Overnight, there was a huge storm that went through the area, including tornado warnings. The weather forecast changed from the night before and the rain chances had supposedly diminished until late afternoon. Also, the temperature was supposed to drop as the day went on. I settled on carrying a rain jacket and bike tights. I also wore my waterproof socks. As (bad) luck would have it, I had to put on my rain jacket almost immediately. It continued to rain/mist for the next 50 miles. There was also an accident this morning after only nine miles. One of our riders, Bobby, went down. No one saw it happen, and he doesn’t remember what happened. Luckily an off-duty policeman was the first person to come upon him lying in the road. He blocked the road to traffic and protected our rider. Janet, Queenie and I happened to be just about a ½ mile up the road on a hill. Another car driver came up and told us one of our riders was down. Janet checked on Bobby, as did Brian (aka Geepa) – both are nurses. We left as there was plenty of help and Brian stayed with Bobby until the ambulance arrived. Unfortunately, Bobby will not be returning to the tour. He broke his collar bone and several ribs. He had a good share of road rash. The hospital kept him overnight to ensure there were no serious head injuries. We all feel sad and deflated for Bobby.
About 20 miles later, I got another flat (that makes three for the tour). This time it was obvious what caused the flat – glass. I had relatively good luck, because Rita had five flats today. There were at least five other flats that I heard about. Apparently, the heavy rain from the night before caused sand to wash away and expose all kinds of hazards – not to mention all the branches in the road from the storm.
Our weather just deteriorated all day. At lunch, I used “Bubba paper bath towels” to stuff in my jersey to help protect against the cold., because I had opted for my rain coat, and not my warmer coat. About one mile after lunch, Queenie and I ducked into a Dollar General and bought more clothes. She got sweat pants because she didn’t have leggings, and I bought a sweatshirt. I needed that sweatshirt to finish the ride. By the time we got to our hotel, it was down to 45, but because of the winds, it felt like 38. Just before we reached our hotel the steady light rain turned into heavy rain. The head winds today were just exhausting, and we had gusts to 25 mph. Those gusts practically knocked us over. The area made for a nice ride if it weren’t for the weather. We really didn’t get to check out the rice and crawfish patties. I took a couple of pictures in between the rain. Bubba commented at dinner and on his Facebook page that this was the worst weather day of all of his Coast to Coast rides – not necessarily the hardest day – just the most miserable.
I’m not sure how many riders took a SAG ride into the hotel; I know of at least six riders that thought “enough is enough.” I had Janet and Queenie to give me support, because it was a tough day. The last rider in was Rita (the person with five flats). She never gave up and came in with a positive attitude.
Not many pictures because of the weather.
Stats from the day:
Start city: De Ridder, TX
End city: Opelousas, LA
Miles: 92.01
Total miles to date: 2032.70
Pedaling time: 7 hours, 25 minutes
Avg. speed: 12.4
Feet climbed: 922 (flat)
Fatigue factor: 8 out of 10 (10 is the worst);
Wind: start: N 5 mph; end N 14 mph (gusts to 24)
Rice field on one side of the road.
Crawfish "field" on the other side of the road.
A blurry picture: Rita just finished her ride and arrived about 7:15pm - just in time to grab a dinner plate.
