June 20 - Pete Basinger opens up a lead
By: Mike Curiak - Butte Montana 10:25pm Sunday night.
I'm a wreck. I've had a hard couple of days aside from the mileage. Mileage wise, I'm doing great. I'm very comfortable with where I am with 435 miles down. I've just had a string of mechanicals and bad luck with multiple flats each day. I've had 2 more flats today. My 3 flats yesterday were in the rain. I only carry 2 tubes with me so I've had to patch twice in the rain and that is just miserable.
The last 270something miles, I've been without a bike computer so I've been guessing at where to turn and where to go. So I've been spending a lot of time somewhat lost. I haven't been sure exactly where I am so that leads to a lot of stress and anxiety. I'm not trying to push the pace so my legs actually feel pretty good when I'm going but it seems that I've had setback after setback. And I got pretty frustrated with that today and was thinking about evil thoughts. I wasn't exactly thinking about the finish or even coming close to finishing. I was thinking 'Man if this is going to be like this for another day, I'm pulling the plug.' But then the sun came out and it got a little bit nicer. I got a good groove in a climb. I turned the page on my route map and saw the picture of Lenore my girlfriend and Doogan my dog. As soon as I saw that picture, I realized how lucky I am to be out here doing what I do. I can be at home, at work or a million other places but I'm not. I'm here. I'm riding the Divide and the weather's good. I just need to suck it up and keep perspective and get back myself back together.
I'm here in Butte. I'm going to be here until 9am tomorrow until the bike shop opens so I can get some inner tubes and a bike computer and some other goodies. Then I'll be out on the road trying to make some good time. I know Pete and Jan are way ahead of me, at least 10-12 hours ahead. They seem to be having a great ride. I hope they're not having any mechanicals and having a good race. Good for them and good luck to them. I have no idea who's behind me but I hope others are having a good race.
I look forward to finding out how everyone else is doing. There's a lot of amazing terrain we're covering quickly. The pace is fast. The course so far has been up near the Canada border with lots of fir and pine trees. There's been some big mountains with lots of snow on the top. We progressed into a kind of rain forest with lots of Larch and Yew trees, small Maples, Oaks. And today we segued into Spruce Trees and Sage, grasses and tons and tons of wildflowers. Montana has had a really good spring.
I need to start wrenching on the bike and get the chain lubed, headset cleaned, etc. Hopefully, you'll hear from me a long, long ways from here.
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Jan in Helena on Sunday evening - received 10:13pm central
Pete Basinger in Butte, Monday 7:20 am.
Mark and Trish at Lincoln Montana, Monday at 2:16pm
