July 18, 2018
Great Bend – Newton
170 km (106 miles)
351 m (1151 feet) elevation
6:45 moving time
4125 km (2564 miles)

Woohoo! We’ve got our mojo back! Not sure what made the difference but today was an awesome day.

We ate breakfast at McDonalds and Saemi was able to get his caffeine fix early in the day which seems to be key for his morale 😀.

Monika had a great idea at the bike shop yesterday to inflate the tires with the floor-pump and as it turned out our tires were way to underinflated. Maybe the soft tires were holding us back.

The weather was wonderful and until noon it was relatively cool considering we are in Kansas. It was cloudy and the temperature didn’t go above 30° celcius until the afternoon. We didn’t even need sunscreen until after lunch. We still had headwinds but it didn’t bother us.

For the last few days we have alternated doing 5 km pulls in front to break the wind for the one behind. A rider drafting can save up to 40% energy as opposed to riding solo or in front. Doing those 5 km pulls used to be difficult and we were constantly watching the odometer waiting for our turn in the draft. Today was totally different and we were happy to be in front as we felt much stronger and happier.

After having watched our odometer so carefully has given us a newfound respect for runners who move much slower. A 1000 meters or 5 km can take forever.

When we finally made it to Newton we made our way to the bike shop since we need to get new tires and chains for our bikes. We had been told that the owner is great and that he runs a cyclist-only motel but it turns out that he and his family is on vacation and everything was closed. Well, we’ll just have to make it to the next shop.

Many cyclists had complained about the roads in Kansas but we do not share that experience. The shoulder is sometimes narrow but the drivers are very considerate.