Day 7: Saturday, April 23 - Gallup, NM to Albuquerque, NM 136 miles for the day, 3093' up, 4626' down

Our early group started at 6:45 from our motel in Gallup, a bit later than normal but had to wait for daylight due to the time change. My departure was delayed a couple of minutes while Mike changed my front tire due to the rim strip shifting and my inner tube being cut - again. My 5th flat of the trip. But, note to self - be sure to fully check out my bike when I get done at night, so any problems can be fixed then, rather than delay a morning start. Frankly, the night before I was a bit wasted.

It was cool out, so needed our windbreakers and full leather (old dress) gloves.We rode a slight upgrade for 15 miles (with about 2 miles of some of the worst shoulder pavement imaginable). From there we needed to be bumped ahead to mile 22 by the van to avoid some construction. 

We got out at the Continental Divide at 7245'. There it was even cooler with a wind, so I didn't hang around too long.

Loading up to get past construction, up to the Continental Divide

It's all downhill from here, right?

Then a stiff headwind greeted us. On what should have been a pretty easy segment, we fought the wind. After 25 miles, I took a bump up to our first SAG stop at mile 64. From there, I rode 26 miles with a much more favorable wind along the frontage road to I 40 on mostly decent roads and generally sloping down. it warmed enough so the windbreaker came off and before long, it was feeling hot. Nonetheless, fun, easy riding, which was what I needed after the century yesterday. Then I was bumped to mile 104 and rode 13 miles to mile 117 for our final SAG stop for the day. 

More dry country we passed through

I was feeling pretty good but could see that some long climbs were ahead on the route, before dropping off into Albuquerque. I decided to stay feeling good and rode the van to the motel. I had ridden a total of 79 miles and felt good. With a rest day ahead, I should be in good shape to ride at least a good portion of Monday's ride - reputed to be the hardest day of the trip.

Tomorrow: Day 8: Sunday, April 24 -  Albuquerque, NM (Rest Day) Time for laundry and try to get a compatible charger cable for my office computer, as the one from my Dell laptop doesn't work (note to self - on a trip like this, test out EVERYTHING before the trip).

Day 9: Monday, April 25 - Albuquerque, NM to Las Vegas, NM 137 miles for the day, 7,800' of climbing, some of it 7%. I was using my granny gear at 5%, so will be wishing for a GREAT grandmother gear on this stretch, But then, I always have the option to be bumped up ahead by van if I need to do that to keep this trip fun - which has become my goal - have fun and do enough riding to get stronger/faster, but not break my body down by trying to keep up with the elite riders I find myself with.

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For our ride leader's (Mike Monk) version of today's ride, go here.