The Penultimates Cycling Team: MS150 Day 1

All those miles in the saddle. All those weekend mornings up before the sun. All the emails, phone calls, and fundraising. It all comes down to this weekend. The big one. The first day's ride has a short ride of 40 miles (map here) or a long ride of 88 miles (map here). Today we had 18 riders head out, with the intention to finish!

Since I wasn't there for the ride, I will let my teammates tell the tale of their brave adventure! From first time rider John, who did a wonderful job of chronicling the first day:

My body's still a little sore from the ride, but it was a terrific weekend. I got up early Saturday to get up to Pojoaque for the 7 AM start, which was not bad, since I was too excited to sleep more, anyway. The morning was chilly as we got on our way to Española, which was mostly downhill. After the first stop, we got to ride through San Juan Pueblo, which was a pretty little place. I don't recall too much of the next 30 miles, except two things: 1) one of our team had a nasty little fall after rubbing tires with another of our number, ending with scraped elbow and knees and a likely mild wrist sprain (he got patched up and kept riding), and 2) The Hill. The last section before lunch had a long, hot climb to the highest elevation for the day, which we were all glad to get behind us.

After coming down from the top of that climb, we got to the little town of El Rito, which has a small community college on whose campus we had lunch. Lunch was pretty simple, though plentiful, on a lawn under large shade trees with a nice breeze - very pleasant. After lunch, that breeze turned less pleasant, as it became a fairly strong crosswind that got warmer by the minute. The roads there were not very smooth, either, so it was tough going. Even though I had been careful to drink plenty at every stop, it was apparently not enough, since I started getting leg cramps. I stopped to mix up some Gatorade, and limped my way to the next rest stop where I drank plenty and massaged my legs.

That helped a lot, but it was hard to keep up with the hydration as we were getting into the hottest part of the day and still fighting wind. The thunderstorms we had seen in the distance since lunch were getting closer, but not close enough to cool things off. By this time, we were heading back towards Española. Things went pretty smoothly for a while, though my butt was getting sore from the saddle and my legs were still a little crampy. It was hot enough that when the storm clouds finally came close enough to suddenly block the sun, my first thought was "Oh no, I'm starting to black out!" I wasn't, of course, but it gave me a good laugh when I realized what really happened!

This is as good a point as any to express my thanks for all the volunteers that made the event possible. They were everywhere! They held bikes up, when there was not enough storage space, they cheered and rang cowbells for every rider coming into a rest stop, they took water bottles to fill them with ice, they soaked towels in ice water and draped them on our sweaty necks, they offered up snacks and drinks, they served our meals and cleaned up after and so many more things. They worked very hard to make us feel special, and I think they succeeded! They typically would not even accept thanks from us, insisting we were the ones who should be thanked for riding and raising money.

Though we had a great range of abilities among the folks on our team, we did a good job of keeping most of the group together all day long. The fast/strong riders (a group that did not include me) would wait at each rest stop for everyone else to catch up and rest before taking off again. For the very last leg of the day, we stuck together enough that we regrouped ahead of the finish so we could end in a solid group of about 15. After grabbing some ice cream, we dispersed to clean up before the dinner banquet, and I can tell you a dip in the pool has seldom felt so good!

Overall, everyone had a great time. There are other stories from the ride too, such as riderless horses racing cyclists along a stretch of road. But I will save that for another post. Below are some pictures from the first day.