June 25, 2016
Day 25 Richmond to Thornburg
Today we met – and conquered – our first real hills. We left Richmond around 7:30 and had no trouble getting out of town. We were soon riding through rural Virginia on quiet, peaceful roads.
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A few miles into the ride, a large group of cyclists passed us. One guy slowed down to talk. It was a group of Richmond area cyclists out for their regular Saturday ride. They were riding out to the small town of Ashland. It was on our route, so we rode and talked cycle touring with him for awhile. The town of Ashland is a cycle mecca. There were dozens of cyclists there, stopping at coffee shops, coming and going through town. It is really fun to spend time in a cyclist rich environment! An active rail line runs right along the main street and we watched a few trains pass while we were there, including Amtrak.
After leaving Ashland, we continued to see a lot of cyclists. There was one couple on loaded bikes whom we stopped to talk to. They were John and Mickey who had left Maine on June 8 and were headed to Ft. Lauderdale. They had done a few long distance tours before, including TransAm and the west coast. This was about the time we hit the hills. We had a number of rollers, with grades up to 5%, then two steep hills that my Garmin registered at over 8%. It is only a small taste of what’s to come, but it was definitely work to get up and over them, but we did it. We arrived in Thornburg by 2PM and checked in to the Best Western. It’s nice to get in early and have time to eat, shower and blog before playing cards and more eating.
Today's ride: 58 miles (93 km)
Total: 1,401 miles (2,255 km)
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