Cedro, NM Race 09/16/07

No training, riding for fun con't. One long lap, the most technical race course to date. I placed 2nd, there were 5 Pros, all of which I knew from the National Series. Nina Baum from Albuquerque (Cannondale) beat me by ~ 4minutes. It was a really hard trail to ride blind, but fun and entertaining. Sections were twisty turny, I overshot many turns and couldn't find the lines through the technical stuff riding at race pace. The course was minimally marked, pieces of yellow ribbon hanging in trees. Todd missed one turn, paralleled the trail then got back on. I made a 50/50 guess on one of the turns, luckily I was correct. We had a hard time trying to pre-ride because nothing was marked and there are a million trails out there, we pre-rode some of it and were out there for 3.5+ hours. What made it even worse the course crossed over itself three times, we assumed that wouldn't happen so we pre-rode sections in the wrong direction. The course was great and we will try to attend again next year.

NM

Rock ledges in NM, Dale Ball South

Todd's first ride with Garmin

The riding here is great. We can get some big rides in straight from the MotorHome/Todd's Mom's house. We have only done 4-5 hour rides, but we could do 12+. Todd likes to ride up the ski hill road on the road bike, ~1.25 hour climb at race pace, but I don't see the fun in that. There is a race in Cedro (by Albuquerque) this weekend we may do, it is the most technical and roughest race course I have ever seen, one 23-mile loop.

Riding in New Mexico

Ride up to the "Towers" (top of Santa Fe ski hill, ~12,000ft). We raced back down to try and beat the lightning and rain.

"Tucked Away" at Todd's Mom's Home in Santa Fe

Todd's Mom's home

Only 1.5 miles from the Plaza. After a million k-turns I got us in, no idea how we'll get out, backing out should be fun. Todd's Mom has a new gas range so Todd stole the electrical connection that used to go to the electric range and wired us 50 amp service. (That means we can run both air conditioners, the electric hot water heater, the microwave, the washer/dryer, make coffee, etc. all at the same time.)

Todd installing a 50A connection for the Motor Home

Water, sewer and electric connections, buried under driveway.

Durango (Grandma's) again

Back to Durango for a few days then on to New Mexico. Grandma moves to Albuquerque for the winter so I gave her a lift in the MotorHome. That was a cool drive, she has stories for all the little mountain towns in Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico. And, there were no fingernail marks in the passenger seat armrest.

Salida

Ouch! my arm and my hip. After a great technical ride yesterday with no dabs on some super steep and rocky terrain, I went down today on a plain ol' loose-over-hardpack singletrack. One deep puncture wound, two little ones, bruises and road rash. Our local "tour guides" Margie and Deb headed up to Alpine Tunnel. Saturday September 1, 2007