Sunday, October 7, 2012

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While waiting for our team to arrive we saw Steve’s friend and old cycling buddy Greg Paige. He was manning the aid station and we had a picture taken by the hula girl at the ‘Leid Station’. We also saw Northern Peepers Crew beaming as they had just sent their team toward the finish line. They had a very nice crew and great race.

Again, Tim and Nancy flew into Amboy. They seemed as happy to be on the bike as we were to start our leg. We were on Route 66. The road was quite bumpy and we passed quite a few tourists at Roy’s Café. Past the RR tracks and we turned left to 29 Palms.

We rode 20 miles south, working to get our rhythm and then we started the climb to Sheephole summit.

The next 8 miles we counted down each mile because this was our last significant climb of the ride.

Just before we started the descent, dusk was upon us and the van was trailing us once again to protect us from traffic. After cresting Sheephole Summit there’s a steep descent down the other side, over 5 miles. At the bottom of the descent we rode through Wonder Valley toward Twentynine Palms.

We now had 20 miles, with a slight grade upward and rollers and a tailwind then no wind. We were in our groove. We each experienced hot foot but we were too tired to tell each other. As we saw city lights, we turned left on Utah Trail, and then right onto 29 Palms Highway. It seemed like the 5 miles to the last climb took forever. We were so happy to see the Burger King where we made the left/right turns for the Best Western.

We arrived at the finish to reunite with our whole team to receive our medals.

*Ride report by Julie Gray & Steve Gooselaw
*some photos are taken by Julie Gray

STATS:
Start Time: 15:41
Miles: 58
Elevation: 4170′
Arrival at Finish-Twentynine Palms: 20:10
Elapsed Time: 34:40:17
Time from last station: 4:29:17
Avg Speed: 12.76
Miles into Race: 508.7
Temps: Day-high 90’s, night-mid 70’s

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Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress;  working together is success.     ~Henry Ford
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This is the route for Stage 8: