Few hills,mostly flat, But... high heat, almost constant headwinds and high humidity were what we all struggled with... the sun was super intense?!

I lost time with two flat tires... spent about 3/4 of an hour the fist day changing a flat tire and picking out glass from 'glass-studded tires... the actual flat was caused by a thorn.

On day 3 (Sat) I had a large nail pierce my rear tire. Rode about 5 km on the flat tire to change the tube in a small burg called Hanes? so I could do the work in the shade and out of the wind...successfully accomplished the task (my tube repair from the day before held) and off I went to cross 4 lanes of the equivalent of Douglas St. North of Hillside.

Traffic was moderately heavy so I stomped on the pedals to get to the centre of the street. Suddenly there was a loud crashing sound and I just about lost control of the bike, narrowly avoiding some oncoming vehicles.

When I realized I had survived, I checked to see what happened... I found my front chain rings and broken crank lying on the street!

What to do now,I still have about 260 km to get to the finish (a bit too far to walk)!

1st step - get off the busy street!? Called the organizers who eventually found me and they were able to find a bike store about 70 km away who took parts from their bicycle inventory, repaired my bike and the the organizers drove me back to where I had left the course.

In total, with the two flats, enjoying some 'bonus- pedalling when I missed a turn, and the 4 hours getting my crank,etc repaired /renewed, I added about 7 ?hours to my elapsed time... but I finished. If the organizers had not received my call, I would have been one of 'dnfers'.

Food and overnight accommodations were great. Rode through downtown Miami ?and along their beach with the 'go-home' commuting traffic...something I would rather not repeat!

Interestingly, there were a great many police stationed along the street. I thought there was a special event, but one of the officers told me they were just monitoring 'normal' traffic.

There IS benefit? from the hot weather... riding at night was great, no need to wear any warm clothes, as the temperature at night was around 22 C (one night I was tempted to put on a light wind jacket when the temperature dropped to17 C!)

An Australian rider went to hospital with hypernatremia? (sp?). He drank too much water with no electrolytes not sure if he is out of the hospital yet... a police cruiser found him lying on the road having seizures so his electrolyte balance was likely way out of kilter.