Day 22 Kadoka to Oacoma

To the Mighty Missouri. On a Hot Streak.

Looking at the profile, today’s ride seemed pretty reasonable. Sure a super century, but by now we are pretty hardened to this kind of distance. But then on must factor in the weather. We are still in the high pressure zone pushing across the west. This also brought some strong warm winds from the south east. Distance, headwinds, heat on top of the same yesterday, led to some pretty tired riders as we all straggled in today. It was definitely a stay with your pace line buddies day (thanks Pat and Paul!). Although yesterday was similar in climate and distance, we at least had the Badlands National Park to distract our passage. Central South Dakota has its own remote beauty but it never changes. The only difference today was going from Mountain time to Central time. Blissfully we at last reached the banks of the Missouri River and our resort hotel for the evening. Tomorrow should see us out of the heat zone after a shorter 74 miler day.

We had some good news as our group is now back to full strength. Three days ago a stomach bug hit two of our riders. One the night before the ride and although he was pretty wiped out, he was able to limp through the day. A tough guy! The second rider was not so lucky and began having symptoms right before launch. After 10 miles he had to withdraw and was taken to out next hotel in Rapid City to recuperate. Luckily we had a rest day there and he was able to continue yesterday. Two other riders became symptomatic on the rest day, Neither was able to join us yesterday and one required an Emergency Room visit for hydration. Both were shuttled to our hotel today. Nether will ride tomorrow unfortunately but are on the mend. Needless to say we have become much more vigilant with our hygiene at lunch and other shared eating activities. I guess I will never shake the “scrub in scrub out” directives of my formal life in the hospital. Hopefully all will be feeling better and riding with us soon.