I’ve been pretty busy with work this past week and I was surprised when Thursday rolled around and there wasn’t an Adobo Velo ride posted yet. I shot Robert a text message to see if he had any plans. Last thing I want is to step on the boss man’s toes. He shared that he hadn’t been feeling so hot lately and to go ahead and put something up.
Having hosted the past couple weekends over on the east side of town I knew the west side needed some love. I really didn’t want to do a Red Rock Flyby, and after seeing Kant’s Lake Mead repeats I figured some climbing of Villa Ridge would be a good idea. The thing is I wanted to find a new route to get to Villa Ridge. Usually we leave from Pedal & Pour, travel up the west side of Summerlin to Desert Foothills before taking Alta east to Cimarron and across from there.
Now there is certainly nothing wrong with that route, but I’m of the persuasion of changing things up every once in a while. A few weeks back I’d done the “Pedal & Pour” ride as part of the TEAMG memorial. I went back and checked out the route. I then played around with a few options to get us to Villa Ridge while riding through The Lakes. I was pretty happy with what I came up with.
After I created the event on the group’s Facebook page I fired a text message to Joy letting her know I’d be outside her gate at 6:30. That would give us an hour and a half to get to Pedal & Pour by 8:00. There were a few others who decided they’d leave from Pedal & Pour at 7:15 as a B Group. Overall, the stage was set for a solid day of riding.
Getting ready to leave this morning I turned to the Weather Channel to see what things were looking like outside. The temperature at Harry Reid Airport was reported as 41°F, but my phone was saying Henderson was closer to 35°F. I went back and forth on what to wear today. Thermal bibs for sure, but I was undecided about a top. I finally settled on a long sleeve wool base layer and a thermal jacket. I also couldn’t decide which gloves to go with either. I went with my new gloves with wool liners. I’d worn those gloves yesterday to breakfast and they were almost too cool and I thought the wool liners would help make them warm enough for today’s ride.
Made the short quick ride down to Joy’s house and we set off for Las Vegas Blvd. by way of Via Inspirada. As we were making our way out the sky lit up behind us. The sunrise was absolutely gorgeous! With Joy’s prodding we stopped to snap a couple pics of the beautiful sky. By this time I already realized that I was over dressed because I was soaked with sweat already; however, my hands were another story entirely. My left index finger was nearly numb and my right hand wasn’t much better.
Joy and I made decent time over to Pedal & Pour. We arrived with 15 minutes to spare before the start. Once inside I immediately took off my gloves and tucked them behind my knees to warm them up. I was very bummed that the combination of gloves and wool liners weren’t enough to keep my hands warm. If I’d used my warmer gloves they would have been too much by the end of the day. Next time I’ll have to bite the bullet and pack two pairs of gloves. I also think I’m storing the heavy Adobo Velo jacket until the temperatures are much much colder. That this is just way too warm for anything but the coldest of days.
All too soon 8:00 rolled around and it was time to get rolling. I really didn’t want to go out into the cold again, but when you’re the lead you don’t really have a choice. I was pleasantly surprised with the solid turn out for a ride put on at the last minute. There were a few of us with the route loaded, I briefly explained where we were going, snapped a group picture, and we were off.
Unfortunately there isn’t really all that much to share about the ride over. We did lose three riders at some point as we were making our way to The Lakes. The route called for a left turn onto Flamingo followed by a right onto Hualapai. It’s at this point I think we lost the three. The rest of us continued on and made our way around The Lakes, through the outskirts of Downtown Summerlin, and eventually onto Alta. During this portion I mentioned that I’d decided to change things up a little for the route over to Villa Ridge. It seemed that everyone enjoyed the change up.
On the way back, as we rounded the corner where Hualapai becomes Maule we looked down the hill and saw some cyclists in the stand out Adobo Velo colors. I looked over to Dave and said come on man we’ve got to get them! Get them we did right as we rolled into the Pedal & Pour parking lot. We were all hooting and hollering about how fun it was to all roll in at the same time despite the different departure times.
We all gathered inside, ordered some coffee and pastries, and sat back to enjoy our time visiting. We were all surprised to see Jennifer roll up solo several minutes later. She’d signed up for the ride on Facebook, but we never saw her before we left. Once she came inside she admitted that she’d arrived late and decided to do a Red Rock Flyby solo. A few more minutes later and I was surprised to see Jared and Derrick roll up. It seems they were out breaking in Jared’s new bike that he’d picked up the day before.
As conversations started dying down and people started leaving it was time to figure out what Joy and I were doing. We hadn’t ridden far enough yet to end the day with centuries by the time we got home. After talking with Josh and Dave, we decided to join them for a Red Rock Flyby and once we got back to Desert Foothills we’d head for home while Josh and Dave went on to Dave’s house.
Setting out for our flyby, I’d mentioned to Dave and Josh to take it easy on us. I don’t they heard me at all as they were just on it from the word go. I was doing ok to stay with them along Fort Apache; however, once we made the turn onto Blue Diamond all best were off. I just could not for the life of me stick with those two. I remember looking up and seeing Dave way off and I was kinda gaining on Josh. I look up the next minute and Josh is just gone and hunting down Dave way up the way. My jaw about hit the pavement.
Rounding the corner onto 159, Dave and Josh were hanging out chit chatting. I professed I wasn’t stopping and rolling on. I was not in a mood to stop because I hate being the last guy in and I was just drenched to the bone. Last thing I want is to stop and start getting cold because of the sweat. Joy hung with me as we rolled on by and the boys finished up their conversation. It didn’t take them long to catch us up and they passed the pair of us before the cattle guard. Try as I might I just didn’t have it in me to keep up with this bag of hammers. I watched as the three of them, Dave, Josh, and Joy, rode off into the distance. At this point I just settled into my own rhythm and plodded on. I rolled into the Overlook to regroup with the group and after a short break, and my insistence, we continued on. Thankfully I was able to roll with everyone for the rest of the way back to Desert Foothills.
Once back at Desert Foothills, Joy, Josh, and I hung out waiting for Dave to join us. I’m not sure what had happened because I thought he was on my wheel as we were flying along. We didn’t have to wait long when Dave came around the corner. The four of us chatted for a short bit before deciding to head out. Dave and Josh made a u-turn to ride to Dave’s place while Joy and I started for home.
Our ride back to our neighborhood went pretty well. Both of us were burned out. Trying to keep up with Josh and Dave had taken a lot out of us. Normally we would have added an extra loop or two or taken a slightly longer route home, but we were both of the same mindset to get home as quickly as possible. Adding insult to injury, Joy wasn’t feeling so hot. She’d had an energy bar with some caffeine and I think it was more than she was ready for.
We were doing pretty good until we started through Inspirada along Via Centro. At this point we were just barely going through the motions. We even avoided the extra loop along Democracy in order to get home that much sooner. We said our goodbyes at Via Contessa and Via Firenze and I set off for home.
The wind had been odd all afternoon, and I was hoping to have a slight tailwind to push me up Democracy. Unfortunately it wasn’t nearly as much as I would have liked. As I started the climb I ran out of gears hitting my 34 much earlier than I would have expected. I pretty much averaged 5 MPH for the entire climb. Even once I passed the round-a-bout I continued to soft pedal and used the closing minutes as a cool down and to spin the legs out before getting home.
Wrapping up today’s ride was great. I’m a little disappointed in myself having not been able to keep up with Dave and Josh at the end of the day. As I told Joy I feel like I’m making excuses when I try to chalk up the poor performance to a high mileage week, nearly 200 miles going into today, and hitting the gym, on Tuesday and Thursday. I mean the fatigue may be a factor, but damn if it isn’t frustrating to see other riders getting better while you feel stagnant. Anyway, looking forward to a chill Sunday and a new week of commuting and gym work.
New bike fund: $37.94 (+$0.64)
2.42 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
640 vehicles @ 5.4 per mile, 1.5 per minute, Speeds: 39.6 mph (avg), 76.4 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Cloudy-Cloudy, 38°F-50°F, Feels like 39°F-51°F, Humidity 36%-24%, Wind WNW 4mph-ESE 5mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 7%
Headwind: 56% @ 2.4-16.1mph
Longest Headwind: 02h 6m 58s
Air Speed: 17.5mph
Temp: 33.2-49.1°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —
Max elevation: 4054 ft
Min elevation: 2302 ft
Total climbing: 5961 ft
Total descent: -5713 ft
Total time: 09:00:17
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