Franz, Russ and Sheila took turns getting a little sleep as Paul was finishing Stage 4. With some rest, Franz was feeling much better as he started Stage 5. It was still not yet 7 am as Paul pulled into Shoshone so Franz made a quick switch to get ready to bike and started to bike at 6:45 am. The plan was for the support vehicle to follow for the required 15 minutes, then to switch to a leap frog method.

Franz was now enjoying sunny skies but still cool weather.

It was a slight downhill and a nice tail wind, allowing full speed ahead.

The route was 56 miles with only 2100 feet of climbing, much easier than the first two stages Franz had ridden. The way the stages are placed, the A rider does most of his riding up front on the first day and then it shifts to the B rider on the second day. That was all fine with Franz. Not only was this stage less climbing, there was more descent than climbing as shown by this profile.

The last 15 miles into Baker with flat and fast with a nice tail wind, allowing speeds over 25 mph. Franz ended the stage with an average speed of nearly 20 mph. He pulled into Baker at 9:32 am.

Paul then started stage 6 to Kelso, which was a short 34 miles but had 3000 feet of climbing with an end point higher than the start as shown here.

Franz and crew at stopped in Baker to buy Franz a hamburger (he had a craving for one) and a milkshake for Paul (he a craving for one). We finally caught up with Paul who had moved out fast.

Paul stopped to enjoy his milkshake.

Paul reached the summit and had a nice descent to arrive at Kelso, arriving at 12:16 pm. When we pulled up we saw the support vehicle of Team Monticore. Franz was now checking on his iPhone to see the race standings on the 508 website and we realized that we were now in 2nd place after Monticore. So be sure to reach the next blog entry about Stage 7 and 8.

Categories: Furnace Creek 508