The way which can be known is not the way.

Soooo…tired. Wanted to get up at 4:00 in order to get breakfast in before leaving. Woke up at 3:30 unable to go back to sleep. Stupid pre-ride brain. Had a great 1,800 calorie breakfast to get things started on the right foot.

Ride started out great. I thought I left the house a few minutes late, but rolled into Anthem Hills Park just before 6:00. It was for naught because no one showed up to ride over to Pedal and Pour with me. No biggie though just meant more miles for me!

I really pushed myself on the pre-ride. I was stunned when I rolled up to Pedal and Pour an hour after leaving Anthem Hills Park. Pretty sure that is, and will be, my best solo time making that trip. Nice thing about being early was relaxing and enjoying a nice coffee before everyone else arrived. Bad part was getting all cooled off while still being a soaking wet mess.

The group ride started an hour later and from almost the get go Jennifer had a mechanical. She couldn’t get her electronic shifting working. We weren’t sure if it was either a bad battery or the rear going into crash mode. She decided to call it and returned to Pedal and Pour. By this time the rest of the group was well up the road. I’d hoped to catch up to them and nearly did until we have to wait through two cycles of the light at Grand Canyon and Flamingo.

Pretty much boned to catch up to the lead group, I settled in with the handful of riders with me and led the through the route. Of the five in our small group, two were doing the Pedal and Pour ride and the other three, myself included, were with AV. Kenny did a solid job holding on to my wheel, but we stopped at Sahara to regroup. After that I dialed it back to keep the group together until Alta. Once there we gave route instructions to the two Pedal and Pour guys and the three of us AVers set off to meet up with Robert and a few others.

Sadly, Anthony had to actually call Robert to get clarification on the route because the route published was a Strava gong show. If anyone from Strava reads this, fix your map routing already. BOTH RideWithGPS and Garmin are better route creation tools compared to your dumpster fire of a routing tool. Remember kids, friends don’t let friends create and publish routes using Strava. After getting instructions, we rolled up Alta, over to Far Hills, and the big climb to the top. Once there we caught up to five or six others and set out for Red Rock.

After flying and recovering along Sky Vista, we made the right onto NV-159. At first I was going to hang back with Robert and the others but when I saw Burns heading off into distance I figured I could try to keep him in sight. Joke was on me as he just took off like a rocket. I think I lost sight of him after the Red Rock sign. Next person I spotted was Deryck and nothing but open road beyond him.

I was grinding hard at this point and just flew by the Overlook. Spotted Joe, Jack, and Merri hanging out but couldn’t be bothered to stop. I was in a zone. The descent afterwards was a little spicy until the Spring Mountain Ranch turn off due to winds. Caught a couple solid gusts that forced me to pay a little more attention. Around Blue Diamond I started catching Stuart and yelled for him to jump on. He did a solid job, but I eventually opened a gap and rolled into the Terrible’s on the corner solo. However, I was happy to see some of the group stopped for a regroup before heading down to Fort Apache.

Enjoyed a nice break to get a gel in me while waiting for a few others to roll up. Didn’t need to wait long before Stu, Joe, Merri, and Jack all rolled up. We all chatted for a few minutes more and then rolled out. A lead group got a jump on us and gaped us pretty quickly. I just put my head down and rolled on. I don’t think there was any way we were going to catch them until Jon flatted just before Fort Apache. Also think they would have been held up by the regardless, but it was nice to catch up.

Making the turn onto Fort Apache we kinda got single file. A couple of the faster riders ended up behind slower riders and had a couple choose to make the pass along the narrow section of Fort Apache. I’ll admit I was tempted to do the same in order to stick with the lead group, but chose not to and yelled up to my wheel-man Joe to hang back and wait. Once onto the new and improved section of Fort Apache we started going like gang busters for the finish. Rolled into Pedal and Pour about 60-75% dead.

Had a nice 40-minute coffee break and visit with the crew. Hell, even had champagne and a toast for the new year! Sadly all good things must come to an end and Jon, Anna, and I rolled out to head home.

Things started out pretty well for the ride home. Leaving Pedal and Pour it looks like the weather man may have been a little crazy with the wind forecast. I should have known better because we got slapped with a healthy face full of wind shortly after Warm Springs. The three of us rode together until Blue Diamond. At this point Jon and Anna choose to go east on Blue Diamond. Having rode along that section of road, it was a hard pass for me with the winds being what they were. I hollered my goodbyes and pressed on towards Mountains Edge.

Honestly, from this point onward it was a suffer-fest. Despite what Klimat is reporting, the winds were certainly out of the southwest. MyWindsock is reporting 13.6 sustained winds with gusts to 21.7 when I left Pedal and Pour and rolling into the house with 16.8 sustained and nearly 30 MPH gusts. Honestly, any stretch going east wasn’t so bad. Sure I got a couple minor, relatively speaking, shoves when coming to an unprotected area but nothing I couldn’t handle.

Now, when heading south things got dicey. The worst stretch was along Las Vegas Blvd. As I rolled up to St. Rose there were times I seriously thought I was going to get blown over. I managed to average only 11 MPH between Starr and Volunteer with the biggest gust hitting me near Barbara slowing me to just under 9 MPH. Up until this point I’d seriously considered riding on along LVB to Via Inspirada to get some extra miles, and FLY along Via Inspirada with a tail wind, but decided against it.

Overall, great ride out in spite of the wind. The deep wheels really love to grab the wind; however, I tried to focus on staying smooth by avoiding jerky corrections, keeping my center of gravity low, and slowing when absolutely necessary. Great way to end the year and looking forward to what 2023 will bring!

1.19 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
Give your activities the names they deserve. – by Bandok.com
Mostly cloudy-Mostly cloudy, 54°F-63°F, Feels like 59°F-64°F, Humidity 73%-52%, Wind WNW 4mph-SSE 9mph – by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 2.7%
Headwind: 45% @ 5-26mph
Longest Headwind: 48m 33s
Air Speed: 18.3mph
Temp: 43.7-61.1°F
Precip: 3% @ 0.02 Inch/hr
— END —