Day 10 - 109 Mi to Tucumcari, NM

What a difference a day can make. Yesterday’s ride to Las Vegas, NM was the hardest ride as far as difficulty because of all the hill climbing. It was our toughest day so far. But today we enjoyed more favorable conditions and much less climbing...and the views were incredible. Today was my best day on a bike. except for a flat tire at mile six I seemed to have energy all day and was able to complete the 109 mile averaging 19.5 MPH. As you can see from the profile above, there were plenty of down hills today and only 4000 feet of climbing.

The road to Tucumcari is easy as we follow highway 104 all the way from Las Vegas to town. It's a fairly narrow state road, but you only see a car about every 10 - 20 minutes. The scenery is magnificent and there is nothing out there but land and you can see for miles. Our only audience was an occasional cow as we pedaled our way along. There was no cell phone service either :)

The ride starts out with a gentle climb for probably a 1000 feet to the top of the Las Vegas Plateau where the terrain rolls and the roads are fairly smooth. If the beauty of the high rangeland isn't enough, the road drops into a canyon at about 33 miles where the screaming descent opens up spectacular views of the valley below and the surrounding mesas. It was one of the most beautiful descents I have ever done. It's really hard to concentrate on maintaining control of your bike when the views are so beautiful. After the descent, it's a mix of flat to large gentle rolling hils all the way to Tucumcari. There was one steep 0.7 mile climb at mile 67 that really tough and one other “mini-wall” at about 87 miles but the rest of the climbing was mostly graded under 5%.

We had two SAGs today and at the first one at 48 miles, we celebrated covering our first 1000 in 8.3 days. 

1000 Miles!

Tomorrow we continue our adventure into our 4th state...Texas! We are expecting high winds and they are forecast to be head winds. It's a short day...only 97 miles but could be a long day with the projected winds.  

(Most Photos taken by Mike Munk- Bamacyclist.com)

Pictures of the day below:

Heading out of SAG



Ride Leader Mike Munk hitting golf balls

Entering Tucumcari, NM

Not sure where the points of interest are.  I saw nothing

Day 9 - 135 Mi to Las Vegas, NM

Epic day to say the least. The elevation profile, hill after hill after hill all day long....   Today's ride was 137 miles which included over 8000 feet of climbing.  Took me 8 Hours and 41 Minutes.

Today was our second biggest climbing day on the trip. We started climbing right out of the motel.  Our route led us out of town to the east on highway 14 through the Sandia Mountains. We rode through some small, quaint little towns in New Mexico.  After we got close to Santa Fe, we entered a new interstate,  I-25 for the remainder of the day. The road before us rose gently for the first 9 miles as you would swear that the road was level, but your legs said otherwise. When we would look behind we could see we had been climbing for quite awhile, but after cresting just east of Santa Fe, the road began to present us with big rolling hills where the terrain dropped quickly.

The scenery on the ride had some of the most beautiful vistas.   The snow on the mountains on our departure really added effect to the landscape. The climbing was tough, but it wasn't without rewards, some of the the descents were incredible and much needed.

(Most Photos taken by Mike Munk- Bamacyclist.com)

Jim Jenkins and I at some weird rock formation

Me and fellow rider  Shane Molloy from Donegal, Ireland 

Today's Lunch SAG was at a Fire Station

A house in the middle of nowhere

Were are we?

Dinosaurs in New Mexico

America's Backroads