Day 6...Winslow AZ to Gallup New Mexico. Now this turned out to be a tough day on the bike. 127 miles...an uphill route with some pretty rough pavement and a little wear and tear from the first five days. It was, though, a spectacular ride. After a quick photo shoot at the corner in Winslow Arizona, we started in the high desert of Arizona, where we left off yesterday. It's vast and pretty and flat. It's also cold early out here...35 when we left, but it warms up fast. When you look to the right and left of the highway, you see nothing but untouched land except for the rails that run parallel to I-40. (I-40 must be the only road up here that I can see.) The sky is big...something very different for us NE'erners. There were huge trains that seemed to be a mile long and in this part of the world, you can see both ends. I'll bet we saw 15-20 trains during the day. This land is what I think of a prairie as being like...and cattle and horses are grazing out on it. Ranch land is $195 per acre at one point along the way. As you get towards New Mexico, there are more of those huge red sandstone mesas and mountains and the land is more rolling hills. There are more people too, though not that many. Some of the houses are very make shift...saw a trailer joined up with a rail car (the loft?). The mountains and rolling hills makes New Mexico look very different than Arizona, interestingly enough.

Our group all was a little off today. John had bronchitis from sleeping in the extraordinarily dry air and I had a dry throat too. The dry throat seemed to go away in about 6 hours, but it was very different. They recommend you sleep with a wet wash cloth on your face, if you can believe that. I didn't yesterday either. Ray's back seemed pretty sore. I think our max heart rates are down to about 130 at this point. Hit the gas and that's all you get. Pretty funny. We made great time, though, since it was pretty flat even though we climbed several thousand feet to Gallup. We've taken to 1 mile pulls...using the interstate mile markers. They really tick off that way and we had a nice time of it.

Here's the wide open high desert as we leave Winslow, then closer to New Mexico, finally "the corner."




- posted by Tom @ 5:11 PM

 
Day 5...Cottonwood to Winslow, AZ, a total of about 110 miles with some pretty good climbing. Some very vast open space out here, but first...it's getting cold up here. It was probably 45 or 50 as we started out with highs in the low 60's most of the ride...coupled with a nice tail wind and it felt cold, but a nice change. That's almost 50 degrees different than Tuesday, if you can believe that. We headed straight to the Red Rock Canyon in Old Town Sedona. That's as pretty as it comes out here. When you see photos of AZ, you see the Grand Canyon or Sedona. The climb was pretty steep at times and about 15-20 miles all told. From there to Flagstaff and then through the "high desert" to Winslow...a downhill ride of about 60 miles with a 20 or 30 mph tail wind. It was really a blast to rocket along at 26 most of the time and occasionally the high 30's. And the high desert is so different than Red Rock Canyon...it's vast open land where, except for the highway, there isn't anyone or even a man made thing to be seen for as far as you can see. You can see a long way out here too. It seems like grazing land for herds of cattle but at one time probably buffalo, given the names of towns and things. Boy, how different than the low desert in California through Wickensberg. Not only is it spectacularly beautiful, but there are even signs saying watch out for deer and other living things up here. I still can't get over that "whole bunch of nothing" back there.

John decided to ride with Mike Munk today...looking to scope out his Senior Games competition. Mike is the tour leader and a fabulous biker who had very fresh legs since he's not riden any of the days so far. (He is one hard working guy, keeping the trip together the way he does.) After a bunch of time with Mike...John came to his senses and rejoined us at times. Ray was exceptionally strong on that Flagstaff to Winslow ride. He took a few turns at the front and was huge...took us along at 28 mph. "I'm getting into shape" was his explanation. Can you believe that? He dusted one of the guys that's been riding with us, so Ray was feeling pretty good. I had a pretty good time out there...climbing not a problem, and the downhill very fun. Made the ride seem kind of short. My road rash isn't looking to be too much of a problem, but the second skin stuff makes for a pretty ugly look since it holds everything in and is transparent.

Here's a photo of Sedona and then of the high desert.

Not sure about tomorrow's ride...they're all blending together, but I think it's quite a bit longer. Till then...



- posted by Tom @ 5:29 PM

 
Day 4, the much anticipated 102 mile, 11,500 feet of climbing day. It was unbelievably nice, actually. Everything worked in our favor. We had a strong tail wind, the weather was *much* cooler...probably in the 60's at elevation and the actual roads were very nice to ride on.. The climbs were 6% or maybe 7% on spots and long, but not nasty in any way...just long. The scenery was just gorgeous...greening up as we worked up into the mountains and north and the addition or real trees! Looking out from the summits at (there were three climbs with the third at 7000+feet) you could see so far and for the first two...most of what you saw was just land and lots of it...just land. Some of the scenery was straight out of Disney's Thunder Mountain but further north it was pine forest, and then as we got closer to Cottonwood (near Sedona which you may have a mental image of) we could look out over the vast valleys with their red mesa's. The decents were tricky and fast and the winds were shifting, so it required some concentration, but they were also long and great fun. In essence this was a 50 mile climb up and a 50 mile coast down.

Now our intrepid HPG'ers were great. John's triple was used well and he was great. Ray's new 34 cassette was probably the best thing he ever bought. He was actually passing people once John convinced him to "use the damn gear's...you bought 'em." My 34/27 combo was perfect and I never wanted another gear the whole day. (Some riders were constantly hitting the shifter hoping there was another gear, but the HPG thought this one out.) I rode for a ways with a Finish guy who after awhile said..."uh, Tom (heavy accent)...I just have a 39 up here and a 23 back here so I need to keep the pedals rolling, ok?" meaning he was about to take off like a bullet. He does ironmen for fun. John was worried that I would try to keep up and blow myself up for tomorrow, but I'm much smarter than that. Well, maybe not, but I didn't.

Only mishap is I scraped up on a curb in a mining town. One of our group had stopped to take a photo and I turned to see what he was doing...strayed to the right and hit a nasty curb. Have some road rash on my leg. Always something, I guess.

All in all, a great day. Tomorrow through Sedona and past Flagstaff to somewhere in Arizona...Winslow, actually, so we'll take a photo on *the* corner. I'm told there's a statue of Don Henley? (is that the right name?). Anyway...

First photo is the climb out of Wickenberg...early in the ride. The second of a pine forest...after a forest fire a few years ago. The third of Ray at the 3rd summit.



- posted by Tom @ 6:56 PM

 
Day three...From Blythe to Wickenberg. At last, we're out of California, 100 degree weather, and the headwinds. What a difference a day makes. The start of the ride was the desolate desert like on Tuesday...but it got progressively greener as we got further inland. There were flowers, as well as cactus and tumble weed. There were tons of dust devils off in the distance which aren't to be messed with, apparently, when you're on a bike. We went through a gently climbing valley most of the way with mountains on either side about 10 or so miles away. There were towns with two streets...and one would be named 1st street (optimistic bunch out here). In a really small town that had a auto garage, the mechanic sat statue still for the entire half hour we were there for our water break. I asked him if it was a slow day, and he did agree and friendly enough...we chatted a bit, apparently there is a lot of gold mining out here (it's all coming together why anyone would be here) and then continued to sit without moving a muscle. About Blythe he said..."bunch of nothing out there." Yes indeed.

Ray, John, and I all seemed to have recovered a bit. Ray has a patch to cover his saddle sore (2 actually) and he even acknowledged that it was sore. That means it was really sore given that he doesn't know words for normal pain. My sun poisoning seems to be responding to the hydrocortisone, so I'm hopeful it won't blister and get really difficult. I know some people have to abandon because of it, so I'm being as careful as I can. John had a good day as well, but tried a new sunblock (45) and it turned out to not be sweatproof...he's taken on too much sun today. Good thing it wasn't Monday or he'd have been toast.

All in all, a great day, no? Tomorrow is the big climb north to Cottonwood. We looked at a topigraphical map and it will be a continuous climb for the entire way. Tomorrow's update might be late, but hopefully we'll all make it in one piece.

Here's a sign as we go beyond Hope AZ (haha) and a patch of desert that's beginning to get green.



- posted by Tom @ 5:04 PM

 
Record heat today...109 in the shade, if you can believe that. So dry that there are concerns about wildfires. Winds still in our face as well. Makes for a long day for sure and an entirely new biking experience for all of us. It's impossible to imagine being able to ride 130 miles in heat like this and make it, but we're living proof. One guy spaced out and poured gator ade on his head as one example of many. One woman, who couldn't continue in yesterday's heat cut her hair off last night hoping to have a better go at it and still couldn't go more than 30 miles today. One man fainted in the hotel last night. Geeze.

We were in the most seemingly desolate place you can imagine. How anything decided to live here is beyond me. The roads are lined with mountains on both sides...sandy rock sorts of things. Surely they're movie backdrops for western movies. At one point, there was a huge rock that looked like a 150 foot tombstone...but perhaps I was halucinating. (The only reason I can think of for a road is to cross the space, not to go somewhere in it.) Makes you wonder who on earth owns this land and who would want to. You can see we have a lot of time to think about perfectly useless things.

After the 19 mile climb, today's route was a dream come true for Ray...Interstate 10 for a whole lot of miles! The shoulder is loaded with shreds of tire casings and steel cord. The good thing is it was pretty fast, even in a headwind. Saw our first dust devil today. Apparently these innocuous looking, mini-tornado like things will knock you off your bike if you think it would be fun to just ride through one. All us HPG'ers did well today, but Ray and I have some heat related problems. Ray has a serious bike rash that's going to be very sore in addition to the usual stress of a ride. My sunburn turns out to be sun poisoning, so I'm putting hydrocortisone on it...and I cut the sleeves off a t-shirt and put them around my knees to keep the sun off it during the ride. Style points. John seems to thrive in the hot weather. All that said, it was a great day and an accomplishment for sure.

This was our last day in California...Arizona here we come. Thursday we climb out of the heat to much cooler weather which will be an incentive to finish the long climbs then...BUT, one day at a time.



- posted by Tom @ 8:00 PM

 
Day 1...135 miles at plus 100 degrees in the shade haha since there isn't any. Probably could sterilize my water bottles on the roads. But it's a dry heat, as they say. Head wind the whole way...big time...the wind farms are here for a reason.

Ride starts in Newport Beach (from hotel at 6:15 to dip wheels in Pacific...get going about 7:45) and winds out the causeway/bike path until you hit the desert. (Why would anyone live in the desert I wonder...so brown and gray but sprinkled with a few bushes that are green...then blam, after what seems like forever, a few miles of green where there are either springs or some river has been diverted.) Get in about 5:45. It was *very* hot and the real stresses on today's ride were the elements and how that added time on the road, feeding on itself it seemed. Now off in the distance, mind you, were snow capped mountains! They looked inviting except for the climb part. The climbs were pretty tame...nothing steep and some pretty nice/long stuff of 7 miles or so.) Same elements for tomorrow and until we get to Kansas where it finally turns green.

The HPG crowd did very well and we had a pretty good time of it, all things considered. Ray was a champion...but may suffer tomorrow if he didn't take enough water on. John was great on the flats in the headwind. I was pleased all around and no heart arrythmia action at all. That's good. Pictures will be later, with luck...or tomorrow. In fact, as we get ground down, these may get shorter and shorter, no surprise, I'll bet.

Ok...here are the pics. Here's John at the Pacific, Tom at the Wind Farm, and Ray loading his luggage at the start.


- posted by Tom @ 7:04 PM

 
Well, today was orientation so we're now ready to go. Got to the hotel about 12:30 and picked up some very useful odds and ends...co2 cartridges, sun block 30, sun block 48 (spray), zinc sun block. Tomorrow will evidently have a lot of sun with temps probably in the 90's by the mid afternoon. We're all wondering a little what we've gotten ourselves into. The group seems quite varied. One guy from Finland and another from Australia. The Aussie arrived this afternoon after a 12 hour flight arriving this afternoon followed by an hour or so to get to the hotel, then what must have seemed like an excruciatingly long 3 hour chalk talk. He was already toasted and I wouldn't pick him out as a bike rider to begin with. Apparently he just decided on Easter Sunday (did he watch the Passion or what was he thinking?) Another woman from NYC started riding last year and I think she said she did about 2500 miles last year (so this is a step up) and for her training has only hit 100 miles one time and that was laps around Central park, or something like that. Anyway...you never know who will shine, but that sounds like a tough way to start. The big emphasis was on staying within yourself. The hammerheads get killed for sure...the rest *may* do better. Pretty sobering talk on that part.

Ray was very eager (anxious) to get going...and you know Ray when he's anxious. He did get out to the heavy weight championship bout at the Staples arena last night though...third row and right next to Mr. T. John and Branka graciously gave me a ride over in their rental SUV, so we've had a pretty easy time of it.

Tomorrow's cue sheet is 60 or so instructions long...what a piece of cake. We'll have some HPG moments for sure. Can't wait.
- posted by Tom @ 8:48 PM