28th June, Day 10: Boise, Id to Mountain Home, Id; 53 miles, 1,400 ft

Today we were reminded that cycling's easy when you have a 10 mph wind at your back and not too much climbing. We were also amused to see that at least some people in Idaho have a sense of Irony.

A blind man looking for the ocean in the middle of a desert; to the best of our knowledge we are at least 500 miles from the sea

Our last post mentioned the masochistic element of cycling. Reasoning that a problem shared is a problem halved we thought it would be beneficial to treat our readers to some more detail on the many ailments that affect the long distance cyclist.

Lycra lines are the abrupt transition from bronzed/burned skin to pasty white flesh caused by wearing body hugging shorts day after day in the burning sun. Our cycling clothing is certainly leading to the development of some interesting tanning patterns. Alastair's tan lines in particular are quite well developed.

Well defined Lycra lines

In the event of a crash, road rash - the abrasion of the skin by asphalt - is a likely consequence. So far we have been fortunate to avoid this. One of our fellow riders was not so lucky (q.v. Paceline Phil).

Of course, no blog on cycling ailments would be complete without a mention of saddle sores. This is the unfortunate consequence for the posterior of too many hours in the saddle. I will spare you the gory details and simply remark that the free and frank discussion of this topic around the breakfast table is a sign of the increasingly close bonds between our fellow riders.

And if you’re about to set out on a multi-day mission, check out this post on a women’s cycling site concerning The Downstairs Dilemma. It’s much better written than any of the male bloggers I’ve read, and we all face essentially the same issues, despite slightly different undercarriage configurations.