Cycle North Carolina - Day 4

CNC Day 4
Concord to Wingate
19.2 mph average speed
38.6 mph maximum speed
3:15:32 total ride time
62.35 miles

The photo above was taken at a rest stop along the route.  No, my bike is not in the picture.

When I got in I wrote the following in my notebook, "Tired. Hilly. Hard to paceline due to hills. Hope tomorrow is flatter."

That was a few hours ago and I am feeling much better now. Wingate is a very small town with not a whole lot going on other than the university which is where we are staying. After setting up "camp" in the gym and cleaning up (and getting a latte and the university library!), I walked around a bit.

I headed toward what looked like town and I stopped in the town hall and asked what there was to see in town. A woman with no eyebrows -- none, she had plucked them all and then penciled them in -- said, "Well, there's the university." pause "Oh, the Jesse Helms Center." pause "And we have a park by the elementary school!" I picked up pamphlet there and apparently there are 39 businesses in town (including home day care centers). I think that I saw them all!

One of many gas stations without gas. This one is on US74 in Wingate. I thought that it was ironic since we were biking across the state

Wingate University has a nice campus and everyone has been extremely friendly and helpful. Other than the somewhat clueless town hall employee, everyone has been so accomodating, I cannot even put it into words. After Concord last night, this was a welcome change.

Dinner was in the campus cafeteria. All you can eat. Like Golden Corral but with better food. You should have seen people's faces light up when they realized that they could get more food. They were in heaven!

At dinner, which Tim asked one of the students if their administration had warned them about our arrival. The students kind of laughed and said no. One of them spoke up and said that an e-mail was sent out this morning. Tim was serious. Wingate has just over 2000 students and 1000 cyclists arrived on their doorstep. Jon said that it looked like a group of angry wildebeests had been to the cafeteria and Tim kept on saying locusts. 1000 people coming would eat a lot. 1000 cyclists who have been riding for four days -- 1000 stinky, hungry cyclists that have been riding for four days -- that may be another thing altogether.  We pretty much ran Lincolnton out of food too.  One of the three restaruants downtown closed due to lack of food!

We are about halfway through with the mileage and we have three more days of riding. Tomorrow, the mileage starts to increase as the route flattens. Hopefully the extra food helps everyone ride well.