Here we fit four days on one page of my diary. From memory it was flat, not very interesting country and nothing remarkable was happening in the group. It was hot, flat and much the same from day to day.
Rode 80km with Jonas. Was hard work, he likes to spin very fast compared to me. Pumped rear tyre up to 150psi and still no improvement, we have 50kg of gear on the back wheel and I'm beginning to wonder if that is the problem, or have I missed something else? Leo's birthday, marked by the inner circle with a special celebration.
Thursday: 90km to a roadhouse with John. Spend the day trying get him to pedal circles instead of kicking. He's very strong but that kicking wears me out. We shift to in phase pedaling because both my knees are hurting from being kicked through the idle part of their stroke. Some of it is him wearing the SPD sandals (which are too big) making it hard for him to pull properly, but part of it is he's just trying too hard I think. Ready to give up at 70km because of the pain but in phase helped enough to get us through.
New camera claims to have got 45 shots onto a 36 exposure film, Suspect it's slipping. Rewind and try a new film. Shooting negative film now that I've finished the slide film I bought with me. A bit annoying, but couldn't find decent slide film in Newman and didn't think to order it from Perth. Will make the slide show after the trip a bit hard.
Friday: 95km with Jean on the trike. Was disturbingly easy, we averaged 27kph over the 95kms, and neither of us felt we were straining. In fact it was easier than 19kph with anyone else. And Jean is no-one's speed engine, she's 30-ish, a smoker and normally struggles a little to keep up with the group. But on the tandem we just rocked along. I kept the spin rate just slower than where I could feel her losing cadence, and she seemed happy. It seems there's no correlation between the strength of the rider and how fast or easily we travel. My knee still hurt though, it seems to be the front seat that does it. Had to stop at 95km and let John do the last 15km (took them an hour, I don't think Jean was impressed).