Tour de USA | Stage 28 Chillicothe, MO 87 miles

Suck it up buttercup! Hammer down!

Another great day on the bike, and we solved to problems today.  The theme of today was the “4 H’s”, Hills, Humidity, Hot and HYDRATION!  We had all 4. We had a lot of rolling hills all day long, and it was actually quite an enjoyable day, aside from the 4 H obstacles.

There are a ton of wind turbines in this part of MO.  And the good news for me was that the wind was blowing a little from the side or tailwind today.  We had very little headwind, except when the road curved or we made turns.  Nothing major for sure.

Crops and turbines.

Corn and turbines.

Sometimes just turbines.

And more rolling hills, the largest grade today was near the end, and we had several, 10’s, 11’s, 12’s, and 1 13% grade, really not bad, but coming from KS we weren’t ready for them yet, but we are now.  More climbing tomorrow.

So 2 problems that we solved today were first the brake issue and my sluggishness yesterday.  The brake was an easy fix yesterday, just replacing the pads, and it worked great today. The side issue, and I won’t get into it here is I think my former bike shop ghosted me, meaning that they charged me for some work that they didn’t complete.  I don’t believe that they actually replaced my pads 10 months ago.  I have had other issues with that shop in the past, and that’s why I don’t go there anymore, so I am sure this is just one more to add to the list.  Very disappointing for sure, as I was always trying to help him grow his business.  His business has been in decline the last several years, and clearly other people feel the same way that I do.

The second issue was my sluggishness, and it was caused by dehydration.  2 days ago, I ran out of water before the 2nd sag, and drank 64oz at the sag, and made it the rest of the way in, and that was over 100 total miles that day.  Then yesterday, I ran out of water close to the end, and had to stop at the 1st store I could find, unfortunately it was only several miles from the hotel, and I needed water long before that.  So I talked to the tour operators this am, and we worked out the issue, and they were around later into the ride and I drank probably 10 bottles of water and / or Gatorade today.  The problem for the tour operators is they are trying to help and make sure the folks in the back are ok, and I was at the front, so I slowed down some today, and they made sure to cover the riders more towards the front.  They tried earlier to solve this issue by having 2 start times, and the faster cyclists leave 30 minutes after the first group.  Hydration is a wonderful thing!!!

Here is the map of todays ride.

We had a lot of climbing today, and more tomorrow.  See all of the spikes below, those are rolling hills.

And here is the video with the hills and some pictures, Check out Tour de USA | Stage 28 Chillicothe, MO https://www.relive.cc/view/1625716462

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, and if you can please make a donation to the Children's Hospital below.  100% of your funds go to the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital.

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