Saturday Ride 8/11: The High Road to Santa Fe

Wow-za.  The high road to Santa Fe.  From Albuquerque over 65 miles with over 3200 ft in elevation gain.  The first 20 miles alone are entirely uphill.  A long day in the saddle, but a rewarding one!  This ride isn't just a ride - it is an adventure! It involves cycling through spectacular scenery, some grueling ascents, some heart racing decents, a train ride, great food, and of course good company.

Today 8 riders gathered at 7 am at our Nob Hill rally point for the start of the ride: TJ, Gary, Andrew, Jeff, Greg, Eric, Laura, and myself.  We cruised east through the city winding our way toward the mouth of Tijeras Canyon.  At about mile 7 we had a seat malfunction, and we spend about 20 minutes trying to MacGyver Greg's saddle back into proper position.  It proved to be more than we could fix with our assembled tools, so Greg decided to tough it out and ride with us the rest of the day. (Ouch!)

Our first major rally and refuel stop was at the Triangle.  There we talked to a few other cyclists who  were there because the road to the Crest, the ride we did last weekend, was closed due to a motorcyclist who had wrecked on the decent.  (Not a happy ending to this story, unfortunately).  Somewhat sobered, we headed out on the next leg in good spirits after eating many newtons, drinking much water, and slopping on more sunscreen.

Heading out of Sandia Park toward Santa Fe.

On the next leg leaving Sandia Park on the way to Madrid, we all kept a pretty good pace as we started down the first decent of the ride.  It didn't las long as we all started to split up into a few groups as the hills started - a series of four long, long hills, some with grades of 14%!  Eventually we all made it to the top of the last hill at the peak elevation on the ride at a little over 7000 ft.  

After regaining our breath, it was time for the exhilarating 5 mile decent into Madrid!  This was by far the highlight of the ride as we cruised down the relatively straight roads off the top of the mountain pass and toward the valley below.  Only as we pulled into the tiny art community of Madrid did we have to use the brakes.  We stopped at the general store which was stocked with whatever a thirsty, hungry, smelly cyclist could possibly dream of (including a very delicious Twix ice cream bar that did not last long after being liberated from the cooler).

The next leg on the ride was the final 25 miles into Santa Fe.  This is where the ride became work.  We had just passed noon and the sun was out in all her high desert fury.  It was hot - thermometers on bikes registered as high as 106!   We knew were were getting closer, but things seemed to slow to a crawl as we inched our way to the finish.  We rallied in the shade of a tree at mile 52, before the last painful 7 miles.  The contents of water bottles were all hot, legs were tired and burning, and the heat, my god, the heat!

Enjoying the food, company, and shade!

But then we made it - what a sense of accomplishment! We pulled into El Parasol at 1:30 pm tired, hungry, thirsty, and ready for a little relaxation!  We were met there by the significant others of two of our riders, and we all settled down for a leisurely lunch on the veranda.  TJ and Andrew headed home early with Virginia via car, which the rest of us rode the 2 miles over to the train station at 3:15 to catch the 3:45 train south to ABQ.

The hour ride train ride back afforded time for conversation or quiet meditation (read: napping).  After quickly deploying from the train (an highly orchestrated maneuver), we said hello to Ali and Connor who were waiting for us on the platform.  Five riders then headed home toward the diversion channel for the final 10 miles of the ride to get back home.  All told a long day, but a good training ride for getting ready for the MS150.  All told, 73 miles in 5:30 of ride time.  Go Domo!