Then we eat dinner together, scrumptiously prepared for us by our traveling chef. She makes several different dishes so everyone is sure to find something she loves. She serves it family-style, and there’s always plenty for all of us. After dinner, the guide holds a map meeting to discuss the highlights of the day and to go over the details of the next day’s route.

Thrice during this tour, we’ll enjoy a day off from cycling. We use it to explore our surroundings and go out to eat on our own. We’ll have time to do laundry, clean our bikes, email home or read a book. Mostly, it’s time to give our bodies a chance to recover.

We’ll feel our bodies get stronger over the three weeks. Some of us will lose weight. All of us will admit that we’ve never been healthier in our lives. Some of us will form close bonds with each other, helping one another through particularly difficult days or celebrating together over accomplishments never before thought possible. We’ll make memories together we’ll never want to forget. Average of 63 miles per day.

DAY 24: Say good-bye to everyone continuing on the tour. Then you can make your way to the Cleveland train station or airport at your leisure for your trip home. 0 miles.

TOUR HIGHLIGHTS:
• Mississippi River
• Great Lakes of Michigan and Erie
• States of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio
• Small town charm across the continent

REGISTRATION DETAILS: To register for the 2011 Epic Tour: Fargo, ND to Cleveland, OH we require a $400 deposit. The balance of the trip fee is due 75 days prior to the tour, or March 5, 2011 by check. Our regular cancellation policy applies.

TRIP INSURANCE: We highly recommend trip insurance, especially with a tour of this length and magnitude. We will provide you with a source for trip cancellation & interruption insurance upon receipt of your registration.

EQUIPMENT: We do not rent bicycles for our epic tours. Everyone should train on her own bicycle and know that it fits and works properly for the tour. We recommend a road bike with straight or drop handlebars, and a front triple or compact chainring.

As we ride on paved roads, we recommend tires no wider than 28c. We also recommend cycling shoes with cleats and their appropriate pedals. You must wear a CPSC, ASTM or Snell approved helmet during the tour. We will also provide you with a detailed packing list, advice for clothing, a sample training schedule and a series of Prep Talk newsletters to help you prepare for the tour.

Join our Northern Tier — Eastern Half tour in Fargo, North Dakota and complete the country’s northernmost bike route with us to Cleveland, Ohio. If you can’t muster time off to do the entire 7-week journey with us all the way to the Atlantic Ocean, then join us for half on this epic tour.

DAY 1: We start our tour with an afternoon orientation and a bike prep meeting. Then it’s an optional fix-a-flat session in the parking lot. In the evening, we’ll celebrate the upcoming adventure with a banquet joined by some of our families and friends. 0 miles.

DAY 2: After the commemorative photos, we start our ride in earnest across the country. The terrain will be rural as we bike the back roads of small-town America. Once at our hotel for the evening, our traveling chef prepares a wholesome, home-cooked dinner, and then we get into bed early, ready to rise with the sun and begin anew. 57 miles.

DAYS 3-23: The days will quickly fall into a comfortable rhythm. We start early with a light, nutritionally balanced buffet breakfast, pack our bike bags with snacks of raisins, nuts and peanut butter sandwiches, and make sure we have an extra layer of clothing and perhaps a rain jacket with us. We leave on our own, usually between 7-8am.

We follow the cue sheets that have been meticulously prepared for us, along with the expert Adventure Cycling maps. We ride at our own pace, sometimes alone and sometimes in small groups. We stop where we want along the way to take a photograph of a mountain looming in the distance, a babbling brook, a blooming snapdragon or a humorous misspelled sign. Sometimes, we’ll stop at a diner for a hot lunch, a café for cold lemonade or a vegetable stand for freshly picked tomatoes and local news.

About every twenty miles, we’ll meet our SAG vehicle. It holds water, snacks, tire repair tools and a first aid kit. Even if we don’t need anything, we’ll stop to chat and talk about the wonderful tailwind or the panoramic view. If we’re too tired to bike anymore, we’ll take a ride in the SAG vehicle to our hotel for the night. The SAG makes sure everyone is in safely at the end of the day.

We soon realize that some of the women on the tour intend to ride every mile, while others are more interested in seeing the country. Some chose the tour in a desire to take a break from their daily routines; others are preparing for a big change in their lives. Some of us are attracted by the challenge, while others just want to meet other women who love bicycling. We range in age from 30 to 80 but the majority of us are in our 50s and 60s.

Once at our hotel, we find our luggage, (delivered earlier by the WomanTours van and trailer,) check-in to our room, and meet our roommate. We rotate roommates every night, unless you’ve requested the upgrade for a single room. There’s time to shower before dinner and perhaps take a dip in the hotel pool.

Most of our motels will be AAA-rated or better, and most of us will be in double occupancy rooms. Rarely, there is the possibility of triple occupancy or singles may have to share a double room. Sometimes hotel space is at a premium when we stay in very small towns. We try to break up nights at generic chain motels with selected stays at historic inns, B&Bs and resorts to give us flavor of the local area.

anyone has experienced bike problems during the day, we’ll use the time before dinner to work with the guide to fix it. If it’s a more complicated repair, the bike will go to a trained mechanic at a nearby bike shop. The WomanTours van and trailer carries spare tires, tubes and a large tool case. We’ll learn to work together to help everyone fix her own flat tires, as we’ll probably each get a couple during the trip.

Epic Tour: Fargo, ND to Cleveland, OH Itinerary