64 miles, 1795 feet climbed
Another relatively easy day, with sunny skies and warming up. For the first time, I began the ride with neither jacket, nor arm or leg warmers. Another first was a flat, actually a slow leak due to a small shard of metal that worked its way through my rear tire tread. It came within ten miles of the finish. I tried pumping up the tire to see if it could get me there. I only made about a quarter mile before it was flat again.
It took a while to get the shard out. Staff recommends adding tweezers to one’s tool kit but I have not yet done so. Several local cyclists stopped to see if I needed help but they didn’t carry tweezers either. Eventually, by flexing the tire and using fingernails, I was able to get it out, put in a spare tube, and be on my way again. I joined those ahead of me who had stopped for lunch in the Hyde Park district of Boise, north of downtown.
At the hotel, I gave my bike a cleaning and patched the tube. The hole was so small that I had to put the tube in the sink to find it. Only a bubble every few seconds, gave it away.
