The headwind we had coming in last night never died down and only intensified overnite. The CrossRoads staff decided to send everyone off 1/2 hour early as they are predicting strong winds and thunderstorms. The riders decided it might be a day to paceline so we split basically into two groups and set off under very threatening skies. It was a slog, but we did pretty well until the second SAG at mile 57.1. From there we had to get back on I-40 for the last push to Albuquerque. There is a long 5 mile climb up and it is in wide open country...now the wind is absolutely HOWLING out of the southeast...we are headed due east so a quartering headwind probably a steady 20 mph gusting to 30 or more. I had a death grip on my bike as we GROUND up that hill. I was with my friend Jim C., the most effervescent, funny and sweet guy...he rides with a red and white polka dot helmet ..like a King of the Mountain jersey only a helmet. So as we are going he starts whooping and hollering...
"Yahoo... doggies!! Is that all you got?" or when a big gust would hit " yeah! that's the way I like it, give me more..woo hoo" etc.. I was laughing so hard I was having trouble catching my breath. I joined in and we whooped our way into Albuquerque...we caught up to some others and got a few pictures of the city laid out down below. The final blow to a long and difficult day was a flat on my rear tire within a few miles of the hotel....ARRRGH! and the last 2 miles to the hotel was dead into the wind...
The good news was it didn't start pouring until after we arrived, and my knee was fine. I could only think of Terry on his cross country trip last year..if someone had told me at that point to pitch a tent...well, I don't know what could have happened.
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