Weekend's Rides 7/8 & 7/9 - While the captains away....

Thanks to our two volunteer ride captains - Ryan H. on Saturday and John M. on Sunday.  I appreciate that you wanted to step in and guide the cat circus through Albuquerque!

Saturday's Ride:   As relayed by ride captain Ryan!

First Officer's Log, July 8th, 2017 AD

We had as many as 21 riders at the start. We followed the course down to University Blvd where one of us developed a flat tire. After fixing the tire outside of Wise Pies Arena a.k.a. The Pit, we continued down University Blvd, crossing the dirt at Kirtland Park (as they do on the Albuquerque Century). We didn't have to wait long for all the riders to arrive at the University & Rio Bravo intersection, from where we continued down to the south loop of the Bosque Trail. There were many other riders, runners and walkers out on the Bosque this morning, making it difficult for a group to ride through. We took relatively short breaks at the train station at Tingley Beach and the Alameda/Rio Grande Open Space. From there, one of us took Rio Grande Rd to go home, and the rest of us cut through Guadalupe Trail and Camino del Bosque where we saw two bikes being offered for free (there were no takers). Continuing up Roy Avenue to Tramway Rd, some of us stopped at the Bien Mur Travel Center, where Laura's front tire went flat and had to be repaired. The rest of us continued up Tramway Road to the County Line Steakhouse where Carollan stayed behind to direct riders. I went up to the terminal, got water, waited for some other riders, headed back down and waited for everyone who had not broken off to go home. Good Gary had to add pressure to one of his tires before heading back down. On our way down Tramway Blvd, I had a tire blow-out myself. While we were repairing our fourth flat, Laura's rear tire burst and had to be repaired. Followed was the easy part of the ride, downhill along Tramway Blvd and down through the neighborhoods on the southeast side of town. 

After 52 miles and 5 flat tires, a few of us arrived back at O'Neill's. A handful of those riders joined us there for brunch.

Thanks everyone for riding. As a team, we need to work on staying together, and both keeping in a single file and slowing down and waiting until it's safe to pass on the Bosque Trail.

Artist rendition of Saturday's ride

Sunday's Ride: 

Reports of an uneventful ride.  Sometimes that is a great enough report.  And they took a photo:

From the base of the tram!