Day Four – Westwood Ho !

I again managed to catch a few words with Robert between “day four” and “day five”. Remember in the world of the IBR, day six will just be getting underway. The time zone that RTK is currently riding in, is 8 hours behind European time.

When he received the rally book for leg 2, Robert tells me it was a straight choice between heading northeast and Wisconsin or south west and California. Each route had it’s merits and the weather would play a factor in whichever choice was made – the searing heat of the Mohave desert to the south west of storms to the northeast

He chose the heat, not least because there were slightly more points to be had but also because it fitted the tyre change schedule slightly better.

So, that’s what he’s now doing – Tulsa to Los Angeles and then all the way back to Denver.

Leg two is another three day leg and he’ll need to be back in Denver by the time you all wake up on Sunday morning (“you” being the people in Europe that is)

Leg three will be the defining leg for Robert

And now a further explanation of what I mean by the heat of the Mojave …..

It’s been fairly hot in the UK and Europe the last few weeks with some places hitting the mid thirties during the day. In the Mojave it doesn’t DROP to those temperatures even in the dead of the night. Robert will have faced temperatures of mid to high forties, in his riding gear, with no shade available to give some relief from the heat. If you lift your visor up, the wind is so hot that it burns your face. If you take your gloves off and ride “gloveless”, the backs of your hands burn.

The only way to describe what riding across the Mojave feels like, is imagine you are cooking a Sunday roast and you open the oven door. That “blast” of heat you get is what you get in the Mojave – except it’s from every side of you, not just the front.

In 2011, I spent 36 hours hiding behind the screen of my Windjammer as I trundled across the Mojave from east to west. The temperature never dropped below 100 degrees fahrenheit for 48 hours. Each and every fuel stop is a welcome break from the heat as you pay for your fuel in the airconditioned gas stations. In short it is Hell !!!

But there’s points to be had !! Lol !!

The problem is though with Leg 3 being a 5 day leg, he may have to go back again …