Commute Loop & LVAV Tuesday Night Ride – 2025.02.18

Ahh another Tuesday, another commute, another LVAV Tuesday night pain fest. I don’t know what I was thinking commuting and doing the Tuesday night ride after yesterday’s century ride. The legs were feeling relatively garbage for the ride to work in the morning, but felt better at the end of the day as I rode west.

I made a few minor tweaks to the commute portion of my little double header. I’ve opted to go west to Grand Canyon before going north to Sunset. This will eliminate the stop at Maule and Quarterhorse. I’m hopeful it’ll also eliminate catching a red light at Quarterhorse and Sunset. Next, I’m making an earlier left turn onto the 215 frontage road instead of onto Riley Street. This will eliminate a few stops along Riley since Patrick is considered the thoroughfare. For the return leg, I’ve decided to stick with Reno west over to Luxor drive before continuing west on Hacienda. The road has a little less traffic than Giles and Mandalay Bay Road. Having only done it once I’m pretty happy with the changes.

The LVAV Tuesday night ride started off pretty strong. All the usual suspects were there with the addition of Jeremy from Pedal & Pour. Stuart and Jeremy were happy to take the lead for the share of Hualapai to Tropicana, and then faded after the left turn.

Once onto Tropicana, good ole Dave felt we hadn’t been going hard enough and took over up front. He then proceeded to try to put us all in a hurt locker. He has absolutely no mercy and it feels like he’s always going 100%. As we turned onto Sahara he flicked me through and I just couldn’t take a pull without at least trying to return the favor. Unfortunately, I was so focused I missed the right turn onto Sagemont and we had to flip around and double back.

As Dave and I approached Charleston we saw at least one rider out ahead of us, and we’d passed Matthew along Sagemeont. Matthew pulled up next to us waiting on the light and let us know that Jeremy had called it a night and cut it short.

Continuing north we hit a few more lights which kept Stuart just out of reach. Dave and I made the right turn onto DFH from Kindle Corner and I realized that Stuart hadn’t stopped. With the slowdown I took the opportunity to message Stuart to hang at the next stop for us. I didn’t want him getting there and thinking that we were out ahead of him and then trying to chase us down while we were in fact behind him! Thankfully he received the message and the entire group, Stuart, Dave, Matthew, Ferdie, Lelis, and I all regrouped at the top of Kettle Ridge.

We enjoyed the brief descent before the final climb up Sky Vista. I made a go of it not wanting to get left behind like last week. I didn’t realize until I cleared the top that Dave was the only one still with me. We enjoyed a blisteringly fast descent to Desert Moon, through Desert Sunrise, and out DFH to the West Tech parking lot where we finally stopped to wait for the rest of the gang before the final push to PTs.

With the band all back together we made for PTs and dinner. We were humming along nicely until I smashed something with my front wheel while passing through the Tropicana intersection. I’m fairly certain it was a big rock, but nonetheless after hitting it I sat up to see if the tire was going to hold or not. A few feet later and I heard a distinct hiss and the front tire went flat. I pulled off to the side and got to work getting the tube swapped out. After the quick 10-minute pit stop we rolled on.

Two great rides back-to-back. I’m really enjoying this new routine of driving to Pedal & Pour, riding to work, riding back to Pedal & Pour, and then doing the LVAV Tuesday night ride. Really one of the highlights of my week while allowing me to keep my weekly mileage high. I think I’ve settled on the current route going forward barring any unforeseen circumstances or road construction requiring changes. I will say the most stressful part of the ride is from Harmon and University Center until I’m on Hacienda. The poor road surface along Koval and Reno don’t help matters any. Unfortunately, there also isn’t much to be done about it either.

New bike fund: $86.87 (+$0.26), €1.52 (+€0.00), ₱10.00 (+₱0.00), ֏10.00 (+֏0.00)
0.22 new miles — From Wandrer.earth
380 total shifts, 33 front, 347 rear. 88.8% of the ride in the big ring, 11.2% in the small ring. Most time spent in 52×21, 24.3% — by di2stats.com
342 vehicles @ 6.6 per mile, 1.9 per minute, Speeds: 33.8 mph (avg), 60.7 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic.com
Mostly sunny-Clear, 56°F-58°F, Feels like 48°F-57°F, Humidity 22%-22%, Wind N 21mph-N 5mph — by Klimat.app
— myWindsock.com Report —
Weather Impact™: 2.7%
Headwind: 46% @ 3.4 – 84.1 mph
Longest Headwind: 09h 33m 36s
Air Speed: 18.9 mph
Temp: 55.7-61.9 °F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
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