Trans Am 2017 Day 11: Haswell, CO to Ness City, KS — 186 Miles, +425 ft

7 min readNov 5, 2017

I look at the replay on the tracker now and can’t help but be stoked. I felt like I was struggling on these days in the plains, but then I look now at my night in Haswell and remember that I was stopped for a total of 4 hours and got maybe 3.5 hours of sleep. I’m reminded that I was pushing fucking hard and was pretty relentless about it. Yeah, I felt like I was suffering, but I didn’t use it as an excuse to slow down or take it easy.

I got out of town around 5:15 after getting in after 1, looked around for water but found none, and hit the road. I was tired and needed real food, so stopped at the hotel in Eads (which was the best place I could find), and ate their continental breakfast. I spent too long (I think 45 minutes or so), no doubt, and these kinds of stops set me back. I started to feel better after a couple miles and was cruising by the time I approached Kansas.

I called my dad to celebrate the milestone, took a picture, and was feeling good for a while. In all the conversations about the Trans Am I had with my dad, many of them centered around Kansas. He’d ridden his bike across the country in 1977 along the Trans Am route, the year after its inception, and himself had hated the stretch across the plains. We’d strategize on when to ride, what to do, how to approach it. So, as I pulled into the state, he was the first guy I had to call. Shouts to him because he is currently on his way back into bicycle life and crushing with his first century in a while. Could he be the third Lippe to race the Trans Am?

A pretty good idea of what Kansas looks like.

I stopped for food in Tribune pretty quickly and was back on the road. I hate straight, flat roads. The wind was picking up, as was the temperature, and I was feeling strong despite being decidedly drained by the heat when I got to Scott City. I saw that Donncha was stopped at a hotel, and I thought he was making a really good decision to wait out the heat and wind. I considered doing the same, but thought it was too early in the day to do so. The wind was blowing hard from the south, but would come in waves and didn’t seem to justify napping through it. I got food in Scott City and kept moving.

One of my favorite pics of the ride. Kansas.

I felt good for a while and called my sister and Luke, but that good feeling faded. In the last couple miles to Dighton, the heat was legit and the wind had gone from maybe tailwind to stiff cross wind, and I slowed. Mentally, I was feeling the toll of running really low on sleep, and physically the heat and constant hot sunshine had really hurt me. I was really tired and a bit off at this point, and considered sleeping to wait out the heat and wind. After getting food at the gas station and seeing what was in town, I decided to go shower at the public pool and take a quick nap. This was a good decision, my subsequent ones were not.

I was fixated on not getting caught by the guys (AKA Ken) that I’d left behind in the days before, so I told myself I’d only nap an hour or so and then head out. That was a stupid thought, because I would still have to battle wind and heat, and an example of poor decision making while extremely tired. I showered, which was great, then set up to sleep in the park next door, but right next to a trash can. These little biting flies kept nipping me through the thin sleeping bag liner, and kept me from actually sleeping. By the time my alarm went off after 45 minutes or so, I had only succeeded in making myself really drowsy. I looked at the tracker and saw the guys closing, and thought oh shit I need to go. I packed up, went to the gas station AGAIN, and set out.

This was all stupid for a couple reasons. I should have picked a better spot to sleep and moved when it was clearly an issue, shouldn’t have been at all worried about the guys pedaling through heat and wind behind me while I slept, and should have slept for mutliple hours until the wind and heat actually died down. As it was, I set out without real rest but having wasted time into a massive crosswind and gnarly, late day heat. It was 35 miles to Ness City, and I was creeping along battling a truly massive cross/headwind that would sometimes almost knock me over or stop me in my tracks. I was so pissed at myself and wasn’t letting go of this regret, and I kept saying to myself “If I’d only slept an hour or two more, I’d be biking through this in way better shape.”

I’d been lucky to make some good tactical choices earlier in the race, but had not done so here. I was on the phone with my sister Hannah for much of this and spent the whole time beating myself up for the dumb choices. I kept saying that I should just be sleeping right now since I was making no progress, but could rip through if I was biking instead in a couple of hours. It was a brutal hour or two of second guessing and super tiredness, and it resulted in another really poor decision.

I kept saying I’m done and I’m going to stop and sleep through the wind for a couple hours, then I would stop, my sis would suggest I go on (which was the right thing to do), and I’d sit there for a minute debating, then go on. Watching the tracker replay where I keep stopping and going is painful and I wasted so much time. I finally made the decision to stop and pulled off onto a side road and pulled out my sleeping bag liner. I took a nice pic and said bye to my sis and tried to wind down, but couldn’t.

Pulled off into a ditch in a dillusional Kansas moment

Fuck, I should get back on my bike. I hastily repacked after a few minutes down and kept moving, fully committing to Ness City. I called my sis back to say I was charging (more like limping) ahead, and we agreed that I’d finally made the right choice. The wind was somehow not as bad and it didn’t take me too long to get to town. As I pulled in, a huge storm, glowing with lighting, had rolled over town and I knew that I had no choice to stop here (even if I wanted to continue) and that my roadside sleeping spot would have got me in trouble. It was still pretty early, and I grabbed food at the gas station before it closed and headed to the post office.

Legs up the wall in Ness City. Stretch credit: Amy Lippe and Lael Wilcox.

As I sat there stretching and getting ready to sleep, someone walked in and laughed. They told me I could sleep in the park, but I was already down. I apologized but they were very nice, and soon enough I was gearing up to sleep. It was early, and I wanted to get up equally early to get ahead of the wind, heat, and riders who were catching up to me. Night night.

Trans Am 2017 Intro

Trans Am Day 1: Astoria, OR to McKenzie Bridge, OR

Trans Am Day 2: McKenzie Bridge, OR to Prairie City, OR

Trans Am Day 3: Prairie City, OR to Council, ID

Trans Am Day 4: Council, ID to Lochsa Lodge, ID

Trans Am Day 5: Lochsa Lodge, ID to Bannack State Park, MT

Trans Am Day 6: Bannack State Park, MT to Cameron, MT

Trans Am Day 7: Cameron, MT to Lander, WY

Trans Am Day 8: Lander, WY to Cowdrey, CO

Trans Am Day 9: Cowdrey, CO to Alma, CO

Trans Am Day 10: Alma, CO to Haswell, CO

Trans Am Day 11: Haswell, CO to Ness City, KS