Day 4: A long day!

For those of you who read yesterday's post about possibly riding where I wasn't allowed to, I finally found a picture of the road sign:



But the one I went past had a blank space for the bike. So I guess I was good? I'm out of the country now!

While yesterday was the most climbing, today was going to be the longest. I know from previous experience that Polish roads are not very good, so I was expecting a rough ride, but at least downhill at the start.

To my surprise, the first 40km or so were wonderful! I found lots of smooth pavement, very little traffic, and sunshine. And downhills!

In the town of Sobota, I rode by this and had to stop to take a picture. I think this is really cool.

That is a stork in the nest. I saw a few of those today.

There was also this random tourist trap with giant carved wood statues.

There were some cobbles today, both on the flats and one particularly brutal uphill section. A driver had cut me off, so I started with absolutely no momentum. However, I was able to make pithy comments to a few random onlookers. One old guy was like, "You can do it!"

I stopped for a short break after about 3 hours, right before riding through the city of Legnica. I had a Coke, a Magnum ice cream bar, and an apple, and bought a Mars bar and a water for the road.

Later, I was very pleased with my decision to stop before navigating the city. Coke is like a magical elixir that greatly improves your ability to think and react correctly. With all the trucks on my route, that was exactly what I needed.

The next section was kind of boring. I was on a state route, with a moderate number of cars passing me. Occasionally, we'd go through a village. There was also a slight head/crosswind, so that was just kind of wearing me down. But my intermediate goal was to get to Rawicz, and then I could stop for another Coke and more water.

As I pulled into a gas station before Rawicz, I then heard the thunder and noticed the dark clouds. I gulped down my Coke so I could get out and try to beat the rain. No dice. I got rained on hard for about 15 minutes while making my way through town. To their credit, the drivers seemed more polite than usual.

Finally the rain stopped and I had bright-ish skies. But I was not out of it yet - the rain started coming down for about the last 90 min of my ride.

Throughout the day, the road quality was mixed. Some of the roads that have been excessively patched are awful. Others were not too bad.

I was very happy to finally see a sign for Krotoszyn, my destination, in 12km. But immediately following this was a warning sign that the road was very rutted for the next 10.5km. So I forged ahead, gritting my teeth.

Finally, I made it to the hotel. The good news is that they let me take my bike to my room, and there was even an elevator. Plus, dinner is about 10 feet from my room, so I can be extra lazy. I did have to do some extra bike maintenance, since my bar tape did a little re-positioning. Good thing I brought electrical tape.

Today's ride was 202km and took me 8:45. I was very proud of my ability to 1) make smart decisions, and 2) persevere through not so good weather conditions. Making it through today gives me a lot of confidence.

Totals so far: 546km/327mi and 25.5 hours. Whew!