Day 9 87.5 miles, 3529 feet of climbing, 13.5 Average speed

Chillicothe OH to Westchester OH

Another great biking day for the Eliminator Crew. The temperatures were in the mid to high 60’s which is perfect for cycling.

Joe and Ken did not hit the sac until 2AM the night before. They were trying to get the laptop’s WiFi operational. It looks like the port that receives the card is defective. This means we will need a wired hook-up to upload photos and receive email.

Our alarm seemed to come quick when it rang at 6:00AM. We got up packed up the bikes and left Chillicothe for Hamilton Ohio. One of the dictating factors with how far we travel each day is availability of motels. Today the motel came up early at 87 miles. Having had a late night fighting the laptop the “short” day was welcome.

It looks like we have left the major climbing for a while. Flatter roads should mean a faster average speed. But of course nothing is as easy as it seems. Any cyclist will tell you a head wind is worst than climbing a mountain. Team rider JP Crozet puts it simply….. “the wind…she will kill you”… he is right. Nothing worst than pushing hard and going nowhere.

Our bikes equipped with panniers (saddlebags) act like parachutes grabbing the air and slowing you down horribly. It is possible to be on a flat road and not be able to go over 8mph pushing hard! Add the howling wind noise in your ears for 8 hours and you can become crazy.

Wind is the main reason 99% of all cross-county cyclists ride west to east. We are going east to west. The prevailing winds and weather generally comes out of the west. We have noticed how fast the weather approaches as we ride into it. Something for us to remember in Tornado Alley.

We have a big day planned for Sunday if the rain passes overnight like the weatherman has predicted. If the weather is dry we should be able to leave Ohio after only 2-1/2 days and enter Indiana.

Day 8 106 miles 4653ft climbing 12.4 av 8hr30min bike time

Ken doing what he loves best working on FLATS!

Today we left Parkersburg West Virginia, headed across the Ohio River into, you guessed it, Ohio. we ended the day in Chillicothe OH

We woke to wet roads but no rain. Ken was plagued with two more flats. The plan now is to have new tires sent General Delivery to a post office for pickup. We tried to get off Rt. 50 as traffic started to increase and the shoulder became too small for us to travel on. The GPS showed some roads that paralleled our route so we went for them. About 8 miles into it the road turned to gravel then dirt. Of course all up hill. It got so bad we were forced to push the bikes up a couple of the dirt climbs. With the weight and skinny tires they are not built for off-road. This caused us to run later than we had hoped for. About 15 miles from the hotel the sky opened up and we got soaked to the bone. A hot shower and belly full of food cured our ills. The weather for most of the day was overcast and cool. Our sore contact points..hands,feet and rump have simmered down and the worst is over, for now anyway. Can we eat?? Well Tim had beef tips over noodles with two sides followed by a large slice of coconut cream pie. After we returned to the room he felt a need for a snack so went back to the restaurant for an order of French Toast and coffee!!!

We have another two days in Ohio.

day 7 80 miles 4844 feet of climbing

day 7, 719 miles (so far) 52,653 feet of climing (so far) 73 feet of climbing per mile average, thats a ton!
Still in West Virginia tonight. Today's ride took us from Clarksburg West Virginia to Parkersburg West Virginia 8 miles short of Ohio, tomorrow morning the crew will cross the Ohio river into Ohio via the Parkersburg-Belpre Bridge (Rt 50). We rode RT 50 across West Virginia today, typically we try to avoid the State highway routes but Rt 50 had nice shoulders and was a pretty nice ride. Todays bike average was a screaming (compared to yesterday) 12.7 MPH. The hills are going away, but we are still sore from yesterday’s nightmare hills.

Day 6 115 miles 10,436 feet of climbing

Today we rode from Cumberland Maryland to Clarksburg West Virginia. All uphill. All the way. Climbs up hills that took an hour. We finally pulled in after 9:00 PM last night completely shot after playing with the tires on Ken's bicycle.

Last night about 30 minutes from the hotel at 8:30 PM we figured out the problem when we fixed a flat in the dark, a favorite chore.

Day 5 86 miles 8000 feet of climbing

We rode from Waynesboro, PA to Cumberland Maryland. We stopped and checked out Gettysburg National Park. It was awesome.

Everyone's comments and emails are great. We are having some technical issues with our computer (can't connect to the internet) so have not been able to reply to folks. Ken will be calling tech support (his favorite thing) to get some help working on the glitch and hope to have a good connection Thursday night.

Day 4 - 119 Miles 9345 feet of Climbing

Into Pennsylvania! Big day today. Plenty of hills in today's 119 miles with 9345 feet of climbing. Sunny and Warm today. We left Gap PA and ended up in PA.

Day 3 - 99 Miles 6771 feet of Climbing

Sunday was the first day with grey (dry) roads..Yeah! (as opposed to black / wet, depressing etc etc..). Leaving NJ and entering Pennsylvania was the mission. We rode from Clinton New Jersey to Gap PA, 99 miles 6771 feet of climbing.