Friday July 5:  Quincy, Illinois to Springfield, Illinois
Distance:  106.3 miles
Total time:  8 hours 5 minutes
Riding time:  6 hours 49 minutes

Today's 106 miles weren't among the most challenging we've cycled over the past 34 days.  But on top of the Hills of Missouri they left everyone well and truly knackered.  A couple of guys skipped dinner and went to bed (and when someone who cycled 106 miles skips dinner, he's tired).  There were some Missouri-quality hills early in the ride, but it eventually flattened out.  Illinois' other nickname, besides Land of Lincoln, is The Prairie State, and we saw a lot of prairie today.  The scenery varied wildly.  Sometimes there was corn on the right and soybeans to the left, and sometimes it was the opposite.  Truly.

How flat was it?  Here's Jamie riding by, and you can see it's perfectly flat.

And here are Jamie and Michael looming into view, and you can see it's still flat.  This was a corn on the left, soybeans on the right situation.

We thought the Day of Meteorological Punishment might have finally arrived - punishment for 30 days of riding in sunshine.  We did get doused in the morning.  After the ride Michael asked me how long we got rained on.  I said 15 minutes.  He estimated an hour.  So I don't really know, except that we were soaked.  But that was it for the day, and by the halfway mark we were dripping from the heat and humidity again.

Today was a rare day when everyone rode in fairly close proximity, and at one point we all ended up together at a SAG stop.  Because we all ride at different speeds, stop less or more often, get punctures or mechanical issues, stop for lunch or don't, we tend to spread out.  But not today.  Here are some of the gang at a SAG stop.  From left to right that's Andy, Steve and Sean from the UK; Mike from Alabama; Zach from Spokane; and Allan from the UK.

I spotted this beauty at the SAG, and made sure the Brits understood that the United States leads the world in this technology.  Hopefully through school STEM programs more women and girls will become involved as well.

It's a matter of discussion and pride among us - how many flats have you gotten so far?  I've had seven, not even close to the most.  Ken had four on the first day in San Francisco.  Jamie's been extremely lucky, or skillful.  Before today he'd had one.  He got another today but between him and Magic Mark the Mechanic, who rode with us all day long, they had it repaired in 10 minutes.

Speaking of Mark, he's an excellent cyclist.  This afternoon we engaged in another of our friendly duels with the Brits.  We were ahead of them all day (they're much faster but stop often) but could feel them coming on at the end of the long day.  Mark pulled our little pace line at 20 miles an hour for the last 10 miles, a remarkable speed for us.  The Brits did indeed catch us in the city of Springfield, but graciously rode in with us together.

There is little rest in store.  Today's "century", our sixth 100-miler thus far, is followed tomorrow by a 97 miler.   This seven day stretch between rest days in the hardest yet, much harder, in my opinion, than the Sierras or Rockies.  Two more important milestones tomorrow:  First, it's our 32nd cycling day, with 15 to go when the day is done.  So we'll be more than two-thirds done in terms of cycling days.  And, early in the ride we'll pass 2500 miles.  When the ride is over we'll be about 1,000 miles from dipping our wheels in the Atlantic Ocean.