Day 12 - Albuquerque, NM to Santa Fe, NM - 67 miles - +/- 4,500 feet climbing - 4:54 hours in the saddle

Crossroads Cycling has a saying of EFI, where a cyclist rides Every Fantastic Inch across this country.  Most riders come to the tour with a goal of EFI.  In 43 days of riding across the country, there will be days that test your mettle for so many reasons (temperature, distance, elevation, climbing, wind, hydration, nutrition, saddle sores, bad night’s sleep, etc).  

Today was definitely one of those days that tested my mettle and it was bloody miserable (cold, rainy, windy, uphill….the quadfecta), but I persevered.  We knew we were going to get rained on today and every rider had on their bright rain gear.  And the rain clouds over the mountains looked threatening, but little did we know how uncomfortable we would become!

What we didn’t anticipate was the temperature, let alone the wind chill factor.  My Wahoo showed a low temp of 41 and an average temp of 48 (but several of my Wahoo functions stopped working, so average is probably incorrect).  It started raining about mile 5 and rained until about mile 35.  We stopped at a gas station at mile 23  and I got a Mexican hot chocolate.  My rain jacket did its job and kept my core warm, but my socks and shoes were slosh full of water and my hands and ears were very cold.  Fortunately I had stowed some extra gear in my jersey pockets.  I put on the toe caps and full fingered gloves and took off for the SAG at mile 33.  My body was shaking so bad that it was hard to steer the bike on the downhills.  The SAG was open air with no break from the wind.  If this had been a ride at home, I would have called Erika and asked her to come pick me up.  Honestly, I was tempted to throw in the towel and get in the van.  But after putting on my ear warmers and some encouraging words from Tom, I set out for Santa Fe.

As luck would have it shortly thereafter the rain stopped and the climbing started to thaw me out.  I rolled into Madrid at 45 miles seeking chai tea to warm me up.  Was flagged down by Simon and Peter at the Java Junction in Madrid.  They were both shivering like I was.  Got a hot Chai, but there was no indoor seating and their front and back door was open.  Still couldn’t get out of the wind!

 Our 

22 more miles generally uphill after the Chai stop in Madrid.  Made it to the hotel about 1:30 dreaming of a hot shower, but our rooms weren’t available for another hour!

I am very proud of my accomplishments today.  I rewarded myself with a beer or two at Second Street Brewery.

Not many pics today as it was too cold and rainy to stop.  Just wanted today’s ride to be over, which is too bad, because on a nice day the ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe would be incredible!

Savor the Journey // Achieve the Goal