We are (pretty much) recovered from the weekend. We drove to Santa Fe to participate in the Santa Fe Century (100 miles) bike ride. It was a wonderful ride (says Susan); “moderately difficult my ass” (says Ed). It was Ed’s idea to sign up for the ride, and apparently his thought process was “We like Santa Fe, and the route is beautiful”, whereas mine was “Well, mountains are hard, and then there’s the altitude, and 100 miles is always hard, but I’m up for a challenge”. Hence the different expectations. I’ve also pointed out to him that “moderately difficult” is not “very difficult”, but it’s not “moderate”, either.

The ride headed south from Santa Fe on the Turquoise Trail, going through Madrid, a town we’ve stopped in before and loved; it reminds me of the town in Northern Exposure. The first twenty-five miles were mostly downhill, so they went by very fast. But …. then came the seven-mile ascent. Ed and I are very good hill climbers, and I had no problem climbing this hill, but at some point I realized that Ed wasn’t behind me. I decided to pull off and take pictures while I waited; the view was spectacular. When Ed still didn’t show up, I began to worry that he had had bike trouble. I hated to ride back down, so I waited some more. Eventually he appeared. It turned out the altitude was killing him. He was breathless even without the climb. The elevation in Santa Fe is about 7,000 feet. I noticed it the first day there, but by the ride Sunday, I was completely acclimated. Ed wasn’t. This wasn’t a surprise, he was breathing hard skiing in Colorado, too. He doesn’t get sick from the altitude, just breathless. Anyway, he had to stop several times on this ascent, but soon we got a downhill.

Ah, but that wasn’t to last. Soon we came to “Heartbreak Hill”, the steepest hill I’ve ever climbed on a bike. It’s steeper than Fox Run Road, and about a mile long. Many people walk it. I rode it, at about 4 mph. Ed rode most of it, walking some, but still beating most folks.

After that, we had a really fun downhill, and then a lot of flatland. But then came the headwind! Whee! At this point Ed started talking about catching a SAG wagon in. I gave him peptalks, and we stopped a lot, and in the end he (pretty much) finished. When we passed our campsite though, he called it a day and rode to the tent, for a 97-mile ride. I continued in to town (and the car) for a 103-mile ride.

I will post more pictures and data tomorrow (I accidentally hit post before I had all that ready), but in the meantime, here is Ed’s interpretation of the ride.