comes together. It was a beautiful day weather-wise, and the terrain made for accelerated paces. The theme for the day was ‘this is a lovely ride’. Oh, and we did cross over into Wyoming today, so another state done and dusted.
It was chilly combing out of Columbus, but the weather cleared up nicely and stayed calm and cool for a better part of the day.
The entire route was beautiful. There isn’t much more I can say about today other than… perfect day for a beautiful ride.
We stayed in a wonderful little boutique motel in Lovell that looked nondescript from the outside but turned out to have lovely and charming rooms on the inside. It was a very nice place to spend the night.
We had a special picnic in the grassy garden area in front of the hotel. The food was catered by a local restaurant and was fantastic! Food is always an important thing for us. Not just what we eat, but sometimes the availability and the ease of eating and being done so we can go rest. We had a great buffet set out with a choice of chicken, beef, or salmon, as well as pasta and rice, and also a few salads. Dessert was a Dark Chocolate Forest cake or a Lemon Cake. I went for the chocolate but heard wonderful things about the Lemon Cake.
Today was a great day for us given that we have an epic day tomorrow with the climb across Big Horn Pass in the early part of another century ride.
Immediately following dinner, we reviewed our route talk for the next day. This often happens at night or in the morning, but we always discuss specifics around the next ride. Today’s review was critical given that we were to be climbing 6000 feet in about 20 miles along some very steep and tricky roads. It will be a challenging day for support for the guides – almost as much as for the riders.
Nerves and anxiety are high as this is a big climb followed by a still relatively long ride. We have the benefit of a fantastic 17-mile downhill immediately post-summit, but getting to the top to take advantage of that downhill will be a challenging grind.
My mantra for myself is ‘Believe that you can, and you will.’ I’ve done the training to be able to make this climb, but it doesn’t make it any easier that I have never ever ridden anything like what I’ll ride tomorrow in my life.
Rest up tonight – big day tomorrow!