MS150 Day 2: Captain's Log

Despite passing out at 9 pm the night before, the morning still came way too early!  We were to the ride headquarters by 6:15 to get our calorie load for today's ride.  You could tell from the way everyone was moving - slower with a few more grimaces or groans - that yesterday's ride had taken its toll.  But, even though the flesh may have been weak (and sore and abused), the spirit was willing!  Smiles all around, and everyone was looking forward to the days ride.  A map of todays route can be found here.

Always so beautiful and so epic!

The first 10 miles of today's ride is my favorite stretch of ride of the whole MS150.  As you slowly wind your way up hill from Espanola you bike through some spectacular scenery.  Farmlands and pastures, past an old mission church, on to gorgeous red rock and finally to a thrilling downhill into Chimayo.  Another great part is that early in the morning, there is no road traffic so the bikes take over, and you bike through this beauty accompanied by cyclist before and behind you.  Ali and I rode with each other the whole way enjoying the morning and the view.  Rest stop 1 also has some great food with coffee and donuts from Napoli Coffee.  Yum.

On the ride up to Truches.  This is actually a movie - this is how slow I was going.

Next up is the real work of the day - the brutal up hill to Truches.  It is almost a 9 mile uninterrupted uphill with longs segments of 8% and 10% grade.  Ali (sanely) decided to get a sag ride up to the top to see everyone, but I headed off for the climb.  I was lucky to be able to ride with fellow Penultimates John and Diane for most of the long hill, until we got separated in the last miles.  But I kept telling myself as we went up, that however hard going up, it will be that much more fun on the downhill.  I also take comfort in knowing my inability to do hills well is really due to physics. Yep, just physics and not overall lack of ability.  Seriously, read my discussion of it here if you dare.  My first year of riding, this was the hill that haunted me all training season, but I have found that as I ride more the hill becomes less of a big deal.  Yes, it is long and steep and difficult, but every year it become less "the hill" and more "a hill".

Cycle-tini in hand before I could even dismount.

Pulling into reststop 2 at the top of Truches,  I was excited to see the large bulk of the Penultimates at the top!  Counting the three fast riders that we saw descending as we were climbing up (Bryan, Danny and Larry), I think we had a 23 of our 27 riders make it to the top of Truches.  I also attribute this to superior captaining!   The sense of accomplishment of making it to the top, combined with the excellent  reststop personell and food - cycle-tins (gatorade with an olive on a skewer), tropical fruit cups, and pickles - made this a great stop.  Another plus?  Ali was up there to join everyone, having been sagged to the top. 

Go Domo!

We all posed for a quick victorious photo, before the long and fun ride back down to the bottom - a long 13 mile down hill to the next rest stop.  It was a blast!  It is fairly straight and long with a beautiful road that was resurfaced 2 year ago.  All conditions conducive to going really fast.  I topped out around 49 mph, which is pretty close to my theoretical terminal velocity (again, it's all physics - read about it here).  Many miles later with Calvin still close behind even after me trying to lose him for the last 13 miles, we pulled into rest stop 3 to see the rest of the team waiting for us.

At this point of the ride, you only have 20 miles left.  I was really looking forward to the next little go - to be able to ride both with Ali and most of the team.  But fate was against me, and my back tire exploded about 5 minutes after arriving for still unclear reasons. Lots of wear on the back tire, so maybe the tube got too hot?  All I can say is thank goodness it happened then, and not when I was bombing down at almost 50 mph!  No mechanic here, so I got sagged to the next stop to leave everyone else to pedal the 10 miles to catch up with me.

Got there and got my wheel all fixed up and ready to go with some time to chat with some fellow riders.  Finally everyone arrived, and I headed off with Ali on the final 8 miles of the day.  Fairly uneventful, but we crossed the finish line together which was really nice.  All told, a very successful end to the 2012 Pedal los Pueblos season!