August 1, Day 4. Bozeman to W. Yellowstone.

This was a hard day--not physically, but psychically. The ride was 90 miles, with about 3000 ft of very gentle climbing as we came up from Bozeman to W. Yellowstone, at about 7000 ft. (thats 191 to 287). BUT, the big challenge of the day was the strong, steady headwind. It was unrelenting...and did I say strong? So partly this was a day of unmet expectations; we expected a day of relative ease, and instead had a day of relative challenge. Now, in retrospect, it still wasn't a very hard day, but it was frustrating. (I ended up feeling pretty good the next morning.) I'm still measuring my strength carefully, not letting myself work too hard, but the same amount of work that yielded 17 mph on Tuesday gave me 12 mph today. Changes in terrain, while they may allow you to speed up a bit, provide no relief, because the wind is everpresent. Unending. No escape. Sigh. So I sucked as much wheel as I could stand today, but I'm not the greatest paceline rider. (A paceline is a long string of riders saving energy by riding in each others draft.) I'm happy to do my turn at the front, but want to ride at a steady cadence, so I need a paceline with very steady riders. Even then, I often get too tense, hunching my shoulders, and then my hands fall asleep. So I'll drop out of lines that I'm not comfortable with, because I'm not particularly skilled at it. That said, in the morning I hooked up with Lil and her son Ray (18. There also is a 16 year old on this trip.) An American in Paris, and a retired U.S. Army Officer, Lil manages all the U.S. Cemeteries in Europe. And she is an extraordinary rider, a 3 time rider of the Tour de France Feminin, among many others. They both are strong and steady. Then, later, I rode with my roomate Joel and John, which was good, but still later I hooked with a group following a tandem, which was a problem....I was 4th, and I yo-yoed enough to make it annoying. So, even though it meant being alone in the wind, it was easier to be steady out in the wind than sheltered and bouncing around.

Despite all of that, Montana is still beautiful. We spent the day in the Gallatin River Valley, where many movie stars have their spreads--and you can see why. The river, woods, ten thousand foot mountains on either side, and all leading to Yellowstone. We skirted the park, and a short climb opened onto a fantastic expanse of plain with mountains surrounding. An 8 mile slog into the wind took us to W.Yellowstone, our stop for the night. I played for an hour, had an hour massage, briskit at the Beartooth Barbeque, a talk with Anne, and, on the way back, saw a fun band engage the crowd in a rousing rendition of "Mustang Sally."

Tomorrow is a long day, capped off with our first major climb of the trip--Teton Pass.