How about a name you can wrap your head around, mister?

Really need to strive to post recaps the day of the ride instead of waiting. Memory starts to fade so easily.

Robert hit me up a week or so back asking if I’d host this month’s birthday ride for Adobo Velo. Of course I agreed. I asked him if he had a route in mind and he didn’t so I got free reign to come up with whatever I wanted.

I knew I wanted to do Lake Las Vegas, but wanted to mix it up a little. I drove over with the wife and did some scouting and was disappointed to find that Warm Springs and Galleria were both under construction and reduced to one lane for traffic traveling west. I know we could easily take the lane, but I hate the idea of taking the lane for such a long stretch. It pisses drivers off, they get impatient, and rip around as soon as possible. Makes for a dangerous situation I’d rather avoid.

As the wife and I drove south I found that we could take Water into downtown Henderson and then hook up with the UPRR trail. We could then work our way west and I had the route take a little detour to avoid some of the crap asphalt on Horizon Ridge.

The week leading up to the ride the group got to talking on Facebook about logging some extra credit. I’d also got poked offline by Mark about extra credit as well. After all the on and offline discussion we decided that we would ride over to Mountains Edge Park to meet with a group and then ride back to PTs.

Ride over to Mountains Edge with Mark and Joe went great. We maintained a nice steady pace, but nothing too crazy. Ended up riding from park to park in around 45 minutes. We were so early we just kept riding along Mountains Edge Pkwy until its absolute end before riding back to the park. The three of us got the chance to use the restroom and grab a little break while waiting for everyone to show up. It didn’t take long before Anthony, Kevin, Jon, and Joy rolled up. I was surprised to see the last two roll up. Regardless we had a nice group to roll back east.

We left Mountains Edge Park at 6:30 giving us an hour to make it to PTs. I’d posted online that we’d be taking Cactus all the way easy, that it was under construction, and to be prepared for it. Thankfully it was early enough in the morning there wasn’t much traffic, but Anthony did get a flat just before Bermuda. We were able to tackle it pretty quickly and get back on the road. Even made it into PTs 15 minutes early!

As we were getting ready to roll out I was surprised we had nearly 30 riders show up to ride. Quite the turnout! I took the obligatory pictures to start the ride, even trying my best Robert impression, and we were off to the races.

The ride over to Lake Las Vegas went really well. There was one point where the group kinda crapped the bed though. We were east on Warm Springs attempting to turn left onto Lake Mead. I’m not sure if the traffic pattern has changed or what, but the left turn is now a double left. Unfortunately, a large group of us missed that fact and pulled up alongside a truck that was ALSO turning left from the right lane of the two lanes going left. When the arrow went green it wasn’t pretty. Riders started going and then trying to move over to the shoulder crossing in front of the truck. It was a very bad situation. I was far enough back to witness all this happen and I rolled through behind the truck and directly to the bike lane on Lake Mead. Thankfully everyone made it through. As the truck passed us by I made sure to wave and use hand signals to try to show that it was our bad and our fault what had just happened. Thankfully the guy gave me a big smile and wave before driving on.

This sent me to the back of the pack and a red light along Lake Mead put me even further behind. That was fine with me as I was sweeping to the best of my ability and making sure everyone in our group made it back ok.

I did end up stopping at the turn onto Lake Las Vegas Pkwy to wait for the last of our riders. Then I saw what I thought was the last of our group to only realize as they passed by they were a GVC group out for a ride! I took off down Lake Las Vegas Pkwy to catch up with everyone at Terrazza park but not before doing an extended counter-clockwise loop.

Rolled into the park and everyone was sitting back, relaxing, and visiting. Even the previous GVC group that I’d spotted earlier had rolled up and joined in on the conversations. Soon enough it was time to get rolling on.

The trip along Galleria over to Water street was nice. Got to have a little chat with Stan as we went. Did end up getting smoked by a group being led by Jon right around Dave Wood Elementary.

Came up to Water street and had to really holler to have the group behind me stop for the car already in the traffic circle. I apologized for such an abrupt stop, but was actually thanked because I’d made the right call. I’ve been on a few rides through this round-a-bout when us cyclists get it wrong. First mistake is usually failing to yield to the vehicles coming from the left. Second mistake is that of the west bound lanes entering the round-a-bout the left is the proper lane for making the left turn, but I’ve seen numerous cyclists improperly make the left from the right of the two lanes. If you’re reading this and made it this far, please be safe out there and do your best to travel like a car when necessary.

As we started through Cadence I realize there were a couple folks missing. I chatted with Adrian and got the names of the few who had fallen off the back. Not seeing anyone behind us for a while I doubled back to pick up the riders bringing up the rear. I would hang out with them for the rest of the ride back to PTs.

Rolled up to PTs, got the bike stored, and went to the patio to hang out and grab second breakfast. Had a great time hanging out and chatting with Jeff about work, the frustrations of trying to hire quality employees, and future trips and tours.

While I was busy visiting I failed to realize that several of the Mountains Edge crew had either rolled straight home or had already left! The only west sider left was Josh so I asked to tag along/escort him back over to the west side. We backed up to Sunridge Heights, took it all the way to St. Rose and from there to Starr. I messed up and had us take a right onto Dean Martin when I wanted to make the left onto Valley View. Also messed up thinking Josh lived in Summerlin when he lives closer to Jones and Cactus! Dur hur. We ended up rolling up Cactus to Jones. Josh turned shortly there after and I continued on to Starr Hills to start making my way home.

After Josh tried to kill me along Cactus with his fast pace, I still had enough after Southern Highlands to ride LVB out to Speed Vegas. Riding back along Via Inspirada I decided to detour to ride through the new neighborhoods to see what I could see. Also helped to pick up a few Wandrer miles as well. After the climb to Sloan Canyon I was done and ready to call it a day. The temps were definitely in the mid-90s, but the decent from Sloan was awesome especially with my jersey open and that breeze blowing through my base layer.

Got home and started hitting the recovery hard and heavy. Drank a recovery drink, Gatorade, and copious amounts of water while downing a few solid snacks as well. Hung around for an hour or so before jumping into the shower to get cleaned up.

After the shower I loaded up the bike for a trip down to Swanny’s for some much needed maintenance work. Poor Shadow has 18,720.1 miles on him now and was last in to Swanny’s at 10,236.5 miles. So 8,500 miles? That maintenance stop was in preparation for my Pacific Coast Bike Route trip, and Shadow is back in again for the same reason. I took in my custom built aluminum touring wheels to have a cassette, brake discs, and a ratchet hub upgrade kit installed. My carbon wheels got the same treatment (cassette, discs, and ratchet upgrade). Having a new chain, bar tape, and brake pads installed as well. All in all Shadow will roll damn near brand new when I get him back later this week.

I do have the old mountain bike turned commuter to ride on Tuesday and Thursday if the weather cooperates. High wind warning already issued for Monday so that’s definitely out. We’ll see what happens and roll with the punches.

7.39 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
Give your activities the names they deserve. – by Bandok.com
Clear-Sunny, 67°F-91°F, Feels like 65°F-101°F, Humidity 19%-9%, Wind W 3mph-NE 3mph – by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: -1.1%
Headwind: 47% @ 2-8.1mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 15m 14s
Air Speed: 16.9mph
Temp: 60.3-90.5°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —