Shravenport, LS

7.21.2010

As I explained before, I was very fortunate to be able to ride today. I was pretty tired from the night before, but I ate like 15 coffee beans set out next to the fruit and soon I was feeling fine. Today’s ride was a little different because one of the crew members, Steve Wilkerson, was riding along with us. He traded places for a day with the only other Asian on the team, Mike Hang. Mike drove the van and Steve rode Mike’s bike.

The great thing about this, other than the fact that we got to rag on Steve all day for being “out of shape”, was that Mike was able to come up with fun stuff to do at his crew stop. There was a point where about 3 pace lines pulled up to his van, and he brought out a cooler full of water balloons for us to cool down with. Everyone grabbed 3 or 4 balloons and the mayhem began. The best part was when I threw one lucky shot that hit Steve in the back of the head from about 15 yards away. Omar caught it on film, and as soon as he gives me the picture I’ll post it here for you.

Later in the day we crossed the state line into Louisiana, and began one of the south route’s infamous challenges. Apparently the state of Louisiana is pretty flat the whole time, and it’s rumored that you can do the whole trip across without shifting gears. We have 2 more days before we cross into Mississippi, so hopefully I’ll be able to maintain the same gear ratio that I picked when I left Texas today. I think I made a pretty good choice, so we’ll see how this goes.