Miles: 141 Miles
Ride Time: 8 hours 45 minutes
Avg. Speed: 16.5 Mph
Total Climbing: 8743 feet
Work: 4697 kJ
It was the best of times it was the worst of times. Today was the longest ride on our Trek Travel Cross country trip, 140 miles. This was going to be my longest ride ever. Up to this point my longest was 126 miles so this would be about 15 miles longer.
The day started early as we rode out at 6am to go to breakfast. The sun had not even come out so we rode a quarter mile to an old Victorian home set up for breakfast. We then on the road at 6:45 just as it was starting to get light. Sunrise would still be another half an hour away. A cold 38 degrees required long finger gloves and an additional layer.
I was still cold but the Colorado boys passed by after about 2 miles and I jumped onto their train. They always form a pace line and ride fast.
The ride out of Colorado to New Mexico on Highway 84 was beautiful. The valley had ranches with lots of cattle and horses and the mountain sides started to have Aspen trees that had changed to golden yellow. After crossing into New Mexico the Aspen trees become more numerous. I had never thought that New Mexico would be so lush. I always thought it would be like Arizona.
We had lunch in Chama, another great picnic lunch. We took 84 south of Chama and then turned onto East 64 towards Taos. Again the Aspen trees colored the mountain hill sides. At mile 70 we started the long climb over the pass to Taos. We climbed for 9 miles to reach 10,500 feet. As we climbed you could see the dark rain clouds gathering at the top. About a mile from the top Dave almost caught back up to me but Ricky Bobby would have none of that and I put the pedal down and raced to the top.
As we reached the top, the temperature dropped to below 40 and the skies opened up with first hail and then rain. For about 25 miles on my decent the rain continued to fall and chilled me to the bone. The only redeeming factor was that we still had some rolling hills to climb which kept the blood flowing and kept me warm. As I approached lunch number 2 it stopped raining. But you could still see the clouds coming. The Colorado boys soon rolled into lunch and we hooked up to ride into Taos.
Hollywood flatted and we stopped to assist him.
Gary continued on since he was starting to feel weak since he had been sick in Durango. We then raced to catch back up with him. The wind was now picking up but since it was coming from behind we were able to maintain speeds of 25 to 30 mph until we caught back up with Gary.
We crossed the Rio Grande River and then the road turned and the wind become a side breeze that slowed our pace to 10 mph as we had to fight the wind just to stay upright and not be blown over. We fought the wind for 10 miles before we turned right and the wind was at our backs again. We raced into Taos to get to the hotel.
What a day. We had the best landscapes, good riding, good wind at times and then the worst rain and even hail. This longest ride will definitely be remembered.
Today’s photos at Flickr.
All Photo sets at Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhanke/collections/72157607429548840/
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