Day 19 - Worthington MN to Albert Lea MN, 120 miles, 1400" cumulative climbing

Being obsessed with the weather forecast is a common thread among all the riders.  If one person's weather app doesn't give you the kind of info you want, you just keep looking at other apps until the "right" forecast appears. But lately we don't care whether it rains or not, since it's so warm.  It's all about the wind.  Last night the forecasts finally showed some hope that we would get some relief from the never-ending headwinds we've been struggling to get through.  And though it rained briefly before we set out, the wind was very calm and the roads almost dry for our first few miles.  As the morning went on, the wind began to tick up a little bit at a time, and as we had hoped it was partly at our backs. Good enough to help increase our average speed over yesterday by more than 2 mph.  And good enough to call today a "120 mile recovery ride", because with very little hillwork and favorable winds we didn't have to work nearly as hard as the previous 3 days' ordeals.
As Cliff joked, "you know you're on PAC Tour when.....you call a 120 mile day a recovery ride!"

Bike cleanup area a few minutes later!

The change in mental outlook was palpable among many of our riders, and crew as well.  What a difference a day makes!  Now looking forward to tomorrow with a bit more enthusiasm as it might just be even better.  And an evening downpour, just after everyone had arrived at the finish and mostly cleaned up their bikes, didn't phase us a bit!

Bike cleanup at the end of the day