Viva Las Vegas...Day 9...Albuquerque to Las Vegas...Mon 02/05/11

On paper, this is the toughest day of the trip, as it means over 8000' of climbing and 135 miles ganin' forward. Of course, as the hoary old line has it...we don't cycle on paper, do we?

Away from the hotel in Albuquerque just after 7am and I had the pleasure of Tom's company until the first stop at 35 miles, and I was glad of it too as we shared the work through freezing temperatures with headwinds and snow-flurries, with plenty of climbing from the off: 1000' for every 10 miles.

What happened to 80F?

See? Told you there was snow up here...

As well as stunning views...just keep pedalling to keep warm.

One of those days that when you did get a downhill stretch, the windchill was biting. Still bombed-on, natch.

This was the other Madrid, with tons of arts'n'craft shops, burnt-out hippies and coffe shops. But no Mourinho.

Just staggering landscapes- the outcrops on the horizon never seemed to get much closer though.

Yes indeed I do, Dionne- you take exit 319 off I-25N.

Just over 10 hours (!) after leaving Albuquerque I arrived at the Comfort Inn, Las Vegas. Sure, a long day but a strangely enjoyable one: I remembered back to this date one year ago- I was seeing Iggy & The Stooges go bananas in Hammersmith. Definitely did not forecast this malarkey one year on, hah-hah!

Reckon there must've been some method in yesterday's steak, beer, wine...then pasta, beer, wine diet as I seemed to fare a wee bit better than some out there. Think I should share this...I'll let Brad Wiggins know.

Have I got stats for you: check the elevation and temperature...not the fastest century ever, nor the easiest. Job done!

Chill before the hill...Day 8...Rest day in Albuquerque...Sun 01/05/11

So it's a day-off in windy and cold Albuquerque: what to do? Well I'll tell you what I wasn't planning to do and that was wake-up at 5am as per, but that is what I did anyway...d'oh!

Mike (tour leader, doing well for 133) advised us to keep a wee bit active today otherwise we'd find tomorrow's horrible hundred even more er, horrible.

That being the received wisdom, I cycled to a local bike shop and bought a cheap'n'nasty rain jacket and then shared a cab with Sir Clive down to 'Old Town' Albuquerque, where we did our own thing.

Mine involved a fruitless search for an Italian restaurant...dunno why on Earth I thought I'd find one down there but there you are.

This is the Senor who founded Alby.

'Old Town'...fulfilling all your tourist-tat wants. Unless you want an Italian restaurant, like.

Settled for the High Noon Steakhouse. And no, I'm not making that up. It was alright, as was beer of the day.

Cheers!

Stats? No chance pal!

Ridin' or hidin'...Day 7...Gallup to Albuquerque...Sat 30/04/11

At 5.30am the answer would've been, "...er, hidin', thanks all the same...give me a knock at 11am...": some change from yesterday's crazy but ultimately benign conditions.
I'm pretty sure that I wasn't the only one but I really didn't fancy cycling 135 miles in what looked pretty Baltic weather, even if it did lead to a day-off.
After a ropey and rushed breakfast I rolled out half-asleep and realised that when the weather-geezer said 27F he wasn't joking...even buy my standards this was unpleasantly cold. My fault for thinking that we'd be warming-up nicely after an hour or so....

Our highest point en-route...

...is celebrated with a couple of knackered-looking signs and three knakered cyclists...take a bow Steve and Bob.
After this stop I was joined by Jim and we shared the work until lunch at 64 miles, which is when I changed my first puncture-flat on this trip. Well, I had been living a charmed life, hah-hah!
You can usually tell how people are feeling at lunch by how keen they are to press on...I was happy to potter and pffaf around.

Smoke signals say..."Coal-fired power station nearby...".

Apparently they've got 'Tommy' at La Scala tonight. Result!

Now *this* is what you call Freedom To Roam.

At least after lunch the temperature began to climb under flawless skies and U.K. Bob (from Blackburn but defected to Wiltshire) and I managed to catch Craig who is one of the speed-merchants...he obviously was taking it easy today.
The most enjoyable bit was being able to again share the work with him for 20 fast miles which brought us to the 90-mark...he blithely commented that that was the first time he had ever drafted anyone and now he saw what a help it was...I was having a coronary at the time and disappearing backwards!

Coincidence of the day (if not ride) was when he asked me where I was from...near Belfast...Northern half of Ireland...keeping it simple...and he says one of his best mates lives in Bangor! Yep, he visited not so long ago and had a blast, going all over. I was able to laugh and wheeze as he then floored it into the distance.

No opportunity over-looked, hah-hah!

Registered to one 'H. Bear'. Apparently.

C'mon Lee, you can do it...out powering a Hog. He is George Hincapie-esque. Respect.

The final 40 miles brought the sprawl of Albuquerque within sight...a tough day, but what a good feeling. Cheers!

Way happier with today's numbers more than yesterday's.

Mandolin Wind...Day 6...Winslow to Gallup, NM...Fri 29/04/11

"...Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...".
That's quite enough from The Eagles, thanks all the same.

Well, it's about 7am in Winslow and as you can see, they have Royal Wedding mania. Actually there is a bit of interest as all the news channels were giving it the full monty.
I was able to watch a fair bit of Diane Sawyer on ABC going into full BS-meltdown mode because the brains trust here thought that we lost an hour due to Mountain Saving Time or somesuch, and thus got up an hour before everyone else...we actually lose that hour tonight, so I'm down two on the deal. D'oh!

Right, back to the job in hand...133 miles to Gallup, NM. All I need to say is that I will never cycle a faster mileage again, such was the help from the strong Westerly winds. Still tiring all the same, but a joy really.

The other feature of our day cycling on the shoulder of the interstate was that between 21 riders we had 35 punctures. Not me thankfully, so that's all right then.
I was cycling with Sir Clive Woodward (Steve from Rickmansworth) when he had a flat...I think he's benefiting from my guidance on how to change the tube correctly...at least I think I heard him say "...thank you!". A lot of traffic noise, you see.

Masters of understatement!

Our tour leader Mike (doing well for 83) demonstrating just *how* strong the winds were...

Sporting a dodgy bandana (essential wear) and a dodgy jersey off Ebay. Couture, 'innit?

As none of us have the same amount of hair that we once were blessed with, I did wonder if this could be the answer. Please, no non-PC scalping gags. Oh, too late...

Hiding behind Mike (doing well for 103) and Karen...these two are pootling along holding 30mph while I'm blowing out my arse trying to keep up and take a photo which if Mike (doing well for 133) ever sees, he will kick my afore-mentioned, hah-hah!

167 miles until we can have a day off. Oh yes.

Right on the Arizona/New Mexico border...

More couture.

Well, if you say so.

Finally to post-ride food: surely Denny's have gone just a wee bit too far this time? Even Homer J. would baulk at the idea, wouldn't he?

Ok, bed-time is with us once more: tomorrow is only another 135 miles to Albuquerque but also that fabled day off...praying for those lovely winds again.
By the way, as the hotel is on Indian land, it doesn't serve alcohol...rarely have I wanted a Corona more, hah-hah!

Stats Corner..Never see these numbers again.

Long Live Rock...Day 5...Cottonwood to Winslow...Thurs 28/04/11

On the road again and on the way from Cottonwood to Winslow, through Sedona and Flagstaff...only 107 miles despite what my mental GPS would have you believe.

Red rocks...artsy...er, that's about as much as you need to know about Sedona itself...those rocks are staggering to look at though. I drove through here 10 years ago after visiting Yosemite but I never imagined that I'd be cycling back up the climb to Flagstaff.

Sedona's just around the bend.

The main drag with galleries, coffee houses and that. Bit like Wesham, to be fair.

Hard time keeping your eyes on the road but an even harder time drinking-in the view.

Told you they were red, didn't I? Or is that terracotta. Whatever, just don't ride into them.

Ahh, business as usual...getting dropped as soon as the gradient rises above 0.1%. Just like yesterday, this was sheer joy, all the way up to 7000'.

Switchbacks'r'us.com

Bless the good people of Flagstaff and their well-spent tax dollars on this fine stretch on new road. You'll see that this can often be the exception...

I'm backing the A.B.B. Train against the Santa Fe Railroad. Bad call.

And this is what I was mumbling about earlier: we have to keep to the shoulder which is unswept and has variety of debris on it, not to mention being as rough as a badger's arse in (thankfully few) places.

Your actual tumbleweed there. Not known if Jim Davidson was in the area.

I can see for miles and miles.

At last as we roll into Winslow, we happen upon the historic...ah, you can read it for yourselves.
I can only assume that the 'be nice to berks-on-bikes' sign is Winslow's idea of irony. Good on them!

And here are those winning numbers...GPS went doo-lally but the stats are kosher in the main...