The Continental Divide

We crossed the Continental Divide today. It's all downhill from here, isn't it? Well, isn't it???


I knew I was playing with fire by mentioning the dreaded "T" word in yesterday's blog. We'd been warned never to say it out loud. The tour vets call it a "negative headwind."

Mother Nature's retribution was swift and ferocious. We all milled around indoors not wanting to expose ourselves to the elements before it was absolutely necessary. We started the ride with a 36 degree wind chill, rain, a headwind, and lousy roads. Truly weather not fit for man nor beast.

I attached myself to the back of a paceline and held on for dear life. I passed up photo opportunities, "held it" if you know what I mean, and just wouldn't let go. It was pretty miserable. We were all freezing in the rain, trying not to run into each other, but at least at the back of the line I didn't have to work quite as hard.

I stopped around the 22 mile mark to help change a flat. We still had 8 miles left to get to the summit of the Continental Divide. The climbing was pretty easy though, it's all high plains with no severe grades. Getting to the top almost seemed too easy, as if we hadn't really reached the highest point of the tour.

Once we got to the summit I was so jazzed that I had to call Laurie at work and tell her about it. I couldn't talk for long though because I was freezing my arse off. The rain had stopped and the wind had shifted direction. It looked like we would have tailwinds all the way into Grants, NM.

As we rolled out of the SAG stop I looked at my odometer. "37 miles, that should take about an hour and a half!" Psych! Psych! Psych! Not far down the hill the wind changed directions and we fought 25-35 mph head / cross winds. I struggled to hold 13 mph down a 3% grade. Keeping the bike upright was proving to be a challenge. After another flat, this one mine, and what seemed an eternity of riding, I pulled into a Dairy Queen and just slumped over the handlebars.

I spent almost an hour there having a hot dog and a coke, and trying to will up the energy to get back on the bike. Some of my friends showed up, we commiserated a little, and decided to form a 3 person paceline to get ourselves back into town.

In the meantime a local couple asked us about our trip. They had a tie-in with the cycling community. A sad one, unfortunately. Their son was a Cat-1 racer and dropped dead in the middle of a crit race. It had been about a year since it had happened. I could tell the husband was fighting his emotions, but his wife seemed to take some joy from our positive experience with this trip. By the time they left she told us that we were an inspiration to her. I'd like to think that we helped in some small way to ease their pain.


We got back to the hotel and had to clean the bikes. They were an absolute mess. Click on the picture to get a better idea. The small version doesn't do it justice. I really wanted to just go lay down, but duty calls. At least we're ready for tomorrow. Sort of. Projected temperature at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow: 37 degrees. I promise for the rest of the trip I won't mention the "T" word again. If you can't figure out what the "T" word is, you'll just have to wait until Boston to find out.


Today's Google Earth fie: http://tomerceg.googlepages.com/GrantsNM.kmz