Day 6

July 23, 2004

Missoula, MT to Butte, MT

A half dozen or so of us rode with Lon Haldeman today. As usual, Lon rode his single speed bike. It never ceases to amaze me at how well he gets that single-speed bike down the road over all sorts of terrain. Riding with Lon is always a real treat ñ itís great to share stories with him and itís a real blast to be riding in front and first to all the rest stops. With some stiff head winds and a lot of riding on the interstate, this was the day to get todayís ride done with the help of a paceline. And what a paceline we had with Lon and a bunch of other strong riders (including Les, Gavin, Alan, and Anthony)Ö

Ö along the way, we stop to take a picture of an outrageous road sign Ö

Ö Lunch was at an outdoor pavillion in a park Ö

Rich ìSkiî had a super day. Riding solo, he rode just a few minutes behind our six-man paceline. When we stopped to fix a flat, he actually finished todayís ride a few minutes ahead of us to be first in. Way to go, Ski!!

We passed through Anaconda. This smoke stack, from an abandoned mining smelter, is one of tallest in the US. Apparently, the area is still polluted with a lot of toxic waste.

Profile and statistics (absolute altitude is wrong).

As you can see from the profile below, we had a bunch more ìupî than ìdownî as we continue our approach to the continental divide. We also had a very stiff headwind for much of the day along with a rather steep climb right after lunch at mile 85. Despite all that, the average speed for the day was quite respectable, thanks to Lon and the other strong riders in todayís paceline. Running with the big dogs today was fun but I definitely was feeling it by the end of the day. The first order of business at the end of the day was to schedule a message to speed up the recovery process.

Postscript

Unfortunately for four other riders, their paceline resulted in crash after somebody got their front wheel crossed with the rear wheel of another rider. Lots of road rash and some sore muscles was the unhappy result. Thankfully, the injuries did not seem too serious.