My first proper stop during the race was on km 650 in Spoken Hostel, when I arrived 24 hours after the race started and an amazing sunrise in the Ochoco National Forest.

I ate spaghetti, showered, slept for a little bit more than two hours, ate another spaghetti, and left, just before Ben and Omar arrived. The whole thing took me three hours maybe. I knew it wasn’t enough, but I wanted to ride forward before the heath.

The ride was tough at the beginning but after some time I did get back to my rhythm. The heath however was rising up, and closer to midday it was hot again, and I was reminding myself once more about Spain, and the heat struggles. But here in US I also discovered how fast the weather may change. Somehow after midday, it was only minutes when the clouds arrived, and some kilometers before John Day I got hit with my first TransAm proper hail storm. It changed into cold and wet pretty fast, and I was happy that I didn’t ignore the first signs of it and dedicated some time to putting my rain gear on. It was still raining when I arrived to John Day, and I decided to stop for a bigger meal in some burger shop that I didn’t know by its name. In Europe, we have only a few big chain burger places, like McDonalds or Burger King. Here in the US, I felt like each city had its own place, the same big and even better equipped than an average European McDonald but the names were totally unknown to me. I took burgers, cheeseburgers, Coke, milkshakes, and everything I could eat. It was the middle of the day and morning Spaghetti wasn’t working anymore. I spent too much time there, probably thirty minutes or maybe even more. I could see on the tracker that Ben Davis was catching up with me, but I decided not to worry about it and just do my thing.

In the second part of the day, we had more climbing to do, crossing Dixie and a few other passes before the Baker City. It was a beautiful area with wide and quiet roads, amazing tarmac, and really fast downhills after each climb. I caught up with Ben there and we rode for a short time together, climbing and descending next to each other. It was great to catch up for a little bit longer, after so many years. I was a tiny bit faster on the descends and I got ahead later on. The weather got back to normal warm and dry and closer to the evening it was actually really nice, cool, and fresh.

Baker City was the last chance for today’s resupply, and I arrived at the Sinclair station thirty minutes before closing. I was happy with the progress. 900 kilometers in 38 hours was good. I let myself a little bit more time again. The US station usually has everything you need, including a microwave, pizza pockets, nuddles, and more. So here I used the microwave for the first time, ate pizza pocket and noodles. Ben caught up with me again. He was fast. Did the shopping and left. I felt like I was fluffing too much but actually, I wasn’t. I knew that making this stop properly would pay off later. And it did.

When the sunrise came I was on my full gas again. I caught up with Ben, chit-chat for a moment, and pushed harder.

When we were getting closer to the Hells Canyon area, I could see Henri’s rear light already. I felt strong and was flying up and down, small climbs, bends, little hairpins. The road was awesome, small, no traffic. Before midnight, when I was passing the small city of Richland, I saw the hostel advert with the note, “Open”. I’m not sure why but I decided to phone. The man answered:

– please wait two minutes, I will come and check you in.

And I got an awesome room with a warm shower and bed, and I also did some shopping while waiting for the paperwork, as the grocery shop was owned by the hostel manager so he did let me do that as well.

I decided that after 41 hours and nearly 1000km, it was time for second stop, and this time I had to sleep more than the first time. My thinking was, sleep and save the engine until you feel fresh, not later. Today I’m not really sure if that was a good decision, maybe I should continue as I felt super good, but I’ve been in situations like that before and at that moment I just felt that this would be a great tactical move.

The whole stop took me four hours but the other thing is how long did I sleep. Unfortunately for me, I simply couldn’t fall asleep and I was moving from left to right for an hour or more. It was really frustrating. The jetlag was definitely the case here as it was 8-9 AM back home. Eventually, I fell asleep, but it wasn’t the sleep from my dreams for sure.

Anyway, I got up, my alarm didn’t fail me, and I was back on the road cruising my way through the Hells Canyon. I was controlling the tracker situation to simply know how much everybody was sleeping and saw Henri stop just when I stopped, and started just after I started, and once more I was following his steps closely. After sunrise, I could occasionally see him, and finally, on the entry to Idaho State, I caught up with him at the Back’s gas station in Cambridge.

– It is great to see somebody, I was lonely – he said.

– that’s how it is when you are first – I smiled.

What did hit me there, was the local people. It really felt like the American countryside. When Oregon felt more official, the accent changed and I could hear that the people here were like from American western movies I had known since childhood. Will never forget this guy asking us where are we heading.

– East – we said.

– Just stay safe on the 95 – he said – it is a sketchy road, with lots of bends and corners, we drive there our trucks and it is hard to avoid cyclists. You have to be careful there, we don’t like anybody to get hurt there.

I then realized the mindset difference that is standing between here and the cycling-friendly places. We wish to be in a world where this is a driver’s duty to watch over the cyclists, not the other way around. It is hard to say that Europe is already there, but there are definitely places in Europe where you can discover that.

I have to admit he scared me a bit, and actually, he was right, that bit of a road wasn’t nice, and it was pretty busy at first. But when the morning rush hours ended the road got quiet again, and after midday, I was on my own again. At the end of the day, truckers weren’t that bad as I was worrying. It was just a bit of an busy road.

Henri pushed forward. I was happy that I could catch him in the last two days, and that was enough for me for now. The race was long I thought. It was super hot, especially on the long gentle downhill following along the Salmon River. Amazing place and fantastic road but it was this type of downhill connected with the headwind when if you don’t pedal you simply stop. 90 kilometers of downhill like that can be really mind-breaking, and there I had my first low mental momentum of the race. My nose started bleeding from the heat, I was trying to solve it while riding, but it wasn’t helping. I eventually had to properly stop, lay down with my head upside down, and wait some time until the blood clots. It helped only for a moment and I really felt that I was not going anywhere, and the time was moving fast. The heat, the wind, the descending that isn’t actually helping, never-ending kilometers that my Garmin was showing to the next bottom of the climb. All that was mentally hard. I had to stop again in a shop and only after I poured the whole bottle of cold water on my head, my nose finally stopped bleeding.

I played The Doors in my headphones and somehow pushed away my mental breakdown. Was singing out loud all the songs together with Jim Morrison, my high school symbol of the United States, and once again started to feel great on the road. When the climb to White Bird Hill started I was back in the mood. The place was beautiful and it reminded me of Spain a bit and Vega the Pass. Green, blooming, with a beautiful light, few hours before sunrise. The moments we are cycling for.

Grangeville, the city behind the pass was the last bigger place before we were going to get to Montana and a long Lolo Trail with pretty limited resupply options for nearly a 100 miles.

My choice got to Subway there. I ate a lot, got some snacks, and phoned the hostel ahead lying just at the bottom of the Lolo Trail in the small town, of Stites. I said that I will be there after sunset, and the man said:

– no problem, just phone me when you are there, I will come with the key in 5 minutes.

That’s great I thought. I packed up and started cycling. I could see Ben and Omar entering Grangeville when I was leaving and Henri was already on the way towards Lolo Trail. The sunset I had was amazing. I’ve sent photos to my family and pushed forward.

It was about forty kilometers to the hostel and I was dreaming already about a comfy bed and a shower. When I entered Stites it was already dark. I took my phone away from my frame bag. It didn’t respond, the screen was black. I was trying to push the side button again and again. It wasn’t doing anything.

– shit!

That was my first and most direct thought. I had to phone the guy. I was angry. I tried to press the side button again and again, to reset it. Suddenly the phone started making a siren sound, like it was a fire truck or similar. It was crazy. I didn’t know what to do. I took my emergency phone, I had my Polish sim card there, and when I switched it on, the phone didn’t want to find any signal. It finally did, and after a few seconds, I got a message saying something like” Your data allowance was already used” so I wasn’t really able to find the hostel phone number again. I got stuck there, on the entry sign to a small US town, with a yelling phone and without a place to sleep that I greatly planned to have. What a bummer that was. I could either continue through the night or try to solve it somehow.

My primary phone eventually stopped yelling, but the screen was still dark. I slapped it a few times on my hand, I did try to bend it and squeeze the cover, and then I could see a tiny response on the screen. By doing that I somehow managed to activate the screen. They were messengers coming in saying something like:

“You called the emergency number, the officer will be sent to the location, please let us know if you still need him”

It was crazy and it is hard to say but I simply ignored that. I felt that this was my moment, the other thing was that the touch screen was going really crazy when I was touching it, and I really wanted to call the hostel owner. It was hard but I managed.

– I’ll be there in 5 minutes – he said,

I ignored everything else and just rode to the place. I’ve spent at least thirty minutes on the side of the road to make one phone call. That was bad.

I got to the place, the owner was super nice. He was asking about the race, where I come from and other stuff. We agreed that I’ll leave before 2 AM. He asked if I wanted the Wi-Fi password.

– no I don’t – I said, and I regretted it the moment he left.

After I showered and got to bed I was trying to fix it but the phone thing got me crazy. No signal in my emergency phone, and no screen in my primary phone. I set an alarm for four hours on my Garmin and decided to sleep. The route was there, that was the main thing. Let’s sleep, I thought, and let’s see what will happen.

It was easy to say but harder to do. The whole time I just couldn’t fall asleep. I was turning left and right, thinking about the whole thing. If I did fall asleep I woke up after a short moment. Finally, after three hours of this horrible rest stop, I decided to ride.

It was good to be on the road. I’ve been in this situation before, racing long distances without the phone. I was also sure that I would be able to fix it somehow later on. Now I had to set my objective to get to Montana, and to Lolo, where on the gas station I’ll be able to get the little pin, to change the SIM card into my emergency phone.

It was around 2 AM when I got to the bottom of the Lolo Trail. My Garmin showed: 100 miles to the nearest “high point” and my mind was blown away with this message.

“Welcome to the Rockies,” I thought.