Saturday - The Bedbugs Do Bite

The day started normally enough with 116 miles planned following a re-jig of our trip days, getting on the road just before 6 am. We cycled through Paxton NE and onto Sutherland NE 33 miles into our day, where we stopped for breakfast at 8:20. It was at this point Ben redeclared his dominance of the puncture league pulling out his first front tyre puncture, showing his all round puncturing ability. There was a cafe there that was closed but wewent to a garage where they served breakfast style subs. We all ordered and waited until the subs woman brought over our stuff and got the orders wrong. Jack, who had earlier in the morning complained of an upset stomach and was harvesting a colony of insect bites around his body for the first time refrained from thanking the server in the station such was his dispositional disgust. While in the gas station we also lost a further hour of time, as we'd just crossed into the Central time zone, which was crap.
Following this we pushed on 20 more miles to North Platte NE where Jacks condition deteriorated as we ate at Donnas Diner, the Swansea native felled by endless cycling and apparent illness. Jack at this point declared he doubted we'd hit 116 miles today though Tom was keen to try and ush on to make sure we kept on track. We stocked up on the usual cereal bar suspects and some medicine for Jack's tummy in Family Dollar, the American equivalent on Home Bargains and set off to our next stop, Gothenburg NE. Only 8 miles in and we had our first incident. Ben, looking at his gears instead of the road while cycling didn't notice that Jack up ahead of him had slowed to take a sip of his water and careered into the back of his bike, going arse over tit into the tarmac with all the grace of a scouse slapper drunkly throwing her shapes outside a late night kebab van. Next up was Jack, meeting a similar fate only 10m after our next break. After setting off he attempted to tuck bens shirts into his pannier bags, but hit a pothole while doing so and promply hit the deck. Gravle rash had now covered his back and arse aswell as his bites. He soldiered on to Gothenburg 6 miles away where we got into a subway to assess the damage and feed. We took the decision to end the day at 5:00 and 90 miles and to set up camp in the local KOA (Kampground of America). We set up the tent and Tom attended Jacks arse sores while Ben laughed and took pictures which we will get up when we can. Following a forgettable day Jack hit the sack at 7:00 eastern time to recoup. Just Another day in the lives of ultra endurance charity athletes.

Play safe blog fans.

Tom