This morning we woke up at 6am to leave as soon as we could. When I first got onto the bike, my knees were giving me ridiculous amounts of pain; possibly the worst they’ve felt since Texas. I can’t say what hurt so much, but I know I was much slower than usual. I stuck in the back for most of the day trying to focus on slowly adjusting and pushing myself to heal without causing permanent damage. Eventually, I found a good median and felt relatively better. At one point in our ride, Mike and Megan took a bad spill over gravel—they swerved to avoid a sign and ended up in gravel, wiping out and toppling one over the other. Fortunately both are okay, and neither suffered from anything broken, though Mike did need to get a few stitches on where he fell on his chin. But everyone is riding still and toughing it out. By the end of the ride, I was tired and ready to get to the next city. Coming out of the rest stop, out of nowhere, Joe pulls up on my left and darts to the front of the paceline pulling us hard. I don’t know why, but this gave me a jolt of energy which pushed me to follow close behind him. Soon, Tesfay, Joe, and I were steadily averaging 20+ mph and pulled in front of all the groups ahead of us—rotating between the three of us. Before we knew it, 10 miles later, we were at the church and feeling good—my knees couldn’t feel a thing (in a good way). Tomorrow is our last day riding as only Sierra riders (92 miles). Tonight we’re staying in a church with a big open gym—and finally, the bugs are starting to pop out. Only 12 more days! How time has flown by. Onward Sierra!