2018 Ride by the Numbers

Wow!  What a season 2018 season!  Our 9th year and going stronger than ever.  Lot of training rides, lots of new riders, lots of new friends.  

Ridership:

31 - total teammates
12 - new riders to the Bike MS: Pedal los Pueblos!
1 - Random rider who chose to ride with us based on our awesome jersey (Yay Alex) 
19 - riders who have done the ride >2 years
20 - riders who have done the ride >5 years!

Training season:

0 - number of bike free weekends since June 23 (team wide)
20 - number of riders on our largest training ride (First ride of season!)
1 - new rookie riders
9 -  Saturday training rides we had this year! (ranging from 14-24 riders)
8 - Sunday training rides (thanks to Ali and John M. for leading!)

 7144 - Miles of training (team wide)

At the MS ride:

29 - riders Day 1
26 - riders Day 2
8 - Friends and family volunteers!
1 - Awesome Penultimate rest stop at Puy Cliffs Day 2!
1 - Brand new century riders! (Congrats James)
16- riders to completed the Century ride Day 1!
19 - riders to make it to Puye Cliffs on Day 2

3780 miles rode a the BikeMS (team wide)

Fundraising!

6 - top fundraisers (raised more than $1000 a piece!)

$26,352 (and counting) raised by the Penultimates in 2018! 

>$200,000 raised by the Penultimates in our 9 years of riding

2018 Paired Scotch Dinner

We are partnering again with Two Fools Tavern in Nob Hill for our 9th annual Paired Scotch dinner.  Take a love of food, a love of scotch, and a fantastic chef to coordinate, and this equals a fantastic fundraiser for the National MS Society.

Tickets are $100, with a portion of ticket sales going to the National MS Society.  This years menu:

^{Course 1:} 

 Shrimp Escabeche with pickled root vegetables mango tomatillo chow-chow in a butter lettuce wrap
Whiskey pairing: Christy's Whisky Smash Cocktail

Course 2: 

Pan Seared Jamon Ham wrapped Monkfish medallions, with a roasted poblano lime sauce, and dragon tongue salad

Whiskey pairing: High West "Campfire" (Utah)

Course 3:  

Braised Pork Belly Adovada BLT, grilled croutons, shredded lettuce, avocado creme fraiche

Whisky Pairing: Dalmore 15yr (Speyside)

^{Course 4:} 

Linguini in a white wine garlic sauce and portobellos

Whisky Pairing: Glenkinchie 12 year (lowland)

Course 5:

Key lime whipped mousse, graham cracker, candied lime

 Whiskey Pairing: Willet Bourbon (Kentucky)

Weekend's Rides: 7/8 & 7/9 - Holiday Weekend Happiness!

The fourth training weekend of the season went off without a hitch (for the most part).  Numbers were low, but I think a lot of people were enjoying an extended 4th of July weekend.

Saturday -  Today we headed out on the 53 mile counter clockwise city loop (route here) that took us south past the airport and over to the Bosque trail all the way north, before heading east for a long 8 mile climb to the base of the Tram, then south along Tramway, and then home again across the southern edge of the city.  There were 14 of us heading out, including a few new riders - always a plus!

It was a fun ride for me as we diverted a bit out to Mesa del Sol to avoid the Rio Bravo traffic. It was a scenic and beautiful stretch of road totally devoid of any vehicle traffic. The uphills got everyone sweating early too.  It allowed for some cool pictures too (see below).

It was surprisingly quiet going north on the Bosque trail. It can be quite busy with all the walkers, cyclists, (unsmiling) runners, roller bladers, strollers, etc... which earn it the nick name playing "Bosque Frogger".  But traffic was light and we made a pretty good pace up to the Alameda open space.

From there we headed north and upward up the hill toward the tram, but due to a persistent slow leak from my tire I stopped at El Pinto to "quickly" swap out my tire.  I ran into all kind of problems, but after consuming all my supplies (2 CO2 cartridges and my spare tube), killing my trusty pump of 8 years, and a second pairs of hands provided by one very Good Gary who came back to see if I was okay, I finally got back on the road.  It was my first field change of my tubeless tires, which all in all could have been worse.  For example my bike could have caught fire.

I missed the 1 mile spur up to the base of the tram, but refreshed at a gas station down the road and then caught up with the rest of the rides as we headed home quickly in the ever heating ABQ day.  All told, all riders made it home and despite some cramping by some of our party we all made it home.  Unsure if there was brunch as I had to meet some family out for brunch, but I hope so.

Fun with backlighting - the riders of the apocalpse

Sunday - Six people headed out for the Inner City Loop with the spur out to Mesa del Sol to avoid Rio Bravo.  It was a fast ride as most riders were back by 9:30.  Captain Ali reports all riders had a good time!

Weekend's Ride: 6/30 & 7/1 - Early morning miles!

What a great ride!  It could be that I was just overly enthusiastic about getting back out and training with the Penultimates after missing 2 rides of the season opener (bad captain!).  But I am back and looking forward to our training season!

Saturday - Today we did the Modified City Loop CCW (route here).  We had 18 riders meet at the first 6 am ride of the season.  Not that we were going to complain after a week of 100+ degree days here in ABQ as the morning was nice and cool.    We set off east across the southern end of the city to rally at the Smiths at Central and Tramway. 

At the top of the Tram!

After a quick regroup we headed north on Tramway, with most of us intending to rally up to the base of the tram. As usual we all spread out on the uphill, but after completing the climb to the top and the pain subsided, we all enjoyed a quick snack and picture before we headed for a best part - a long 8 mile descent to the valley.  We finished off with a quick sprint south finishing up at 9:30 - no brunch today.  Hopefully next weekend!

Sunday - Nine riders met early and did a quick sprint north to the Balloon Fiesta Park and back (round trip 25 miles or so), with some getting stopping for waffles and other logging some extra miles heading out to the airport.  Great start to the Sunday ride!

Weekend's Ride: 6/17 - Rain Delay!

For the first time in 8 years of riding, we had a ride get postponed due to rain.  Talking with riders from other locations they just laughed at me - "Cancel a ride because its raining?  If we did that we would never ride!"  So we are a bit spoiled here in the land of Enchantment with our usually blue skies. 

Saturday was rainy, but we did do another ride on Sunday.  Thanks to Good Gary and Ryan E who captained the ride and got everyone to where they were supposed to go.  Sounds like there were 16 riders who headed out, so not a bad turnout for a rescheduled Saturday ride.

Weekend's Ride: 6/23 & 6/24 - Hot times in the big city

Another huge thank you to Carollan and Ryan H for captaining Saturday's ride and to Maria and Ryan E for captaining Sunday's ride.  Sounds like both days were successful - we paired with the Outspoken team for a joint ride after last weekends got rained out. One thing I took away from the weekend is, as much as everyone complains about the 6 am start time, it is necessary when it gets hot in ABQ!

Saturday: From Ryan H: "Today's ride was a success. It became very hot; approximately 100 degrees. We departed at approximately 7:10am with 27 riders. We altered the route to take Girard Blvd south rather than going down to University Blvd to reach the airport area. Rio Bravo was under heavy construction which made it difficult to get onto the trail on the South side of the road. We had to go past our normal entrance, make a U-turn and then carry our bikes onto the trail. Some riders made a U-turn down at the red light at Prince Street. We finally got onto the trail and then stopped at Tingley Beach. We received a report that the water fountain was out of service. I failed to immediately wait at the turn to alert our riders to turn into the picnic area and I lost one so I had to travel all the way down past the zoo to retrieve one rider and then return. Then, we made a brisk pace up to Paseo del Norte. We stopped at the intersection to make sure we had everyone. At that point, Laura and Good Gary broke off to continue to Alameda to get water from a gas station. They met up with us later at the traffic circle at UNM. The riders successfully turned south onto the Northern Diversion Channel Trail. Many riders diverted to go home. At least one was hot and tired. We attempted to set a stop at the circle at UNM, but most people continued because of the heat. Evil Gary and his new protégé diverted to have breakfast at Tia B's Waffleria. Good Gary, Carollan and I were joined by some of the Outspok'n riders for brunch at O'Neill's which opens at 10am on Saturday and Sunday, but only the door on the south side. At brunch, we had Patty, Steve, John, Monica, Samuel, Gary, Ryan and Carollan. Finally, Good Gary, Carollan and I rode together along Southern Blvd all the way to Eubank on our ways home."

Sunday:  From Ryan E: "We had 6 today. Rhea, Maria, Erica, Evil Gary, Bex and Ryan E. We left O’niels at 0715 and did a modified inner loop. We excluded the far south Bosque trail due to the construction on Rio Bravo. Evil and Bex pealed off on Mountain while the rest rode to Paseo and looped back. By the time we arrived back at O’niels, Evil and Bex just returned and we all ended back O’niels at the same time!"

From Maria: ".... Good ride except for that crazy Rio Bravo interchange. Even with low traffic, it felt unsafe with all the construction. Bex & Evil peeled off early and went home via Mountain.  The rest of us went up to Paseo. Lucky sighting of Eric at the volunteer tent for a race that was staging next to Natl Hispanic Cultural Center."

Jersey Redesign 2018

Attention Penultimates!  We have newly redesigned our jerseys for the 2018 season.  It is a pretty great looking jersey, very bright, and is a typical biking jersey with zippered front and pockets on the back. If you are new to biking this might make a great addition to your biking wardrobe.

Thanks to volunteer efforts we have secured new jersey sponsorship as well.  Our 2018 sponsors are Upward Motion Personal Fitness, Two Wheeled Drive, Salubrio Natural Healthcare, ONeill's, and dso Creative (the fabulous designer).

What?  You too want to be sporting one of these spiffy jerseys for this years Bike MS?  No problem. Jerseys are $50 a piece and can be ordered by following the instructions below.  In order to make the first order of jerseys orders are needed by 6/13/18.

1. Look at the size charts here.  Measure yourself, measure existing jerseys that fit well, look at the chart, and remeasure.  Onus is on you guys to fit yourself.  (Note there are 3 fits that you can choose - relaxed, racing, or women's).
2. Email your size and jersey type selection to penultimatesbike@gmail.com.

Who We Are - 2018 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, as well as 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 2017, we and raised $24,877!  We have had over 60 different riders join us through the years and  have raised over $175,000 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 Eight Annual Paired Whisky Dinner hosted by Two Fool's Tavern (the 2017 even is detailed here) and our Third 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 2017 start!

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 2018!

Here is the first draft of the training schedule for the 2018 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 at O'Neill's (food + beer + Bloody Mary's make recovery so much better). Plus they are a jersey sponsor!

From the ride to Santa Fe!

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.  Get on the Penultimates distribution so you know all the details about upcoming rides!

6/16	Short city loop + Bike in Coffee	20
6/23	Inner City Loop CW	36.1
6/30	Modified City loop CCW	36.7
7/7	City Loop CW	53
7/14	Ride to San Felipe Pueblo	69
7/21	South 14 + Gutirrez Canyon	63
7/28	Crest Assault from Triangle	26
8/4	Ride to Placitas	66
8/11	Santa Fe	63
8/18	Recovery weekend (City Ride of some flavor)	55
8/25	The Ride	0-150