Lovelock to Winnemuca

On departure this morning my bike computer said the temp was 54 degrees with a strong head wind. It warmed up to mid 70's and We had blue sky all day. Our route took us on a North Easterly course.

Today is our third day in Nevada. I must say the scenery hasn’t changed. The landscape appears forbidding with sand and mountains with little or no vegetation. The vegetation consist of sage brush and an occasional tree. I saw some trees near a house along the way but very few otherwise.

We get a historical sketch each day at Route rap of the area covered in the ride for the next day. It indicated that trees were always quite rare in the area and that the trees that were present in the past were used for cooking. Lack of fuel was a problem for the immigrants; the immigrants used up all the trees which also caused problems for the Indians who lived and hunted in the area.

The dreaded headwinds presented a challenge today. Even though the terrain was fairly level, the headwinds slowed our progress significantly. I completed the 73 miles with an average moving pace of 14 mph. We were schooled on pace line riding last evening and today we rode in a rotating double pace line of 15 riders. For none bicyclist, a pace line is a group of riders working together to improve the pace through aerodynamic advantage. A group of riders can ride significantly faster than just one rider. This really helped today. Headwinds can be demoralizing. It’s like riding uphill all day.

We passed through a small town with the unusual name of “Rye Patch” on our way today. It consisted of a volunteer fire station and a few residences scattered about. Along the route there are very few roads that intersect our route. Some of the roads we see that do cross our route quickly turn gravel. I would like to follow one of these roads to see where it goes (but not on my bike). Our stopping place for the night is Winnemucca. Winnemucca has a significant Basque population who immigrated and settled here. I’m not sure why they picked this place. They are having a Basque festival in town today.

We arrived at about 1:45 PM. The first order if business was to check into our room and get a shower. I was starving even though I ate half dozen cookies, a banana, some licorice, and crackers at both Sag stops. There was a MacDonald’s across the street from out hotel so Rich and I made a food run. It was a Big Mac meal for me and it was so good!

Most riders are holding up well to the challenge. There are a couple though who have had problems. One of the riders developed a saddle sore where the seam on his shorts rubbed his butt. He has consulted his doctor and is taking a couple of days off to help the healing in hopes of getting back on the bike. Many of the riders are talking about discomfort in that place. There are four husband wife teams on the trip. During the Sierra Nevada climbing day I could tell one of the women seemed to be demoralized, although I think she has recovered with the flatter courses of the last couple of days.

My son Matt commented about my hair. No I don’t plan to get a hair cut Matt, but I did shave tonight. Rick took a picture of me today on the ride. I thought I looked like a wild man with sunscreen on my unshaven face and hair sticking out of the helmet vents. I think if you point your mouse at the pictures and click it will zoom in to give you a bigger view of each photo. Maybe that only works if you have photo software on your computer.