All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.

Great weather for a ride. Started a tad on the chilly side, but by the time I was wrapping up I was in full summer kit mode.

Started the day with a quick trip down to Joy’s place to pick her up before heading over the Anthem Hills Park and on to PTs for the start. Earlier in the week ole Mark Hyken had reached out about making a century of the day and I’m not one to turn one of those down. I was worried that if we got rolling too early he wouldn’t join us due to the temperatures so I decided we’d do extra credit after the main ride instead of before.

After gathering up Joy near her place we set off for the park. Along the way I picked up two quarters in the first five miles of the day. The first was along Bicentennial Pkwy and the second was on the climb up Sun City Anthem Drive. Not a bad way to start out the ride. Wish I could average $0.50 every five miles for the duration of the ride, that’s for certain!

We started with a nice chill ride over to Acacia Park and the UPRR trail. The group stayed together for the most part until we started up the trail. Pretty soon the A group got out and started motoring up the road. The pace was decent and we kept lined up all the way through to the climb up to the power plant along the RMT. Normally along the climb up to the power station I would have just settled back and continued at my own pace letting the climbers go. Instead I made a concentrated effort to keep up at the best of my ability. I was surprised at how well I actually did, and ended up catching the leaders along the bomb down Burkholder.

Had a great run northbound on Racetrack. I started by following Rick as he pulled along, but I got antsy and swung around to kick things up a notch. I ended up on the front all the way until the left onto Athens. As we made our way along Lake Mead I again found myself falling back some with the additional climbing, but I, again, did my best to put in an effort to keep up with the billy goats. Once more I surprised myself at how well I kept up, relatively speaking. As we rounded the corner onto Lake Las Vegas Pkwy we made a quick stop to discuss what we were doing going forward. Our thought process was we would do the longer Lake Las Vegas loop and then ride straight to the convenience store at the corner of Lake Mead and Athens. Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans.

The loop went pretty well. I really pushed myself on the climb and felt decent afterwards. As I rounded the corner onto Galleria I spotted a group of Adobos hanging out at Terrazza Park and a few of our guys started pulling in. So the plan to only make one stop went right out the window, but it wasn’t at all a big deal. Besides who am I to complain when I could certainly use a quick restroom break.

Pretty soon we continued on for the Terrible’s on Lake Mead. I made a showing of trying to stick with Josh up Athens, but I eventually had to bail because I just couldn’t maintain the effort. Maybe when I drop a few pounds I might be able to do it, but until then I’ll have to suffer with watching Dave come around and follow Josh up the hill. We did end up having another nice break with snacks hanging out at the Terrible’s. While we were there we spotted another group heading back along Galleria.

Soon enough it was time to roll out. As we crossed Lake Mead our group got split by being caught at the light. This allowed Kant, myself, and a few others to keep on trucking. We kept it kinda chill while waiting for the others to catch up. Eventually they did around Warm Springs.

The climb up Burkholder was a chore and I again put in a solid effort to at least keep the lead boys in eyesight. I was pretty happy that I was able to do so. I also ended up pulling the rest of the group south to the bus stop at the top of UPRR. From there on back we had a solid train of us chugging along. Josh and Dave, again, got a gap on the rest of us especially when we got stopped at a light on Horizon Ridge and Stephanie.

With the main ride done we had a nice relaxing break at PTs and enjoyed each others company. Soon enough we were rolling out and Joy and I decided to join the west siders partially back to their side of town. Dave asked if we could make a quick stop into Swanny’s for him to give them some feedback on the fit on his new rig. That quick drop in turned out to be much longer than any of us expected. While we were inside Robert and Ferdie kept on going expecting us to eventually catch up to them. Sadly we never spotted them again.

After our Swanny’s session we continued west to escort Dave, Kant, and Josh back to their side of town. When we crossed Buffalo, I asked Josh and Dave to woah up while we made sure Kant and Joy made it through the intersection. As Kant rolled up he mentioned that his cleat was broken and he couldn’t clip in. He called over to Giant and was told they had some in stock so we made our way there. After waiting for 10-15 minutes in line Kant got tired of waiting and we left setting course for Pedal and Pour instead.

Once at Pedal & Pour, Joy bought a round of coffee for everyone while we waited for Kant’s cleat to be installed. When he was all squared away Joy and I said our goodbyes and headed for home while Dave, Josh, and Kant did the same albeit in the opposite direction.

Joy and I had a solid ride back, but along the way she jokingly complained that she didn’t have enough elevation for the day. So I took her up to the water tower and was about to take her up to the Sloan Canyon contact station too when she decided that she’d just join me up Democracy instead. We went ahead and went to the tippy top of the climb and once there took a moment to enjoy the relative peace and quiet of our surroundings before starting the descent. We made the turn onto Canyon Retreat and it was there where I told Joy to continue straight to the round-a-bout while I made the turn onto Bechamel to head home.

New bike fund: $54.77 (+$0.61)
0.79 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
512 vehicles @ 4.8 per mile, 1.4 per minute, Speeds: 36.8 mph (avg), 73.8 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok.com
Clear-Mostly sunny, 46°F-65°F, Feels like 47°F-71°F, Humidity 26%-14%, Wind WNW 3mph-NE 2mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact: 1.8%
Headwind: 35% @ 2.8-17.2mph
Longest Headwind: 47m 32s
Air Speed: 18mph
Temp: 38.6-63.9°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —