Day 18 Gillette to Newcastle 73 mile

The god squad saran wrapped and teepee’d our bikes together (A little retaliation after some guys hung their bikes on the trees - let the games begin)

A relatively easy day considering yesterdays ride. Once again, more rolling hills and more headwind and Wyoming is ticking me off. Thank goodness, we’re leaving it tomorrow. No disrespect to the state of Wyoming but, man, rolling hill after rolling hill gets annoying to ride. We finished climbing up one hill to find yet another one. The gradual downhill doesn’t reward us for our efforts because of the headwind and with another hill to climb waiting in the short distance. Ed and I wanted to take our time getting to Newcastle, but Big C had other plans. He hunted us down for 7 miles to catch up to us and was gassed when he caught us.. With 5 miles left to go, he asked if he could be 2nd into camp because he’s never been this far up in the ride. “no way, you got to earn it”, I challenged Big C. 72.75 miles later it comes down to a .25 mile sprint. Chad beat me to the sprint, but I gave it to him. You should of seen his face when he asked if he could come in 2nd, I couldn’t beat him…besides, he needs an ego boost. Congrats to Chad on the pity win. We camped out at a community center where there’s a computer room, 3 pool tables, a poker table and big screen tvs. Hope to never be under one of these bad boys

After dinner, we had a jersey exchange (similar to a white elephant). I stole my jersey back and made a side deal with doug to get the shirt he stole from me. Ed got the rawest deal out of all of us. He gave up a $60 specialized jersey and wound up with a ladies pink sleeveless bicycle shirt.

Jersey Swap Participants

Ed sportin' his new jersey

(he wore it the next day with his $300 CapoForma Bib and got a couple of winks and honks from the locals- and why not? the shirt brings out his man boobs)

I shot some pool with Noah. Beat him 4 games to none, even when he puts his ass on top of the pocket i'm aiming for and farts to distract me. Nice try, bub. and did i mention that the pool room smelled like fart.