Kansas!

Rick just crossed the border from Colorado into Kansas a few minutes ago!

Yesterday after George took Wolf Creek Pass alone (which he said was a huge mistake in judgement on his part) he was in desperate need of sleep, so Rick offered to take another 100 mile pull. Just short of 80 miles into it and a mile from La Veta Pass Summit, Rick was off the bike. He had been hallucinating and the crew carried him into the van.

We shuttled George up to start his pull early and he ended up with an 85 mile pull with some help from Rick during one section on Cuchara Pass. Yes, Rick who had just been pulled off of the bike was recovered and ready to ride. What a stud! George enjoyed the short rest and looked strong on the remainder of the climb, though he was tacking just shy of Cuchara Pass Summit, which he reached at 2:25 a.m. The altitude had gotten to him and any effort was really hurting him so he had taken this climb easy. The descent down this section had a lot of rollers and took a lot of effort. At Valdez George was falling asleep so we gave him some Red Star and let him choose his music...Dr. Dre. This perked him up and he was able to finish the pull.

This morning we changed some crew strategies and made rolling exchanges our priority. This will definitely help us to make our cutoff in El Dorado!

Special thanks go out to some wonderful and amazing people in La Veta, Colorado.

When the motorhome arrived there yesterday, I woke up and walked outside, only to look up and see a sign for a massage therapist. I ran straight there and Diana Camp promised to help us out. She ended up postponing a previous appointment so she could work on George and then on Rick when he came in. THANK YOU DIANA!

After arranging massages for the racers, I walked over to the motorhome and saw that Phil was repairing a mountain bike tire for two ladies. I told him about the massages and mentioned that I wasn't sure how I'd pay for it. I then asked if they could run me up to the grocery store and they said yes! As I got into the car after grabbing my bag, Deborah hands me a check for $100 and says that it is for the massages. I was near tears at this point, I couldn't believe the generosity of this total stranger. Deborah drove me to the store and then back to the motorhome...THANK YOU SANDRA AND DEBORAH!

I woke up for my next shift to find that someone had delivered some home made chicken spaghetti casserole to us. I realized shortly after I started eating that it was Roger from Bike Forums. What a treat...that totally hit the spot and we all really enjoyed it. THANK YOU ROGER!

Okay...that's it for now. I'll update soon, we seem to have good access in Kansas so far!

Once again, I couldn't be more proud of these guys!