28th Aug
Mankado to Rochester
Distance 140km
The temperature was pushing 90 degrees with very high humidity. We were on the road at 8.30, we were up our usual time of 6.30 but Leonard and Macker enjoy there breakfasts a little too much and after course 6 & 7 they decided they had had enough and on we went!
It was a very windy and warm day. Luckely it was not a head wind, nor was it a tail wind! It was blowing directly across us from the south. Out into the middle of the road! We were on highway 14 which had a very small hard shoulder so this made cycling and avoiding lorries very difficult!
We were going at a much slower pace than usual, the last 7 days cycling are really starting to catch up on us! We have covered around 1100 kms in the last 7 days. We stopped off at Waseca for our usual toilet breaks and top up our water and grab a few dougnuts to give us the sugar rush we badly needed!
It was about 3 oclock on what turned out to be a very long and hard cycle when I had a little accident. No not that kind of accident! I was cruising along at around 15 MPH and I was resting my forearms on the handlebar of the bike, Tour De France esque! When I slipped down into a gravel patch on the side of the road and fell off the bike! I cut my shoulder, arm and leg and hit my head off the ground! Luckely the helmet took the impact of that and I am still pretty! But after dusting myself off, cleaned what I could of the blood and the cuts I was back on the road. Thankfully I wasn’t too badly hurt and was able to continue in a little bit of discomfort! After taking another look at the TV footage of the incident it now appears Leonard actually pushed me off the bike in an attempt to slow me down!!
We arrived at Rochester at around 4 oclock at the Best Western Hotel. It was a tough week but happy to have it over and done with! Just looking forward to the rest day now and a massage from one of our support team!!!