Adobo Velo Las Vegas 10-year Anniversary and January Birthdays Ride

Such an insanely amazing day for a ride. Only discouraging part is the nearly 25 degree swings between the start and finish. I had to start the ride with leg and arm warmers and a vest only to finish the ride with all three stashed in my back pocket. A nice rolled up lump in my jersey pocket for the ride between Pedal & Pour and the house. Talk about first world problems. Complaining about nearly 70 degree temperatures during the third week of January.

During the week I was afraid I was going to have to skip out on this ride since Shadow was in the shop. The rear/right brake lever was acting wonky. It would move back and forth for a centimeter or two very loosely while not doing anything. Brakes and shifting worked fine, but it was troubling, especially for being less than 6 months old. Took it into Swanny’s after last weekend’s ride and Zabi said that he’d need to keep Shadow in order to take a look. Unfortunately I received word on Tuesday that the entire thing would need replaced. Thankfully everything was covered under Shimano’s warranty and the guys at Swanny’s got Shadow up and running Thursday afternoon.

After picking up Shadow I fired a text over to Joy to see if she was up for pre-ride extra credit and of course she was. Then surprisingly a few hours later I received a text from Mark asking if I was riding over. In all honesty I’d written him off until much warmer temperatures arrived later in spring. I shared that I was meeting Joy at Via Firenze and Democracy and that he was more than welcome to join us. He said that he’d join me, but let me know if things changed.

Rolled out of the house bright and early, but about five minutes later than I’d hoped. As I rode down Democracy I was surprised to see a blinking head light coming my direction just before Anthem Highlands Dr. Recognizing Joy immediately I gave her a holler and coasted some to allow her to catch up. As I came around the corner to Via Firenze I spotted another cyclist turning around and when the rear red light started flashing I recognized it as Mark’s. I caught up to him pretty quickly and we started chit chatting while waiting for Joy to catch up. We all commiserated about the cold temperatures and were excited for the expected warm up.

The three of us were making pretty decent time as we started west along Cactus. As we crested the bridge over I-15 I spotted a red taillight flashing at the Chevron just ahead. When we got closer we recognized Jack and Jennifer apparently dealing with some sort of mechanical. As we rolled up Jack informed us that he was trying to get a new shifter battery installed. I lent a hand holding the bike to allow him to fully focus on getting the hood pulled back and the battery compartment door open in order to do the swap. It took maybe ten minutes to get it done and our now group of five rolled on for Pedal & Pour.

We got to Pedal & Pour with about five minutes to spare before the start. We had quite a decent sized group show up for the 10 year anniversary of our little club. Seeing everyone still mulling about, I darted inside to use the bathroom before we rolled out. I timed it nearly perfectly because as I came out Robert was just getting started organizing everyone to make quick announcements before leaving. I was pleasantly surprised when he got on the microphone and announced me as the club’s Inspirational Rider of the Year. It even came with a cool trophy! Very cool stuff and I’m extremely blessed to have earned the honor.

Just before we started off, several of us were going back and forth asking who was going to do a Red Rock Loop and who wasn’t. Then in typical Robert fashion he hollered over to me to lead the group out and also hollered the expected route. Getting started I was feeling ok ish. Josh and Dave came up front with me and did their damndest to keep me honest that’s for certain. When we made the turn onto Flamingo I was happy to jump on their wheels versus leading up front.

Rounding the turn onto Charleston I was feeling ok, but I was fairly certain I wasn’t going to be able to keep up. Dave and Josh were just too strong for me to keep up with. I think they decided to dial it back a little because I was able to keep with them until the Red Rock gate, but once we were there I was smoked. I was happy to have the opportunity to stop and catch my breath while we waited for the others who wanted to do the loop to join us. As riders started coming through we did our best to get into groups of four to make getting through the gate as easy as possible. I hung back to make sure everyone who wanted to do the loop was able to do so without having to pay. I probably waited a total of ten minutes before I escorted the last few riders through.

The climb up to the top was brutal as usual. I’m fairly certain this is my first attempt with the new gearing and, although it was certainly tougher than my former one-to-one setup, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was certainly feeling pretty good and pulled up ready for a brief break but disappointed the lead group had already continued on. While I was waiting for everyone else to arrive I went to sit on the saddle and noticed Shadow felt soft. I looked down and be damned the rear was going flat.

I made my way over to the tool stand, got Shadow up in the air, and went to work swapping in a new tube. A few others spotted me, asked what I was doing, and then came over to offer some assistance. Going through the inside of the tire I finally felt what would end up being the most difficult to remove piece of small wire I’ve ever experienced. For the life of me I couldn’t get a hold of it with my fingers and to make matters worse I had a hard time seeing it without my glasses. Thankfully Mark came over and had an amazing pair of tweezers and I was eventually able to work this little wire out of the tire. While I was struggling with this the rest of the group rolled out for the exit and we figured we’d catch them there. This would leave Mark, Stuart and I to play catch up.

With Shadow fixed up and put back together the three of us rolled out. Overall I’d been sitting at the summit for nearly 30 minutes. The three of us had a nice ride and stuck together all the way back to Pedal & Pour having never caught up with the group. We did have one very eventful moment near the 159/160 intersection. We had just made the left onto 160 and maybe gone 1000 feet when I looked down and spotted a dollar bill. I looked up and saw Mark stopping. I grabbed a handful of brakes to stop alongside him and spotted even more money floating about. Stuart also stopped and all three of us went to task to gather up all these bills. We got lucky in that a passerby in a Toyota pick-up stopped with their hazards while we’re doing all this. All in all we scooped up $40. Stuart and I went to hand it over to Mark thinking it had come out of his jersey only to be told that it wasn’t his! Score one for the three of us!

The three of us rolled into Pedal & Pour to find everyone hanging out except the lead group. We learned that they had decided to ride up to Late Night for some extra credit. After mulling about we all decided to head over to PTs for the combined anniversary and birthday celebration. Overall I had a really great time, including a nice chat with a group of folks discussing my Pacific Coast tour. As is typically the case time flew and in what seemed like the blink of an eye it was time for Joy, Mark, and I to roll on towards home.

Leaving PTs I asked the two of them how they were looking for miles and it seemed that I was about 10 behind. Mark had started the day at his house to meet us at Via Firenze and Democracy while Joy had the extra from going up to Late Night. Needless to say I certainly felt like a slacker!

Joy had mentioned that she wanted to swing by Swanny’s to pick up a new Garmin Varia under saddle mount they had ordered for her. We decided to keep it simple and just rode due east along Cactus and over to Horizon Ridge. The short section along Seven Hills was kinda nerve wracking, but we made the best of it and actually had some nice motorists wait while we crossed traffic to make the left. We rolled in and Joseph offered to get Joy squared away with the new mount so we had a few minutes hanging out and chit chatting while we were there.

From there we added on a few extra miles around Seven Hills and Anthem. Mark split off to head home at Fieldbrook and Sun City Anthem. Joy would peel off near Aventura Park. This left me solo for the final 12 miles of the day. While riding back along Volunteer I briefly thought of going south on Via Centro back to Via Nobila east to Via Inspirada and then back to Volunteer and then Hampton. Ultimately I think I wisely opted to just continue east along Volunteer to Hampton to head home. I did change things up a little by taking Somersworth to Orangeburg to descend Pukenburg. Man that descent is kinda sketchy. The corner at the end comes up before you know it and if you aren’t careful and caught unaware you’re going to be hurting real quick.

Once more today’s ride was awesome. The weather was absolutely gorgeous for the last weekend of January. This month has been a big one for certain and a great way to start off the new year. Looking forward to many more to come.

New bike fund: $52.04 (+$13.10)
0.26 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
738 vehicles @ 6.9 per mile, 1.9 per minute, Speeds: 38.5 mph (avg), 80.2 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Clear-Sunny, 43°F-65°F, Feels like 46°F-69°F, Humidity 56%-21%, Wind NW 2mph-NNE 3mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 4.7%
Headwind: 56% @ 1.3-10.3mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 58m 11s
Air Speed: 17.7mph
Temp: 38.5-62.8°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
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