Wild West Tour lll: Day 38

Clayton NM to Raton NM

6-27-14

Day 38

Wind is a dirty four letter word to a cyclist. I am not talking your fresh sea breeze blowing off the sound. I am talking the wind that blows you patio furniture off the deck kind of wind. That is what the crew dealt with today.

The day started off nice and innocent enough. We hit the road at 7:30 am refreshed after a short mileage day on Thursday. It was cool and a bit overcast perfect for cycling the 85 miles to Raton NM.

The terrain was rolling grasslands with small mountains off in the distance and even later an inactive volcano. Cattle grazed peacefully on thousands of acres of open land.

Then like someone turned on an enormous fan the wind came. It did not start as breeze and slowly build. No, this came “full-on” and “head-on” in a matter of a minute.

It was blowing so hard that you had to pedal downhill to keep moving forward. Even when pedaling downhill your speed was only 12mph. Back on the flats you speed was reduced to 8 or 9 mph. Now if you look at the profile that our on-bike GPS recorded, you will see most of our day was a gradual uphill.

With the 30mph head wind that gradual climb became an endless torture session. Now forward progress was reduced even further to 7 or 8 mph.

There is only one road from Clayton to Raton. It is a four lane divided highway with a wide shoulder. Even though the traffic was very light the speed limit was 70 mph. Every car or truck that passed hit us with wind waves that jostled our bikes around like a potato chip in a tornado. Tim and Joe almost got blown off the blacktop by one of these waves caused by a semi screaming by.

Wind is also a dirty stealing thief. It robs you of you hearing as it roars in your ears. You can’t hear what is coming from behind. The relentless noise gets on your nerves as it never stops screaming at you. The wind steals your speed and pushes you around like a bully. But what hurts most is how it demoralizes you. All the effort you’re delivering and receiving nearly nothing in return.

The wind never let up and was blowing in our face right to the last mile. Our reward for all this work was crummy pizza delivered to our room at 9:30 pm.

Hopefully someone will shut the fan off tomorrow. We got our first glance of the Rockies today …..more fun and excitement.