Day 27 Wooster to Niles (98 miles)

It was absolutely the perfect day to go bike riding today, clear blues skies, warm but not hot and no wind. By this late stage in the tour we're now pretty much set in our ways and every day follows a similar pattern. One guy, Jack, leaves about half an hour before everyone else. I admire him, each day he starts off, only to get overtaken somewhere down the road, then spends most of the day on his own at the back. However he's kept plugging away and has completed each day for a while now, great perseverance. Another guy, Andy, rides off the front and usually arrives at SAGs and the hotel well ahead of everyone else. Then there's Eric and (new guy) Richard, who've formed a nice little partnership. They're slightly slower, but spend less time at the SAGs, so we cross with them several times during the day. That leaves team Kysirium (me, Tom and Ron) and twenty year old Sam, who usually now ride as a four.

Photo today shows a closed road. We've had several on this trip, but the bikes have always been able to walk through. This was the first one where it was no go. We had to take a 1.5 mile detour. They all count when there's nearly a hundred to do. We had another one almost straight out of the motel. A one mile section was no more than a muddy track. We could negotiate it on the bikes, but so much for anyone who gave the bike a wash last night.

I'm sure many (more knowledgable than me) would disagree, but this part of Ohio is the most idyllic part of the US I've seen. There are so many lovely houses (and not the kind of ostentateous, formulaic ones we saw leaving Lebannon) all with beautifully manicured lawns and lots of small ponds or lakes. Chatting to the waitress on our steakfest last night she said it takes her four and a half hours to cut her lawn and she has to do it twice a week. It's like having a second job.

No real pacelines today, the roads weren't the best in places so it was difficult to stick too close, but mainly we weren't pushing it along. The weather was so great and the miles relatively short that it was like going for the sort of bike ride that normal people do, only for a lot longer. Staying at a Fairfield Inn this evening. Rooms are great and internet access is very fast, but no fridge and most importantly no laundry facilities count against it.

A couple of people have commented that I should be listening to Ohio by Neil Young, I'll check it out. Bumwatch is about to be retired, it's now officially better. Legs are aching. I'm very glad Goose made me do all those squats, they hurt in all the same places. Apart from that, I'm in good shape. Today was almost literally the calm before the storm. It's 139 miles tomorrow, our second longest of the entire trip. Forecast is rain in the morning, but strong favourable winds.