Weekend's Ride: August 3rd & 4th - The Crest + City Loop

Another great weekend of riding.  Saturday saw 10 riders head up to the peak and Sunday's ride involved 6 riders and a great breakfast.  Two more weekends of training rides and the big event is here!

Saturday's Ride:  Crest Assault

We all met over at the Triangle in Sandia Park for a 7:30 departure, which meant we all got to sleep in for the first time past 5:15 am.  We had 10 riders today - Rob, Daniella, Greg, Brady, Calvin, Olga, Tammy, Gregg, Andrew, Jeff, and myself.  Today we headed up to the Crest (route here) - a long 13 mile slog with a gain of elevation of of 4000 feet.  Aside from a very brief down hill at the ski area, it is nothing but a long uphill climb.  As we headed out, the pack separated right away.  Well I say pack, but really, everyone went fast and I went slow (see also my rant about how evil physics is here).  After a long meditative haul up the mountain in the cool green mountain air, the first riders got there an hour before the rest (again, me).  After a quick picture at the top, the fun part - the long descent back down. There were some tales of 46 mph maximum speed and a flat tire discovered on a fast turn on the downhill, but all riders made it back safe around 11:30 am.  Not a bad morning!

Success!

Deer!

Tire repair on the downhill.

Sunday's Ride: City Loop

Ride captain made executive decision to reverse ride route this morning (original orientation here).  In her brilliance, she determined a gear problem to be minor.  In reality the whole front derailleur needs replaced - so climbing was pretty much out.  Sorry guys!

Beautiful, if humid, morning for a ride. 6 riders started out from O'Neill's (Stacy, Gary C., Greg and Nellie V., LeeAnn and Ali).  We travelled through the university to the diversion channel to Indian School and down to Edith, across to Mountain and down to the Bosque.  Next: a quick trip down a pretty empty Bosque trail to Paseo, and up to the diversion channel. 

A quick stop at the top to refuel (and wait for ride captain to catch up) and we headed back along the diversion channel to the finish.  I managed to convince almost everyone, with promises of milkshakes and burritos, to stay and have breakfast.  Two little Penultimates joined us as well.

Breakfast at the Malt Shop

Post ride breakfast at the Malt Shop - yum!  The consensus was that chocolate banana milkshakes (with or without malt and/or peanut butter) may be the best recovery drink ever.  Great ride everyone.  And special shout out to Nellie for her first Penultimates ride!