This past weekend, we drove down to Santa Fe to eat some good food, see some cool sites and most importantly, ride in the Santa Fe Century.
I’ve been preparing for this ride since the beginning of the year, but to be honest, I had a tinge of doubt that I’d be ready.
We rolled into town around 1 p.m. and checked into our hotel (the Sage Inn). The hotel made a big fuss about keeping our bikes in the rooms and wanted us to check them into hotel storage. We told them that we’d rather keep them locked on the car rack. My lips are sealed as to where my bike spent the night ;-)
We walked over to Whole Foods and grabbed a quick bite and then hooked up with the rest of our crew. We had a couple hours to kill before we could pick up our ride packets, so we walked around downtown for a bit and listened to a live concert in the Plaza. We picked up our packets, T-shirts and water bottles at the Century Venue and then hit up ??? Italian.
After dinner, we met in the hotel’a breakfst room where Chuck and Paula presented a bottle of Italian wine and we drank wine out of those plastic hotel water cups and chatted before heading off for bed.
I was a bit apprehensive about the ride for a number of reasons, one of which was that I had never ridden 100 miles before. The other reason was “Cupcake” Hill. Cupcake Hill is actually named Heartbreak Hill and many riders walk up the hill because it’s so steep.
The Hill got the nickname from Karl, one of my riding mate’s, wife Carmelita. She suggested that riders think about cupcakes while riding the hill and they won’t have any trouble getting to the top. So our little group became known as Team Cupcake and for the last 5 months, I’ve heard about how everyone has had to walk the hill their first time.
I didn’t sleep well the night before the ride, partly because I was nervous, partly because I was in a hotel, partly because I kept looking at the clock and partly because some woman was screaming in the hallway. But it didn’t matter, I woke up feeling energized and knew that this was what I’ve been training for, for the last few months.
Instead of starting from the Century Venue at St. Michael’s hospital, we met up with some of Karl’s riding buddies and took off with them. We kept a fast pace out of Santa Fe riding in a line. At about 20 miles, as we were climbing a hill, I shifted from my big ring to the middle ring and the bike didn’t like it at all. The chain was rubbing the derailleur and making an awful crunching noise. Luckily, the chain stayed on and I was able to shift into the middle ring, but by then, we had lost the pack. Luckily the first rest stop was only a few miles down the road.
We pulled into the rest stop, which was off the road and down a wide old stone staircase, which reminded me of some Italian ruin. At the bottom were a couple tents with tables underneath full of bananas, melons, trail mix, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and jugs of water and coolers of Gatorade.
I brought my bike over to the mechanic stand and told them it was having trouble shifting. Two mechanics took turns adjusting the derailleurs and one even replaced the shifting cable. In the end, I was told that the shifter was missing the ability to trim, or move the front derailleur slightly to allow the chain to move freely. So basically my chain was going to rub the derailleur in certain gear combos.
We filled up on water and got back on the bikes for a few more miles of climbing before a nice decent. About 11 miles after the first rest stop, we turned and I saw my first view of Heart Break Hill. It was cut into the side of a hill and looked rather formidable. We pulled into the rest stop and filled our bottles and fueled before the big hill. The ride guide describes it this way, “After your rest and refreshment, head up Heartbreak Hill. There is no disgrace in walking and talking up this steep hill.”
As we approached, the hill Karl said, “It’s really an optical illusion. It’s steeper than it looks.” That made me feel much better! I told him he should become a motivational speaker. From its base, the hill looked like a wall. A couple people were riding the hill in zig-zag fashion and as I approached the top, people were walking. The hill is rather short, but it’s very steep. I just focused on my pedal stroke, standing every once in a while to get an extra boost and before I knew it, I was at the top. I met Karl and Chuck at the top and we congratulated each other.
We rolled out again and Chuck said, “This is the fun part.” And fun it was. We rode in a pace line and kept a nice fast pace as we rolled down a gradual descent for the next 20 miles into the town of Stanley.
The next 20 miles we rode a nice downhill and then some easy rollers as we continued the decent into the Galisteo food stop at 82 miles. At this point we started seeing people on mountain bikes and others coming the opposite direction. Galisteo is the turn-around point for the 50-mile and ATB routes. We started to ride into a slight headwind and I was getting a bit tired at this point.
We rode onto highway 285 and it was all uphill for the next 10 miles or so. Here’s what the guide says about it, “Your tires aren’t flat, your brakes aren’t rubbing, it’s just plain uphill for a while.” This was by far the worst stretch of the ride for me. But I plugged away and kept on pedaling. By the time we got to the Eldorado food stop at 94 miles, I was pretty beat, but the finish was in sight, so I took a gel and got back on the bike.
We passed a woman who we had passed twice before and she said, “This better be the last time you pass me!” I told her it would be, because if I got off the bike again, I wasn’t getting back on!
Chuck pulled for a bit at a nice fast pace and the miles started fading as we rode along the shoulder of I-25. At one point I drifted onto the rumble strips on the side of the highway and couldn’t get off. I ended up a few feet into the right lane off the highway. Luckily no cars were coming and I was able to jump back over to the shoulder. Our line jockeyed with a few people as we headed back into Santa Fe and I kept an eye on the odometer as it climbed closer to 100 miles. Just before we entered the city, the triple digits rolled by and I knew that I had done it! We rolled into the Century Venue at the Hospital and congratulated each other on a job well done. We did it in just over 6 hours.
We rode the mile or so back to the hotel, showered and changed into some more comfortable clothes and then met on the patio for a celebratory bottle of Champagne. We also finished off a bottle of Cupcake Cellars wine, which we thought was fitting.
That night we had an early (and delicious) dinner at Maria’s, hit up Trader Joe’s for some two-buck Chuck and other various goodies and then retired early. I slept like a baby and woke up around 6 for our recovery ride.
We rode through the plaza to Bishop’s Lodge Road and down into Tesuque. It was a nice easy spin (although there was a good climb back into Santa Fe, which the guys didn’t tell me about!) and I enjoyed looking at all the houses and scenery along the route. After we checked out, we regrouped back at the hotel and headed to Pasquale’s for breakfast. Both cars got parking spots in front of the restaurant and we only had to wait a few minutes for a table. As always, the food was superb and it was a great way to say goodbye to Santa Fe.
We took the high road to Taos and stopped at Chimayo to see the church and the village. We wondered around taking photos and stopped by a little place where a man was selling various chile powders. He had a fun little game were we at pistachios with different chile powders and then chased them down with another pistachio.
We rolled into Taos and had a nice lunch at Orlando’s. It’s got an umbrella-covered outdoor patio and really good food. The highlight of the meal had to be the Avocado Pie!
We said goodbye to Chuck and Paula and hit the road. I had never driven home from Taos, so it was nice to see a different route.
It was a short trip, but a good one and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
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