Cycling In and Around Santa Fe, NM

Great Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM rides this week

If you visit Santa Fe, NM these are the ride websites I have found useful:

NMORS New Mexico Off-Road Series

NMES New Mexico Endurance Series

NMCycling New Mexico Cycling 

SFRoadRiders Santa Fe Road Riders

Dale Ball Trail Map signs are posted at every intersection, you cannot get lost on the North and Central sections, South is a little more vague (and steeper).

Santa Fe Bikeways Map

Through these sites and knowing MTB group rides start ~5:30pm (Dale Ball parking lot at Hyde Park Road/ski hill road) I found a lot to do this week

Tuesday I joined the Los Nativos for a Dale Ball MTB ride

Cars provide shelter from the wind

Wednesday I explored the Albuquerque Foothills MTB Trails for the first time then attended the Ride of Silence

~100 riders attended and Channel 7 covered the ride on the 10o'clock news.

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Leaders, police escort in front

 An over the shoulder shot of part of the group

 Two of the bike police escorts

Thursday Tim and Matt from BTI took me on a hammer ride which included the Windsor Trail

 Chamisa, Windsor, Bear Wallow, Borrego, Windsor, Jaun 

(but they call Jaun Sidewinder?) I am still lost on Windsor west of Chamisa

 Matt and Tim. Back to the cars before dark, nice after work ride.

Saturday I did Cochiti 45 which was Loop 1 of the Cochiti 100 

3 people did the entire 100mi, 9 did 85mi, most of us did the 45mi. Results here.

Cochiti course, we parked down by the water at Dixon's Apple Farm (middle right). Picture stolen from the NMES website, see more pictures of the course here.

Sunday was the Galisteo road race put on by the New Mexico Spokettes Racing Team.  I raced the W1/2/3 50-mile race, there were ~ 10 of us. Because of the wind and flat roads no break got away, the race ended with a group sprint finish, I placed 3rd.

 I love checks!  Thanks!
(pictures stolen from the http://www.nmcycling.org/ site)

Todd arrived at the race (just returning from work trip to Alabama) just minutes after our finish. So cool to see him, then we both attended the Pedal Queens Pot Luck. Since we hadn't planned to attend, my pot luck items included food I had in the van, a bottle of FRS concentate (which people always like), a pineapple and $10 for the beer fund. So we were not the best guests, but had a great afternoon. Thanks Pedal Queens and the Pedal Queen's guys!

NM Clinics

In May I held a race clinic, a beginner women's only clinic, an intermediate women's only clinic, a co-ed intermediate clinic, attended a kid's race camp and talked at an elementary school. I had a great time! Here are some pictures: . Acequia Madre elementary school 6th grade class:

The kid's LOVED my bike and asked good questions. Every single one of them had to hold my bike and say how light it was. See how everyone in the front row is touching the bike? They couldn't stay away from it. One kid asked why I had so many things by Specialized (helmet, shoes, gloves, frame). I prepared to tell him how I liked their products, how well they are made, etc. but another boy spoke up and said "because they sponsor her", these kids are smart. Truth is I have the products I have because they are the best, same with every part on my bike this year and I am still so very excited about that.

Another child asked if Magura forks are better than Fox forks (someone in his family must ride). I told him how much I liked the low weight, function and reliability of my Magura fork and how I really like the people who work at Magura. He was actually interested. I didn't expect these questions from 6th graders.

I was supposed to wrap up by 2:00 as the kid's had an ice cream social scheduled then, but they kept asking questions; I couldn't believe they would rather talk about cycling than eat ice cream. When the teacher mentioned again that it was time to go for ice cream it was as if no one heard! I received great feedback from parents and look forward to doing it again.

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The spread at the May 15th Bike N' Sport Women's Clinic:

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May 19th Pedal Queens (Intermediate) clinic:

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Active Knowledge School Series Team Camp:

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Brothers Hugh and Owen:

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During one clinic I told Owen he probably shouldn't try one of the steeper downhill switchbacks because I didn't want him to get hurt. He said, "oh, it's okay, I signed the waiver".

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The best clinic Thank You ever:

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Santa Fe Ride Pictures

I am packing up and getting ready to leave Santa Fe. Here are pictures from our last ride. Thanks to all our new friends at sf-mtb.ning.com for the ride and pictures. There really wasn't a lot of water, but those were the good photo/stopping spots.

Training in Santa Fe, NM

I am now hanging out with Todd's family in Santa Fe, NM. Todd is working somewhere in the Northeast, Connecticut then Maryland.

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Connecticut

He made some new friends who gave him lessons in downhill/free-ride, his Vassago wasn't cutting it so he has been borrowing a big travel bike. Something about a 4' drop, forgot to pull up and crashed the first time but made it on the second attempt... I need pictures, or better yet a video.

edit: here is one of Javier

I have been watching races, riding new areas and doing clinics. The following includes a ride review of sorts for the Santa Fe area.

The first thing I did when I hit town was hang out with Tina and watch Henry and Little Henry race the La Tierra Torture. After the race I rode the trails and had a blast, no big climbs, just fast trails. If you head out there bring a gps file, the trails are not signed.

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Little Henry racing what I believe is his first MTB race, finished 3rd in Cat 2 Jr!

Henry

Henry is the one responsible for getting Todd into mountain biking and has been kicking our butts for years. Although he doesn't seem to ride much any more, he still has it. At 65 he finished 3rd of 17 Cat2 50+ (18 seconds out of 2nd, 2 minutes off 1st; both of which are 15 years younger).

Little Henry, me, Henry post race

I also watched an Active Knowledge race in the mountains east of Albuquerque. Active Knowledge has a race program aimed at school-age racers, but membership is open to adults as well. It was great to see the kids out racing in a very relaxed, positive setting. Having the adults involved is something different from the NorCal/SoCal high school program and is especially great for adult beginner riders and families with kids. The racers really looked out for each other. One racer stopped to tell us that another racer wasn't feeling very well, a volunteer rode out to help and found that she was still wearing her jacket (it was warm out); it is all about teaching and encouragement. After the Active Knowledge race I rode the Otero Canyon trails east of Albuquerque. I had skipped these before because I didn't realize how much trail was out there, there are more trails than appear on the maps. I got in a 3 hour ride without much trail overlap and there were still some off-shoots I didn't take. As long as you pay attention to which canyon you are in you can't get lost. It has just enough technical to make things interesting, but wasn't too techy to ride alone on a hardtail. Dale Ball trails in Santa Fe are still my favorite, they are split into three sections (North, Central and South). The signage is the best I have ever seen, a full map at each intersection (see link) with a number on the post to show you where you are on the trail, there is no need to carry a map. I ride from the "house" and typically ride the North and Central sections. The ski hill (paved) road runs between the two sections and trails like Windsor are accessible from further up the ski hill road. Since we are in a great location most of my rides leave from the "house". The Santa Fe 2009 Bikeways & Trail Map is great for getting around town, I rode a 50 mile circle around Santa Fe without any issues by following the map. There are also some good routes heading out of town with only a few lights, the Santa Fe Century covers most of these routes. My usual road ride is out-and-back from Santa Fe to Galisteo via Hwy 285. I also hit Tramway in Albuquerque (parked at the Sandia Casino at 1-25 and Tramway and lost $30, don't tell Todd). I saw more cyclists than I have ever seen on one stretch of road for a typical weekday afternoon. I was doing all the passing and feeling pretty good about myself, then was passed rather quickly by a friendly Geoff Kabush; he flew up the hill passing everyone like they were sitting still. Oh well.

Santa Fe Century

Today Henry and I rode two blocks from the "house" to the start of the Santa Fe Century, we did the 50 mile version that included some dirt road. The start and finish were the same as the full century but a dirt road cut the loop in half. There were also 25, 50 and 75 mile out-and-back routes that started backwards on the course. This was very smart as it split the field in two and sent riders in different directions, there were so many riders that had we all gone in the same direction, even with separate start times, it would have been crazy. It was so cool to be out with cyclists everywhere. I heard there were over 2000 riders expected.

"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.