Day 7 & 8

                                                                                          Day 7
                                                                       Gallup NM to Albuquerque NM
                                                                                        136 miles

                                                                                          Day 8
                                                                                          Rest

     Last year I had a personal challenge to see how many miles I could ride in a week.  I was riding before and after work.  By day four I had 320 miles and I was well on my way to riding 500 miles in a week, but then my knee started to hurt and I gave up.  This past week I rode 840 miles.  This is a record that I don't think I'll ever beat nor do I ever think I'd want to. 
     The ride to Albuquerque started off very cold.  It was about 30 degrees when we left Gallup.  In true Minnesota spirit, I dressed in layers, knowing that eventually the temps would end up in the high 60's.  I was cold for the first 15 miles or so, but then it became less uncomfortable and finally tolerable.  I'm amazed to think about cowboys in the west surviving below zero temps with just a horse and a blanket.  They didn't have the advantage of Smartwool or polypropylene or down filled gloves.  Thinking of them in these situations doesn't make me feel any warmer, but makes any complaining on my part seem just silly.
     At 22 miles we passed the Continental Divide.   It wasn't the fancy sign I was expecting, but at 7300 feet seemed momentous.  After that it was all a gentle downhill.  Again we were substantially helped by tailwinds.  For about 20 miles we had a nice two line paceline shared amongst 8 people and were averaging 25 mile an hour speeds.  We again returned to the interstate at times and I can report an improvement from day 6...only 3 flats.  I rode much of the day with a friend  I  made on this trip, Greg, who also succeeded to in getting three flats, the last of which occurred in Albuquerque and ended his ride.  He succeeded in driving a bolt smack through his rear tire into his carbon rim where it remains embedded.  I've never seen anything like it and will pass on the picture when it is sent to me. 
     Today was to have been a day of rest and relaxation.  It would have been more relaxing had I not spent much of the day traveling with various people to various bike stores to get equipment.  Having now had 8 flats in 2 days, today I bought a combination airpump/CO2 dispenser that attaches underneath my water bottle cage.  I'm planning to get this on early tomorrow when I can hopefully get the right tool to remove the oddball nuts that are currently holding my cages on.  Tomorrow promises to be perhaps our most difficult day as we have 130+ miles of riding with 8000 feet elevation gain and temps in the low 40's with precipitation possible.  Knowing what's ahead has taken some of the celebration out of our first week's accomplishment and replaced it with a real sense of foreboding.   We also had to say goodbye to three of the riders who only were going as far as Albuquerque, Greg being one of them.  I enjoyed riding and hanging out with him and will honestly miss him.  However, there are lots of other fun people on the ride to get to know better and I plan to do just that and draft behind every one of them as much as possible. 

-Grinner

Approaching Albuquerque

Continental Divide

Greg Spieler

New Mexico Landscape