When I was a kid, my imaginary friend would play with the kid across the street.

Well that was certainly a tough one.

I love it when Adobo Velo rides start nearer to the house. I’m allowed to sleep in a little bit and ride to the start. Staying up late the night before kinda negates the sleeping in part though. That’s what happens when I get onto a research kick.

I woke up to an alarm at 4:00 and started getting ready straight away. I sat down to a nice meal of overnight oats, toast, glass of milk, and caffeine pill. I would have loved a nice morning cup of coffee, but I didn’t have enough to make my typical french press. After breakfast I put on sunscreen, got dressed, and walked to the garage for the typical pre-flight checks.

I left the house just before 5:00. I went ahead and started with the climb up Somersworth to work my way over to Hampton for the descent. The ride over to the M Casino went quicker than I expected. I rolled up to the start about 15 minutes early. Before I entered the parking lot I’d thought about doing a quick lab around the casino, but decided against it. In hindsight, I’m glad I chose not to.

I’m not sure what time we left the M Casino, but it seemed like we were leaving right at the scheduled time of 5:30. We made the short trip down Volunteer to turn onto Las Vegas Blvd. As the group started south I pretty quickly realized I wasn’t going to be sticking with the big guns who’d come out. A small group of maybe six riders had been raring to go and honestly I was caught off guard with how quickly they wanted to get moving.

Right around Henderson RV I saw a cyclist stopped on the side of the road and I stopped to check on them. I didn’t recognize them at first, but as I rolled to a stop I recognized it was Moose! He told me that he was just adding some CO2 to his front and that he was ok. I looked to merge onto Las Vegas Blvd and saw the second half of the group coming up. As I started rolling I picked up the lead of the second group and I led them all the way to Jean. I was feeling pretty good going into the slight head wind.

We stopped at the Terrible’s for a quick break, regroup, and to say good-byes. Some of us were continuing on to Columbia Pass, others going to Goodsprings, and lastly another group was turning back to town. I picked up a couple bags of ice and gallons of water for the group at Robert’s request. The group did a decent job of getting into it, but we didn’t finish it off. We left everything behind on the table for anyone else who wanted to help themselves.

Rolling out of Terrible’s I got behind the rest of the group. I had been too busy yammering with Joy and Jon as they were dealing with Joy’s bike. As I started the climb I was again feeling pretty good. The short break was just enough to recharge my legs for the job ahead.

It felt really good to be putting in an effort on a ride. Even though I caught and passed the group pretty quickly, I’m pretty sure I’m not as strong as I was before I left. On the cardio side, I’m probably in the best shape of my life. 40 days of steady easy riding certainly helped with the cardio. It’s the raw power that I feel I’m lacking. It’s all good, it’ll come back eventually. In the meantime I’m just going to enjoy the ride.

The climb up to Goodsprings went really well. I’d guess I was about halfway to the top when a group of three led by Dave Burns went by and I thought to myself, “Hey I can hold onto that wheel.” I allowed the group to go by and hoped on. I’m pretty happy that I was able to stay with them for as long as I did. Naturally, I did start to fade as the climb continued and had to eventually let them go on without me. I wasn’t terribly crushed. As we passed by the turn off to Goodsprings the climb had a little breather before it started a good kick. Before we left Jean, Jon Trimble had mentioned there was a 12% kicker towards the end and I thought he was crazy, but be damned I saw 12% on my computer when I hit the worst of it. I didn’t think I would see so much use of my 34 so soon after my tour. I got to the summit and was happy to see Dave and the two other riders hanging out. It was only a few more minutes when Kant, Joy, and Robert all rolled up.

We snapped a quick picture of our climbing group and then started back towards Goodsprings. We looped through town and found the bar was closed which was a total bummer. With no beers we made the quick descent down to Jean. The descent started with Dave and Joy acting like a pair of kids, but we eventually got lined up and had a nice paceline all the way down.

After another quick stop at Terrible’s we rolled out for town. Almost straight out of the gate it felt to me that everyone was really going for it. I mean I had a hard time just keeping up to get over to Las Vegas Blvd. Once we made the left onto Las Vegas Blvd. things only got tougher for me. I did my best to hang with the group, but I knew it was fleeting so I let them go and focused on finishing. Riding my own ride I was feeling strong and steady. I did eventually catch up to James, I believe, and he said to me, “Perfect timing, you’re a lifesaver”. I chuckled a little to myself and the two of us rode in the rest of the way to M Casino.

As I came around the curve before Volunteer I could feel the muscles along the inner side of my right thigh starting to tighten up in a pre-cramp. I’m pretty familiar with this and it’s a tell tale sign that I’m getting close to done for the day. I rolled up to the bus stop and saw everyone sitting there hanging out chatting. We all started chatting while waiting for Robert to show up. I really wanted to roll on and ride with the group for some extra miles. Would have really loved to have logged a century for the weekend, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I said my goodbyes and rolled on home.

Overall a great ride with great people today. Pretty happy with myself for only the second ride back after the tour. I think I have a good handle on what I need to work on with the Garmin reminding me that I’m still acclimating to both the temperature AND elevation. The past two rides were my first rides in 100+ temperatures. This time last year I would have had several weeks worth of high temperature rides into my legs by now. Then I’ve spent the past six weeks pretty much at sea level. Ultimately all things that will come with time.

New bike fund: $22.17 (+$0.00)
2.5 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
184 vehicles @ 2.7 per mile, 0.8 per minute, Speeds: 39.9 mph (avg), 70.0 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Mostly clear-Sunny, 91°F-99°F, Feels like 90°F-102°F, Humidity 18%-15%, Wind W 3mph-N 2mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: -1.1%
Headwind: 73% @ 1.3-10.3mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 28m 2s
Air Speed: 18.5mph
Temp: 87.1-102°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
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