Big Ride - Day 29 - Owatanna, MN to Winona, MN

It was a rough day. I woke up to my first flat. I heard someone let the air out of my back tire, but it turned out to be a stem flat during the night.

The morning finally wasn't foggy, but it felt like we were trying to out run rain clouds for the first few hours. I kept trying to convince myself we were biking into a sunset to keep from worry about possible on coming rain.

Mid day had a great stop put on by some of the riders from last year's Big Ride: Anne Klomps and her family, Liz, Ben, and one other who's name I didn't get... if you read this, leave a comment and I'll fix this :). Anyway, the snacks were great. Cookies, fruit, donuts, more cookies. In my normal life eating 10 cookies would be nothing. Apparently my cookie metabolism has suffered on this ride as this didn't sit well for the next 20-30 miles of the ride. Oh well, still tasted great at the time.

Shortly after leaving the snack stop we came upon some flashing lights and a bunch of riders standing around. I feared the worst: car accident. As we rolled up, Catie was on the ground, but sitting up and coherent. Greg told us that she hit the lip of the road wrong and fell, but was ok. Luckily Mark was near by so he could take care of her, taking her, along with Letty and Rachel (The God Squad always travels together) to the hospital to get checked out. Being "The Hammer" Catie turned out to be ok and at one SAG stop seemed more upset that she might miss a day of riding than anything else. I must say, she handled the situation like a champ. We all gave her a round of applause at dinner as we were glad to see her smiling and in high spirits.

Not much more happening today. We're in the dorms at the University of Winona which means no tents for the night (always a highlight of the trip) and sitting around shooting pool, watching tv, and blogging.

Final Ride Stats

Mileage:

91.85 miles

Time:

5:32'24

Avg Speed:

16.58 mph

Max Speed:

38.50 mph

Photos

Downtown Rochester, MN

"The tube is connected to the tire. The tire is connected to the wheel. The wheel is connected to the..." - Ruben
"What's a tire?" - Chad
"A what?" - G-reg

2000 mile mark! Thanks to Liz for marking the spot!

Random sign at an auto body place in Lewiston, MN

Climbing in MN is pretty.