Day 30--Worthington MN to Mankato MN--July 20th

Miles Ridden 102.7
Avg Speed 20.3 MPH

Climbing 902 Ft.

Total Miles Ridden 2161

Miles To Go 1468

A long ride today through more Minnesota farmland. All the variables....wind, heat, roads and altitude were favorable and we ended up with a very fast ride.  We got started from Worthington in cool temperatures under cloudy skies but on a major state highway.  All the roads in this area are straight on a square grid although not all are paved. As soon as we could, we got on paved back roads which took us most of the way to Mankato at speeds of over 20 MPH. 

We were not far from Walnut Grove of Little House on the Prairie (at least the TV version) fame. Looking at the production of the farms in the area today it's hard to imagine the struggles of the 1800's. 

Corn or soybean fields were the only scenery except for the occasional interruption  of  a pungent hog farm. 

With about 15 miles to go we returned to State Highway 60 which at this point was a divided four lane road with a paved shoulder for us to ride on. About eight of us were riding over 25 MPH in a very close paceline.  This made me nervous as any mishap could bring down the whole group and there was quite a bit of debris on the road. I was next to last in the line when a rock was thrown up by a rider in front of me. It flew by me and landed just in front of the last rider. (the same rider who skidded on the oil on Saturday) He hit it and was thrown off his bike. I didn't see the accident but turned around quickly when I heard him yell and saw his bike on the shoulder. I ran back and found him 15 feet off the road in a weed filled ditch. 

He was groggy but conscious with cuts and scrapes from his shoulder to his knee and hands with his clothes badly torn up. He jumped up when he realized he had landed on a huge ant hill, said he was OK, checked his bike, bent a few pieces back into shape and rode on. We wanted him to stop and let us at least call the SAG van to pick him up. He said nothing was going to stop him from riding the whole distance across the country and he finished up the ride. Once he got to the hotel and was patched up he appeared OK and said he would be ready to ride tomorrow.

After almost four weeks with no mishaps, we have had a number of falls the last three days. Thankfully none of them have been serious but it is very concerning. The ride leaders had a long meeting with us to try to determine what was happening and to review safety procedures that we might now be ignoring. 

We finished the ride into Mankato and all of us set new personal bests for riding one hundred miles. My time was four hours and 55 minutes.

We have another hundred mile ride tomorrow to Rochester MN, the home of the Mayo Clinic.

The windmills were not turning in the calm of the morning

Grogan is a real town. This was the only sign I saw

Buffalo statue in Mankato