At 5:45 Sunday I checked the latest Santa Fe forecast
and it looked promising. Zero percent chance of rain, seventy degree
temperature and winds only up to 22mph. Next I looked at our outdoor
thermometer and it read a reassuring 50 F. When I stepped outside to get our
bikes ready I noticed how calm the morning was.
At 6:00 Pat my wife and I road over to SpinDoc to see
who was there. We met two riders who were waiting for Kirk to go riding with
him. I informed them that Kirk was leaving with a group at 7:00. So the four of us got onto Interstate
25; once on the Highway we saw a long line of riders ahead of us. I wondered,
how can this be it’s only a few minutes after 6:00 and just getting light. The
line of riders ahead of us exited onto Old Pecos Trail and went towards St.
Vincent Hospital where the official start of the Santa Fe Century is. Pat and I
decided to skip the official starting point and coasted down Rodeo Road. We now
felt the thrill of being on our way.
The first thing we noticed when we merged with the
riders coming from the hospital was there were fewer riders than we saw last
year. Also nobody was peddling outdated machinery as they sped along at a fast
pace. I saw a lot more police stationed at hazardous intersections. This was reassuring
for us because motorists behave better with a large presence of the law.
It was a perfect 31 miles to Madrid, and at the Madrid
food stop we met up with some fellow riders who we trained with for the century
with last year. The Madrid food stop is the most festive place on the entire
ride. Nobody is tired yet and the town of Madrid is like no other, maybe in the
whole country. It’s always tempting for me to stay too long just looking at the
place -- which is not smart because we know on the day of the century time
speeds up.
Fifteen minutes later we started plodding the five
mile climb out of Madrid on Highway 14, going next to Golden, New Mexico. “This
is one of the most dreaded parts of the trip,” one avid rider said. “I’ll only
do this once a year.” From the top of the climb to Heart Break Hill was a lot
of easy fast riding. At the Heart Break food stop we took a short rest and
visited with some friends. Then we partly rode up the half mile very steep
incline of Heart Break.
The ride to Cedar Grove was mostly downhill with a
tail wind. This was fantastic until Kirk and Chandler passed us by just a few
miles before Cedar Grove; we were then hit in the face with a wall of fast
moving air. By the time we inched
our way into the Cedar Grove food stop, dust and sand were blowing over the
trail mix and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but no one seemed to notice or
care. The good news was after we made our way out of Cedar Grove and turned left
the wind was at our backs again all the way to Stanley. It was another fast,
easy ride even though it was raining a little as we watched a gigantic dust
storm underway to the north of us.
The Stanley food stop was a repeat of what we had in Cedar
Grove so we didn’t spent much time visiting or eating dust-covered sandwiches. Upon
leaving Stanley tumble weeds were blowing across the road and getting caught in
riders’ wheels. Shortly out of Stanley there was a sign that read 18 miles to
Galisteo. This was the most challenging part of the ride and when I forgot
Chandler’s pace line rule, (don’t stop suddenly without signaling) Pat bumped
into me and almost fell over while I was trying to grab the number off my
helmet as the wind whisked it away.
It was hard to stay upright let alone make any time,
and it was close to three o’clock when we reached Galisteo with the wind still howling.
Pat and many others decided to call it quits and sag back. I decided to
continue and this was the right decision. The wind riding out of Galisteo was
at my back. I smiled to myself as I peddled along at a good clip watching a
parade of vehicles passing me by and almost every one of them had a collection
of bikes packed in them. When I made the turn onto 285 going north the wind was
to my left and had subsided to about 15 miles an hour; there were no tumble
weeds blowing across the road to dodge any more. I got back to Spin Doc at 4:25.
