Sunday, 17 May 1998

View of the Rio Grande Valley on the way to Madrid, NM. Looking toward Albuquerque.

The refreshment stand at the Madrid rest stop.

This is known as "Heartbreak Hill" to bicyclers. Many people walk up it because it's so steep.

Stanley welcomes the bicyclers at the rest stop. However, Stanley's only store (right) wasn't open this Sunday. Say, wasn't Gulf Oil bought out by BP?

View of the Galisteo Basin near the town of Galisteo.

The Galisteo rest stop. This is at mile 80, and a lot of riders take a reclining rest here.

Suzy and Dick Wade. Tandem riders from Pueblo, Colorado.

Massage therapy at the end of the ride.

Last Modified on 5/24/98 at 17:11:13

Day's Narrative: I watched the Albuquerque weather report on TV the night before the ride and weatherman predicted a "breezy" day. When a breezy day is predicted for Albuquerque in the Spring it usually means "windy" for bicyclers. I believe Albuquerque reserves the term "windy" for winds above 50 mph (80 km/hr). In fact, the wind picked up about 10 or 11 in the morning and remained at about 25 mph or so (40 km/hr) all day out of the southwest.

I left Los Alamos at 5:30 am in order to arrive at the Capshaw Middle School at 6:30 for the pancakes, sausage, orange juice, and coffee breakfast. Suellen Bowersox and I hoped to meet and ride together, but we never found each other at the start. More than 1000 riders swarmed about, making it very difficult to find anyone. We did meet later on at one of the rest stops, but Suellen had been unable to ride because her bicycle was damaged when the wind blew it off her van as she was loading it.

At breakfast I met Kris Kern from Los Alamos, Jeremy Yang and Beth Rauch from Santa Fe. We decided to ride together, however I wondered if I could keep up with them. As it turned out they left me behind on the hills, and I never saw them again after the first rest stop in Madrid (pronounced locally as MA-drid).

To avoid construction in Santa Fe, the ride went down I-40 for seven miles before exiting at the Madrid turnoff. Basically the ride is all downhill to Madrid and the first rest stop. After Madrid there's a seven mile uphill grade on the way to rural community of Golden. After Golden there's another rest stop, immediately followed by by the steep, half a mile long "Heartbreak Hill" (photo). I simply cannot ride up it, I walk up it -- which makes the hill not so bad.

Over the hill the ride drops down into the huge Galisteo Basin, and the next rest stop is at Cedar Grove, another rural community. By the time I reached Cedar Grove it was 11 am and the wind was at full intensity. There's a stretch of road there where one has to ride into the full southwestern headwind. It's slow and demoralizing, but it doesn't last long.

After Cedar Grove the route turns East and there was a fantastic tailwind for 12 miles to the village of Stanley (photo).

In previous years I learned that there's no "real" food at the rest stops, which have lots of peanut butter, jelly, white bread (for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), bananas, fig newtons, gorp, water and a juice which for lack of a better name I refer to as "Bicycle Juice." Someone remarked that they heard insect repellent is mixed into the Bicycle Juice, but I wasn't able to confirm this. This year I brought with me two turkey and cheese sandwiches. I ate the first at Stanley, and the second at Galisteo.

I believe the ride from Stanley to Galisteo is the prettiest part of the trip. You can see forever out there in the flat Galisteo Basin, even to the white capped mountains beyond Santa Fe about 50 miles away.

The last stop at Galisteo is at mile 80 of the 103 mile tour. Many of the riders who have decided to continue on to Santa Fe take an extended break at Galisteo (photo). Some even take naps. Leaving Galisteo, the road rises steadily about 1000 ft. as it goes the remaining 23 miles to Santa Fe.

At the last rest stop near the community of Eldorado I met Dave and Suzy Wade, tandem riders from Pueblo, Colorado. Later at the end of the ride in Santa Fe we met again (photo) and discussed tandems -- how one rides them and transports them -- because Connie and I are thinking of getting one ourselves.

At the end back in Santa Fe the organizers had free Cokes, bananas, as well as a "lunch" (not free). There was also massage therapy available (photo) for those who wanted to unbunch those bunched-up muscles.

The high temperature was in the low 80s, which was a comfortable riding temperature. The 25 mph wind was strong enough to whip up horizontal sand in some places. When that mixed with my sweat it left me covered with a fine, sticky grit. It makes you really appreciate a shower afterwards.

It was a really nice ride.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1998