Weekend's Rides: 7/1 & 7/2 - A fine windy NM morning

A great weekend of training.  Then again, I always think heading out for some exercise with friends is great, so call me biased.

Saturday's Ride:  This weekend we did the modified counter clockwise city loop (route here) - a 37 mile jaunt around the city, heading north on Tramway with a little punishment of heading up to the base of the tram.  This is followed by a long descent back to the valley floor before picking up the diversion channel and back to the ride start.  We had 15 riders total head out for the ride from different locations.

Those of us that started at O'Neill's faced a fierce headwind (a sustained 10 mph with gusts to 20 mph) for the first 7 miles until we got to the fist rally spot at Smiths at Tramway and Central. We picked up another 5 riders at headed north, sideways to the wind.  At the top of Tramway, some of us headed up to the base of the tram up the steep 1 mile road for a challenge, while others headed on their way.

Heading up to the base of the tram.

Special thanks to Ryan who rode at the end of the group and ensured everyone made it to where they were supposed to go!  We got pretty spread out as we departed the top of the tram, but eventually all made it back to the ride start.

At the top!

Sunday's Ride:  4 of us started out on beautiful morning to do the inner city loop.  Kudos again to Evil Gary and Ryan for doing both training rides this weekend.  We had a peaceful ride along the Bosque, and probably the least busy I've ever seen.

At the 25-mile mark, Bex peeled off to head home, having cleverly staged a car at the Paseo train station.  Congrats on doing your longest group ride!

Gary, Ryan, and Ali headed back, and many thanks to those two for letting me draft until we hit a wind break.