100-Mile Saga Across State Lines

March 4, 2025 - 100 miles, 1800 ft elevation, El Centro CA to Welton AZ (96 miles to hotel and had to get in extra 4 for a century)

Feeling pretty good overall.  Given that my only training for this is biking to work (7-8 miles a day round-trip), my normal running, and about 6 30-50 mile weekend rides this year.  It's only Day 3 but felt decent about that 100 miles yesterday at 19.1 MPH.  It was pretty flat, only 1500 ft of climb so not Herculean. Been really happy with all the great people and the support.  Great guys to ride with. For sure, hard to process so many calories, not used to throwing down so much, hopefully my body will adjust to it a bit.

Following the most memorable bike riding day ever, Day 3 provided some additional surprises.  We continued riding lots of I-8.  It’s allowed when there are no other options.  Well, we got sent on a 5 or so mile stretch that shouldn’t be considered an option.  I was marveling at the bad pavement getting into El Centro but that would have been quite welcome on this stretch.  Dennis (the tour company owner) promises that we will not see another stretch like this for the rest of the trip.  I hope he’s right.

After lunch, we left California and crossed over into Arizona.

Day 3 only has one notable climb of about 500 ft.  We turned the corner to head into the climb and ran into a traffic jam waiting for a train to pass…and then it stopped.  Really started debating what it would be like to climb over between the rail cars.  Fortunately, it didn’t come to that.  After about 25 minutes, the trains went and we let the cars in line go through so we could finally pass.

On the climb, hit a big rock and got first flat of the trip, guessing it won’t be the last.  At least it was the front wheel.  Changed the tube and Dennis pulled up with a pump to make things faster than CO2.  The tube change gave us some extra energy and we went up pretty hard to the top.  Then we had a nice decent down I-8, lots less windy than Day 2 and better shoulder.  As we came off the windy hills, a beautiful downhill straightaway emerged.  So amazing going mid-40s down the hill that I didn’t hear the navigation tell me to turn.  Martin, Doug, and I ended up staying on I-8 for the rest of the way (about 10 miles extra on I-8) into Welton for the finish.  It was a nice gentle tailwind and good surface, great way to finish a day.  So great that we just had to add 4 extra miles to get to a round 100!