Day Twenty-Six – Sioux Falls to Fairmont

The body and mind are amazing things. It struck me in the last week or so how amazingly strong and resilient our bodies can be being pushed relentlessly day after day. Not only our bodies, but how our minds can carry us through the most challenging of moments and provide us with strength we weren’t sure our bodies even had. I am reminded of this daily as we ride lengthy rides day after day after day after day, and how we have come to accept 70–80-mile rides as ‘recovery’ rides.

Today we rode from Sioux Falls to Fairmont crossing out of South Dakota and into Minnesota. Not only did we reach a milestone of entering our seventh state, but we also rode our longest mileage ride on the trip at roughly 126 miles. Having ridden challenging days on the trip already, I wasn’t overly worried about today, but I did have a twinge of anxiety about the combination of the distance and the conditions. It would take us roughly 8 hours or more, and we were still in the open prairies of South Dakota and eastern Minnesota meaning wind could either work with us or against us.

Our group started out at 6:45 and had some directional challenges getting out of town. We managed to find our way without adding significant distance and found the open roads. The route was mostly straight running from west to east, and we had a gentle southerly crosswind that wasn’t causing issues. We very quickly found our stride and worked together to pull the group along as we had in days before. Today, it would be critical to do so given the length of the ride. We were comfortably hitting 18 mph and above without wind or inclines. The route would have us rolling up roughly 2000 feet in elevation, but across 126 miles meaning it wasn’t going to be significant and would come in the form of small rolling hills. 

At roughly 15 miles in, we crossed into Minnesota allowing us to cross another state off the list. We’ve completed 6 states thus far and are in our 7th as we ride across Minnesota.

The conditions stayed the same throughout most of the day though I was feeling a little labored when we were hitting the headwinds. I asked if we could dial it back a smidge when we hit the headwinds and, instead, keep the level of effort the same across the ride. If we slowed down a bit for a brief period, we slowed down a bit. I was also having some concerns about my knee which was giving me a bit of mild grief. After some time, I happened to look down and saw that I had been riding on my small ring across the flats making it more difficult to keep up the power and cadence. I switched over and my knee immediately started to feel relief.

Before we left the hotel, I asked the group what our goal was for the day, and we agreed that keeping ourselves with an average speed of between 15.5 and 16 miles per hour would be doable provided we didn’t encounter crazy winds or other inhibiting conditions. We were slow out of town but were at over 15 miles per hour about 1.5 hours after we started. We hit 15.7 and kept that almost the entire day and dropped it only after stupidly ignoring the detour sign a few miles out from the hotel. Our guide had been at the back of the group and said, “Follow the detour signs”. One of our riders, who likes to forge his own paths, kept ahead and we followed him thinking we could easily navigate our way through the construction. It was far from easy, and the construction went on for quite some time. The first section was soft gravel making it difficult to ride and we navigated our way around moving construction trucks and equipment. I’m not sure they knew what to think of us – nor did we. The second section seemed to have no way to get onto the road, so we rode across the sides of the road construction forcing across people’s front yards. There was about 500 feet where we couldn’t ride and walked our bikes but quickly hopped back on to get past the terrible, but short, stretch. At one point, we were moving slowly and close together without much room on either side. I tried to unclip my right shoe so I could easily put out my right foot for balance, but it wouldn’t unclip. I was moving toward the rider in front of me who was coming to a complete stop next to a fairly large pylon. I screamed ahead that I was coming in and couldn’t unclip. I slowed down my bike enough to be able to grab the waist-high pylon and avoid running into the back of her bike. She helped balance me by grabbing my shoulder allowing me to avoid falling over in what would have been a terrible place to do so. It’s a bad thing no matter where it happens. Of course, throughout the course of our rides, my right shoe had come unclipped on its own several times – or, at least, not been fully clipped in – and usually in less-than-ideal situations. It was unfortunate that the one time I needed it to unclip, it wouldn’t. In any event, we all survived.

We finished out the rest of the ride making our way the final few miles to the hotel arriving just before 4 pm. At lunch, I had noted to the group that if conditions kept up the same way from the morning and we continued to feel good that we would arrive between 3:30 and 4:00 pm. We all approach things differently, and one of our less optimistic riders called out that the wind was to increase, etc… to which we responded that we were noting ‘if’ the conditions remained the same, and they did.

The last 15-20 miles was a bit of a mental challenge. It was hot and knowing we still had 26 miles after the bike computers had marked us at 100 miles was a bit challenging. We kept our spirits up through humor and encouragement.

Today was a continued reminder of how well our team works together on so many levels, but also that our bodies and minds are capable of more than I could have possibly imagined coming into this ride. I iced my knee as a precaution for the recovery ride tomorrow – one which will take us into Austin, Minnesota and allow me to see my daughter and my husband. I am incredibly excited to see them, and it will make tomorrow’s ride all that much more fun knowing they will be there at the end.