Arrival in Salt Lake City.

Driving to St. George.

Sunset in St. George.

The riders: Matt S., David, Kim, Matt V., and Pete.

SAG vehicle.

Starting the ride on the AZ border.

Kim taking a breather.

Matt V having a great time (before my shifter broke).

David checking his BG.

Departing Enterprise, UT.

The rolling hills to Cedar City.

April 2: Border (St. George) to Cedar City
98 miles, 6160 ft elevation gain

The adventure has begun. Saturday at 8:30 am, Kim, Pete, Matt S., David, and I started the Border to Border Against Diabetes ride across Utah. I was told that Saturday's distance would be 77 miles from St. George to Cedar City. The production company and camera crew decided that the original route wasn't "scenic" enough, so they mapped out a new 95 mile route. I wasn't too comfortable starting the 7 day adventure with a century ride. Oh well, I guess it's only an hour more, right?

After some group riding footage on the Arizona border, we finally took off for Cedar City. The camera crew was right, the scenery was beautiful. We started riding through the desert filled with bright red mesas. About an hour into the ride, I noticed a problem with my rear gear shifter… it stopped working! I waved the mechanic over and he determined that I needed a new shifter, but he didn't have one. I had two choices: 1) Stop riding and jump in the SAG car or 2) Ride with two gears. For the next 30 miles of mostly uphill riding, I rode with two gears. We called Kim's wife to pick up a new shifter in Cedar City.

Having two gears wasn't too bad in the hills. Things were actually a lot simpler. On the uphill I shifted to my easy gear, and on the downhill I shifted to my hard gear. We came out of the hills in the small town of Enterprise. We had 30 miles of flat riding and my hard gear wasn't quite hard enough. I could only pedal until I reached 20 mph. After that, Kim said, "You look like a hamster spinning it's wheel." Just then, Joe Bingham (owner of Bingham's Cyclery) rolled up, popped me in a higher gear with an allen wrench, which increased my max speed to 30 mph. Goodbye hamster legs! For the rest of the ride, Joe continually checked on me to see if I needed another manual gear change. He was the best.

After some endless rolling hills, there it was… Cedar City sitting in the valley below. The Hampton Inn generously donated 4 rooms to our group. Derek, the camera guy, arranged for a masseus to meet us at the hotel. That was probably the best massage ever. The team met for dinner and discussed tomorrow's not so grueling 65 mile route to Milford. After dinner, Joe Bingham rolled my bike into my room, complete with a shiny new shifter. "Let's see what you can do with 18 gears instead of just 2."

Overall, I feel pretty good. Don't get me wrong, I'm very tired. I think after a good night's sleep, I'll be ready to tackle Sunday's 65 miles.

BG, Carbs, Etc

I woke up with a 247 blood sugar. I think I was nervous about the new 95 mile route. For breakfast I ate 90 gm of carbohydrate, but only bloused enough insulin to cover half. At breakfast, I reduced my basal rate to 20% of my normal daytime basal. Throughout the ride I checked my BG about every hour. The numbers ranged from 105 to 200. I ate 15 to 30 gm of carbs (Clif Bars, Gatorade, Clif Shots) every 45 minutes, but I didn't bolus for them. For lunch, I ate a bagel sandwich and a granola bar, and bloused for half of the carbs. After the ride, my BG was 65… yikes! So, I drank some Gatorade, ate a protein bar and some cookies (90 gm of carbs) and bloused for a third of the carbs.

Matt's Daily Numbers, Freestyle CoPilot.