My Toughest Day Ever
- Ted Yates
- May 20, 2022
- 2 min read

My Guardian Angels, Ned and Dave
I don’t know where to begin but I do know I’d like to forget May 19. We woke up to a cold rain and an 88 mile day staring us in the face. The ride began with a significant hill and I was already becoming wet from a leak in my old rain jacket when my shifter cable broke. I was 9 miles from the rest stop and by the time I was rescued by the support van an hour had passed. Once I got to the rest stop at mile 20 half of the riders had called it a day and were in the warm van. I had my cable replaced by Teri one of our strongest riders. She fixed my bike so I could carry on. I was lucky that I had put my new Aero/Tech rain jacket in the support vehicle. Terri and that awesome jacket saved the ride for me. I also have to give a lot of credit to Dr. Ned and Dave B. We rode together for the next 68 miles helping each other when it just seemed too tough. We had 9 major climbs and our legs were like jello. I had never climbed such relentless hills even when going over the Rockies or Cascade. It didn’t help that there was a constant drizzle and the temperature hovered at 50 degrees.

Dave on his recumbent bike
At 7:30 PM Ned, Dave and myself limped into the First Methodist Church of Westborough, Massachusetts. I was too cold to take a hose shower outside so I washed up the best I could and joined the hardened cyclist that had completed the whole ride at a restaurant across the street from the church. My cold has really beaten me up but a cold beer and a great dinner and a sense of accomplishment sent me to bed happy. Tomorrow is a day off, thank God!

My celebration with Teri, cyclist and mechanic extraordinaire
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