End of March

We had a very full weekend.

On Saturday I did the 200 km brevet that started at the edge of town. We had a small turnout, only 12 riders or so. While it was sunny for the first bit of the ride it was also quite cold. Numb toes and fingers even with covers and winter gloves. The ride up RT 66 went pretty quick with a tail wind which is quite rare. The trip up S14 with Chris was uneventful and went by pretty quick. Once the climb was topped out Chris and I had faced the swirling winds up top. we nearly got blown off our bikes on more than one occasion. John, the local organizer measured the wind gusts at 45+ mph. Eventually the route turned or the wind shifter and we had a tail wind that had us flying down out of the mountains to the east side of the Manzanos. As we turned to head south to Mountainair we got nailed by the head wind. Riding along at less than 10mph on the flat sections and 15mph on the down hills. Luckily that stretch was short lived and we soon had a cross or tail wind the rest of the way out to Mountainair and the turn around.

Now this never happens in NM so we were not looking forward to the trip back and hung around long enough at the checkpoint to team up with the next 2 riders on the road, Catherine Shenk and Michael from CO, figuring that even though we had made it out faster that 4 into the wind would be better. Well the wind shifted a little and even died down a bit so it was mostly a cross wind on the way back and even a tailwind at points, though we all tried not to mention these facts too loudly or face the wrath of the wind instantly changing direction on us.

By the time we made it back to the top of S14 to head off and do the rollers Michael had dropped off and Chris who had been taking the longest pulls by far was starting to feel the effects of a long day, OH and we got snowed on a bit as well somewhere up there. Catherine and I started taking longer pulls at this point to keep Chris fresher. Once through the rollers we made a quick stop at the last checkpoint that was a little longer than planned since Chris had been planning on riding home from the finish and now decided that calling Joanna for a ride home was the prudent thing to do. The last bit heading down RT 66 to the finish on the edge of town, while usually into a headwind always seems to go by pretty fast as it is pretty much all downhill enough to keep speed high enough that the draft is really good. This is typical of John when he designs his courses. He tries to kill you bay making it a difficult as possible but gives you a downhill finish to try and get you to leave with a smile on your face thinking, hey that was not so bad.

On Sunday I worked on the house. Doing base trim in the master bedroom and bathroom and making thresholds for the doorways. To keep Dylan out of the way of the power tools and nail guns Linda took him to the ZOO. Once the little one was down for his nap Linda headed to the climbing gym to meet up with a friend and climb till dinner.