Who We Are - 2017 season!

We are The Penultimates – a team of Albuquerque, New Mexico cyclists. Our primary focus is cycling in the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s “New Mexico Pedal Los Pueblos” Bike MS, a two-day, 150 mile cycling tour through northern New Mexico. This event raises money for research, education, and support of individuals living with Multiple Sclerosis – including those within our community.  (For a quick primer on MS, check this out). Our team includes several members riding for friends and family with the disease, and we also have two cyclists that live and ride with MS.

The Penultimates formed in 2010 with 5 riders, raising over $7500 for the Bike MS150 event. In 2016, we and raised $26,281!  We have had over 60 different riders join us through the years and  have raised over $150,000 since our first year the fight against MS.  We’re reaching out to our families, friends, and the community businesses we actively support to help our fundraising reach the next level.  We are organizing a few fundraisers this year, including our Seventh Annual Paired Whisky Dinner hosted by Two Fool's Tavern (the 2015 even is detailed here) and our Second Annual Happy Hour at Matanza sometime in June (last year we raised over $700 drinking beer and eating!).  These events raise money directly for the MS society, but the proceeds go toward your rider totals, so if you think fundraising will be difficult - we make it easy!

From the start of the 2016 ride!

Our team has always been about the joy of cycling, the friendship of teammates, and riding or volunteering for a fantastic cause.  We may not finish first, but we will finish, and have a great time doing it!  We start training in earnest in mid June, and we will try organize two rides every weekend to get you ready for the ride depending on interest.  We welcome new riders - either new to this event or new to long distance riding. Every year we pick up new riders that end up riding more than they thought they were capable of - completing from 80 miles to the full 150 miles. Whether you are new to cycling, a grizzled veteran, or just looking to volunteer your time for a good cause, this is the team for you!  Go Domo!

Training Season 2017!

Here is the first draft of the training schedule for the 2017 year. The general plan is that if you ride this long ride schedule plus maybe get a few extra rides in you will be ready for the full 150 mile Bike MS at the end of August.   We will also contemplating doing a short training ride on each Sunday too that will build to ~50 miles by the end of the season, so those that want to ride the short ride can get some team rides in too.  For those of you new to the team, riding is great, but riding with a team is so much more fun!  As always, we will following most of the rides with a team breakfast, and now that they offer brunch this year the destination will be O'Neill's (food + beer + Bloody Mary's make recovery so much better).

From a rainy ride to Santa Fe 2016 with the Gearitos!

The tentative schedule (all are on Saturdays unless otherwise noted): All rides will leave from O'Neill's on Central as early as we can (6 am) unless otherwise noted.  There are several riders that are planning on doing the Taos Grand Fondo on August 5th (anyone interested in riding with us please let me know)!

6/17	Short city loop + Bike in Coffee	25
6/24	Inner City Loop CW	36.1
7/1	Modified City loop CCW	36.7
7/8	City Loop CW	53
7/15	Jemez Dam	65
7/22	South 14 + Gutirrez Canyon  *	65
7/29	Crest Assault from Triangle	26
8/5	Ride to Placitas	66
8/12	Santa Fe	63
8/19	Recovery weekend	55
8/26	The Ride	150

* We modified the route from our traditional rollers ride due to bad road condition and aggressive drivers.