Growing up, I was so poor I couldn’t afford to pay attention.

This ride certainly got started off on the right foot. I climbed to the top of Democracy like I do with most of my rides including my commutes. Shortly after rounding the corner onto Democracy I spotted an older gentleman walking and he stopped after he saw me. I must have chuckled just loud enough for him to hear me because he donned a big smile and raised his hand to wave. As I went by I returned the gesture with a “Good morning!”

What makes this interaction stand out to me is I see this guy on most days when I’m commuting. I leave the house during the week at a pretty consistent time so I can only assume he does the same. What made this time stand out was that it was on a Saturday morning versus during the work week. I’m not certain if he made the connection as well or not, but it was enough to put me in a good mood.

I made it down the hill and to the corner where I usually pick up Boots for our weekend rides. As we started west on Democracy, Boots mentioned that she had seen a flashing light and thought that it was me. Thankfully she thought better of trying to catch “me” having realized that I would have been incredibly early.

When we reached Montage we could see the tell tale flashing red light of a cyclist out along Democracy. Joy spotted the cyclist too and tells me, “Elvis, there’s your carrot.”

As we got closer I thought that I recognized the rider, and as we came up alongside them I was right and called out, “Well if it isn’t super sag Tony Pranger!!” Tony and I got a chance to chat a bit. He was out getting in some bonus miles before meeting up with the GVC gang for a trip out to Lake Las Vegas. I shared that Joy and I were skipping the Five Water Towers Challenge to meet up with Joe Ruggles and the Cornerstone kids for a to be determined ride. We wrapped up our conversation, said our goodbyes, and went our separate ways.

Joy and I had a decent cruise down LVB to Pebble and then east to Cornerstone Park. I’m not sure what we’d done right, but we hit every light on LVB green from Volunteer to Silverado Ranch. I even commented to Joy that I’m rarely so lucky on my commutes.

We arrived at Cornerstone Park a little earlier than expected, which I chalked up to luck with the lights, so I drug Joy along for a lap of the lake. As we were rounding the southern portion of the lake Joy tells me, “I’ve never ridden on this path before.” I was kinda floored at that. So we took our time lazily riding the trail along the lake to give everyone time to show up. After a quick bathroom break, we eventually spotted the rest of the crew made up of Joe, Chanel, Erick, and Rick.

With the gang all gathered Chanel dropped the idea of riding out to Boulder City, and I tossed in the idea of adding on the airport loop. And with that we set off.

The ride out to Boulder City and the loop went great. I was having a great climb up Georgia pacing Erick on his e-bike. Then Rick came by and I had to kick in up another notch to keep up with him. I was just getting into a good groove to keep with Rick when I hear click, pop, psssstttt. Immediate rear flat. Going over the tire I spotted a solid inch long gash in it. When I pulled the tube I double checked and it was sliced cleanly as well. Almost like I’d hit a razor blade or something similarly sharp and straight. To be safe I went ahead and booted the tire before swapping in a fresh tube.

We made our way over to Dam Roast House for a coffee and pastry break. Unfortunately the 10 person deep line had us reconsidering. Instead of waiting around we made the quick trip over to Boulder City Company Store. We were welcomed with no line, great coffee, and tasty treats. Oh and a clean bathroom to boot!

After our coffee break we rode north to catch Colorado to work our way over to Industrial. From there it was a pretty bone standard ride back to Cornerstone. Did have a minor scare just before going under I-11. We were cruising with a decent head of steam when there was a pair of cyclists on the paved trail to our left and a couple riders on e-bikes coming up the gravel trail to the right. So we’re kinda in between a rock and a hard place. Thankfully the e-bikers were able to clear all of us and nothing bad happened, but I could totally see that not being the case if things were just a little different.

Joy and I said our goodbyes to the gang and set off for more miles. I wasn’t sure where we were going so I just decided that we’d cruise the UPRR extension over to Pecos. Along the way I came up with the idea of continuing west all the way over to Pedal and Pour. It would make for some decent mileage and a nice stop to boot.

The ride went pretty well, and the stop at Pedal & Pour was well deserved. I had a Coke and a couple wedding cookies. Joy grabbed herself a Red Bull and had a nice chat with Jolene. Refreshed and recharged we mounted up for the push towards home, but not before checking Caleb’s progress.

Before we’d left Cornerstone, both Joy and I had noticed that Caleb was out riding. When Joy pulled him up he was up near Goodsprings. Now that we were at P&P, he had finished his Goodsprings loop and was starting his descent. We hatched a plan to go track him down and maybe add on enough extra miles to take us to a century.

As we headed through Mountains Edge making our way toward home, Joy kept checking on Caleb and telling me where he was. He was flying and I figured if we were going to catch him we’d need to go straight to LVB and then south and maybe we’d see him along the way. Ultimately we caught him just south of Volunteer motoring along on his TT bike. We flipped around to roll with him and get a few more miles for ourselves. The three of us had a nice ride and chat through Southern Highlands before parting ways at Cactus and Jones. Caleb would continue west on Cactus while Joy and I turned south onto Jones.

After that it was a bone standard ride over to Starbucks for our post-ride coffee break, and once that was over we rolled out for home.

New bike fund: $122.68 (+$0.13), €1.52, ₱10.00, ֏10.00, CA$0.01
666 total shifts, 46 front, 620 rear. 87.4% of the ride in the big ring, 12.6% in the small ring. Most time spent in 52×21, 24.1% — by di2stats
602 vehicles @ 5.4 per mile, 1.5 per minute, Speeds: 36.5 mph (avg), 65.8 mph (max) — by MyBikeTraffic
Give your activities the names they deserve. — by Bandok
Sunny-Partly sunny, 47°F-69°F, Feels like 48°F-71°F, Humidity 47%-20%, Wind WSW 2mph-ESE 6mph — by Klimat
— myWindsock Report —
Weather Impact™: 3.2%
Headwind: 39% @ 0 – 0 mph
Longest Headwind: 01h 19m 1s
Air Speed: 12.8 mph
Temp: 42.6-68.5°F
Precip: 0% @ 0 Inch/hr
— END —