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.