Dealing with the heat on ROAM

The heat and strength of the sun is our main enemy at the moment. It is every day 34degr C (93Fahrenheit) and in the valleys there is no wind to cool us. The riders each have their own strategies to deal with it. I will mention my own only, because other riders have their own blogs. What I have found so far to work best is to do no overpowering at any time, unless really necessary in an uphill climb. Then there is the cap from SinnerBikes or the one from Walz. This cap is featured in the bicycle comic "Yehuda Moon" and it really works very well. It keeps the sun out of the eyes and the wind. Important thing, it doesn't blow off, because the cap is short and downward. Just check out Yehuda Moon and you'll see.
Hydration:  No real headaches so far for me, so it seems I manage to keep hydrated. This means 7 liters of fluids during the ride and a lot to boot before and after.
 I use a spraybottle to keep my head cool. Great invention. I just spray water on my cap, neck and shirt. The water evaporates and cools me for a while. This is probably the most important thing to keep me cool. I use only half a litre a day for that, as cold as I can get it. I saw fellow rider Bram throwing water over his head and copied that. But that takes a lot of water and I already have so much to carry. That's when I thought off the spray bottle. It saves me 1,5kg. Being a bit of weight-weenie, I can appreciate the psychological factor ;-)
We sometimes can use the cooling water of the rivers on our route. We once stayed in there for some 5 minutes and then we were ready for many hot miles to come. There was no need to dry the clothes, it dried on our bodies! I only took off the socks, because I feared that wet feet was going to hurt.

 cooling down in the Clearwater river

swollen sunburnt lips

 At a stop, two caps to protect face and neck

Tomorrow I will try my modified Flevobike roof, because sunburn is a continuous threat. My lips are swollen and a bit cracked, but now I have lipstick with factor 50 to protect me. We learn as we go along and sometimes there are painful lessons.

Races with dogs

I do evening rides of 60km in my Mango velomobile to train for ROAM I mostly take the same route and encounter a dog that likes to race me! I usually take up the challenge. Electric wires, angry orders from his master, nothing can stop him. This is his joy in life. (and I like it too). I uploaded a film that shows how the dog runs along with me in a pasture next to the road. Next to the film is a map that shows where I am (my camera has a built in GPS). The speed (and elevation) is shown below the map. I know by now that I have to cruise at 42km/h to win from the dog, but today I grant him the victory in order to capture his happy face when he looks where I am. Below is a screen shot from the moment that the dog looks back in surprise why I haven't caught up yet :-)

I plan to make movies during the rest days of ROAM. The movies should include speed, heartrate, power and more. I shall not bother you here with the number of gadgets and software involved to make this possible, it's daunting when I come to think of it. I didn't get much of a chance to test how everything works together, since my ROAMango is well underway on the ocean by now. Most of the European velomobiles were gathered, packed in a container and moved by truck to the Bremer harbour for transport to Portland.