Thursday, Oct. 2nd
Clayton, NM to Guymon, OK  114.5 miles
Twelve miles into the ride, we crossed into the panhandle of Oklahoma. As I described in yesterday's entry, there is absolutely nothing around but grass plains and an occasional oil well. It almost makes central Illinois look good. Thank goodness for ipods to help distract the mind. The road conditions were really rough for the vast majority of the 114 mile. Every 10-15 yards you would cross a crack(expansion joint) and it would jolt you. Needless to say, this compounds the already tender and very sore backside. Once again, we formed a paceline and made really good time up to lunch, averaging 25.6 mph for the first 50 miles. The wind picked up and was a stiff crosswind out of the south. This obviously hampered our speed but we still ended up averaging 21.4 mph for the day. May the wind gods be kind to us tomorrow since we have 130 miles to travel.