Satuday's Ride 8/19: Return to Jemez Dam

What a great ride for the final ride of the 2012 training season!  The 65 mile round trip from Nob Hill north to the Jemez Dam (details here).  It had it all - beautiful weather, a gorgeous ride through the lush farmland along the Rio Grande river valley, some ups and some downs, lots of flat fast riding, and of course some great teammates to share the miles with.  It also featured the greatest moment of my training season so far, but more about my victory later... 

Five of us - Gary, TJ, Laura, Eric, and me - rallied at the O'Neill's parking lot at 6 am a little surprised by the darkness and the relative chill in the air (here comes fall!).  We headed out through Nob Hill then up the north diversion channel just as the sun broke over the mountains.  About halfway there I got a call from Jeff, who had slept through his alarm, and plans were made for him to rally with us later in the ride.  After a quick potty break at Eric's office, we continued north to mile ten where we met up with Calvin and Greg who had biked down from the Northeast Heights.

Along the north diversion channel at dawn.

At the rally point, I quickly called Jeff to let him know where we were.  I just redialed the number he had called from before, and was taken aback by his voice, which sounded very womanly and kind.  After a second confusion, I realized I was in fact talking to Jeff's mythical wife.  Of course by mythical I mean seldom spotted and maybe imaginary sort of like a unicorn or a mermaid.  But barring some elaborate setup we have officially confirmed her existence.

Heading north toward Bernalillo

We headed west on the Paseo trail to eventually catch 4th street north after winding our way along Rio Grande, Alameda, and Guadalupe Trail.  Right around the circle (mile 18ish) Jeff finally caught up with us and we cruised north along 313.  We set a pretty nice pace line and cruised along at ~18 mph for most of the next 10 miles.  Getting closer to our first stop, Eric hopped into the lead position and our speed quickly edged up closer to 20 mph.  I struggled to stay on, and our pace line split into two.  But eventually we pulled into our first refuel stop in Bernalillo.  When I caught everyone Eric explained the sudden burst of enhanced performance - he really had to use the rest room.  

The next leg of the ride took us through Bernalillo winding our way on back roads to avoid the high traffic of 550.  From there we turned north and headed toward Jemez Dam - an mile spur up to pretty decent hills with a long descent in the middle ending at a nice overlook.  It was a fun ride as there was a charity run/walk to benefit the fight against diabetes so lots of runners and walkers out on the road.

At the Jemez Dam overlook

After a nice rest at the overlook, we headed off on the next leg.  First up we needed to descend one hill, climb another, then do the long descent down to 550.  As everyone knows, I am what is euphemistically called a "Clydesdale" rider - one who violates the tyrannically body norm of cycling by  weighing over 185 lbs (shocking, I know).  This makes me terrible on the hills but I make up for it on the descent.  So I saw my chance just ahead.  As we neared the bottom of the first hill, most of the other riders were in front of me, so I turned it on and built up a head of steam.  Right as the hill started, I blasted past everyone else like they were standing still - I was going about ~22 to their ~14 mph.  As I screamed past them I yelled out "see you suckers" in a fit of pure cycling joy.

As in real life, victory is often short lived.  True for me as well.  My speedy ascent began to slow I went from fast, to not so fast, to my normal uphill speed - slow.  To add insult, probably within 30 seconds I was overtaken by a few of the hill climbing demons who yelled out gleefully "on your left" as they passed.  Oh well, for short time I passed everyone on the uphill - and you can't take that away from me! My favorite post-script came from Laura who over heard a jogger observing my daring manuever yell out "Don't let the argyles beat you!"  Ha - if only she knew my true cycling style - always last.

The rest of the ride went rather uneventfully as we cruised through roads that criss-crossed the high desert on the mesa west of town.  Heading down Paseo de Vulcan, I kept thinking that this is where they film all the desolate desert shots in "Breaking Bad".  We wound our way back down into the valley to take a quick cruise through the hamlet of Corrales before making our way back to the Bosque trail. At this point, Jeff, Calvin and Greg headed off back toward home by making their way back up Tramway!  Ouch!

The five of the starters at O'Neill's headed back toward Nob Hill along Paseo and then the north diversion channel trying to keep a pretty good pace line.  As we neared the end, Gary's back tire finally gave up after fighting a slow leak all morning.  He phoned reinforcements (Rebecca) for a pick up who was conveniently stationed at Serafin's awaiting our return.  After the rescue maneuver, the five of them finished the morning at Serafin's while I headed home to relieve Ali, who as usual spent the morning watching the Boy-o.  All told a great conclusion to our 2012 training season!

Addendum:  Boo - Yaa!  [The following was written by Calvin who headed from the Bosque trail back up Tramway to get home.]

Three riders originating from the NE Heights broke off from the main pack at the Alameda Open Space, and embarked on a long climb back home along Tramway.  Along the way, Calvin half-jokingly suggested adding on a climb to the Tram Base, which to his unpleasant surprise was accepted by Jeff and Greg.  The joke was on Calvin though, because he was severely dropped halfway to the summit.  So, here we are at the end of a long day (pic) after 10 final miles, 1300 ft of additional climbing, and a couple of minutes waiting for Calvin: the base of the Sandia Peak Tram.  On a side-note, we were almost run off the road at a stop light by a crazy driver honking and yelling "Domo" names at us.  Apparently, these Penultimates (Danny Boy driving a truck with a 1-ton horse trailer) are such punks.  =)