Day 7 - Roswell - Hills, Tailwinds and Paceline Curmudgeonry

Today we travelled 170 miles from Socorro to Roswell, over 4 big ridgelines, miles and miles of beautiful desert valleys and a lot of high desert plains.  It was a really nice ride, and a lot of stuff happened.

We started with a six mile gentle downhill that saw all of us in a single 24 rider peleton for a while before a short hill broke us into two groups.  I rode in a pace line in the second group for the first 30 miles, just cruising along but not comfortable.  Later on, three of us formed up another paceline with some different results - see my paceline curmudgeon topic below for more details.

The ridgelines were not as long as yesterday, but the total climbing was about 1,500' more, just over 5,500'.  I felt really good going up the hills, a big improvement since the start of the ride and even a couple of days ago.  Today was our last day at 7,000'.  We ended the day at 4,000' and we have seen the last of any big hills for a while.

The winds were in our favor again today.  Starting with a light crosswind, the wind and our route shifted so we had a good tailwind from midmorning on.  Sometimes in the desert valleys the winds would swirl around, but on the open plains it increased to 20+ mph.  Woo-hoo!

The flag in the picture below is standing straight out near the last rest stop, pointing to Roswell.


Tracey Becken was named crew member of the day when she chased down Brian McGuire after he blew by the lunch stop with his music on.  Several of us saw him go by and yelled but Brian was in a biker trance and kept on rolling.  Tracey jumped on her bike, caught him and brought him back within 10 minutes.  

Susan Notorangelo (PACTour Director), Tracey Becken, Brian McGuire

 



Note: I have been trying to get a picture of Susan's boots and outfit - she wears the boots as long as we are in rattlesnake country. 



Jacki Klancher, our lone woman rider, is laying down a good pace for the rest of her group.  Jacki is doing very well and proven herself to be a strong rider on the hills and in cruising through the long days.

 

 

Along the Way - Alan Johnson

 

Alan has been at or near the back of the group since we left San Diego (see picture above - Alan is at the end of the pace line).  He had a rough first day, but has continued to carry on and has a smile on his face when he finishes every day.

 



 

 

Paceline Curmudgeonry

 

For most of this Elite Tour I have been riding on my own, partly by choice, partly because I didn't come to the ride in very good shape to ride the long hills.  I don't mind riding alone, but do enjoy the company and efficiency of a good pace line.  At the 2010 Elite Tour, I was in really good shape and four of us grouped up almost right away and stuck together for a good part of the ride, especially the flat and windy sections.  We seemed to quickly click on a cooperative style where we all worked together and kept up an even pace. 

Today I rode in a pace line averaging 18-20 mph for the first 20 miles or so.  It was nice to cruise along without much effort, but we had about a dozen riders, which is too many to make it comfortable if you are back more than a few places.  At the first break I decided to go on alone but two riders in the group thought I was just setting a pace so they pulled most of the rest of the group up to where I was.  Soon after that, a number of the riders began to tire and ease up on the pace, which when they were leading the group, really dragged everybody down.  When we hit the first hill the group dissolved and I again went on my own. 

My point to this is not that anyone is a bad rider, everyone here is a strong rider and has some good experience in group riding, it is just that a larger group like this is difficult to manage successfully.  Lon recommends groups of no more than 4.   I think 2-3 is ideal for this kind of ride, unless there is a significant head/quartering wind then a 4th person can be a big help.

 

Later on, when leaving the lunch stop, Tony and I paired up and started on a long downhill.  Since we had just eaten, I was thinking a easy pace of 25 mph would work well. Tony must have had a more energizing lunch and he pushed the pace up to 28-29, which was ok.  When I saw John Newton coming up in my rearview mirror I knew this would be trouble.  John is a locomotive when he gets going so after he hooked onto our group and took his turn to pull, the pace went to 35 mph, on a road with some rough spots, less than a foot between bikes.  I wasn't prepared to ride that fast and after a couple of bumpy pavement sections I decided to back off.  John and Tony continued on for a little longer then split up.  I caught up with both of them at the next rest stop and carried on alone.  I didn't have any problem with what Tony or John did and they are both very good riders  Racers maintain this kind of pace and distance at times too, but it just didn't seem like it was worth the risk of crashing or burning too much energy trying to keep up for this kind of ride.  There were several down hills on today's ride that I was over 40mph, but I was on my own with no other bikes around me so I could see the road ahead clearly and could easily move around rough spots.  BTW - with the tailwind and dropping elevation, we each individually covered the last 65 miles in a little over 3 hours, total time, including two more rest stops.

I am sure there were other fast groups of riders that were maintaining a similar, or even faster pace, but either I am getting too old to

          1. keep up this kind of pace, or

          2. am not comfortable with the risk anymore.  

 

To me the goal of a ride like this is to complete it safely and have fun too.  Going fast is cool and can be fun, but beyond a certain point, can be dangerous and not worth the risk, at least to me.

 

Tomorrow I think I'll start off riding on my own again, and look for another rider or two that wants to cruise along at a decent pace that we can all enjoy.  If this doesn't happen, it looks like we will have tailwinds and a relatively flat 163 mile run to Hereford, Texas, which should be no problem for solo or group riders.