1,000 Miles - Third Century

We left Las Vegas, New Mexico this morning and rode 110 miles to Tucumcari, NM. The elevation gain was 4300 feet. We celebrated 1,000 miles of riding at the first sag stop of the day.

Today was a very hard and tiring day of biking. The winds were strong all day and VERY STRONG most of the day, the strongest that we have had so far. Some of the single bikers had trouble keeping their bikes from crossing the middle of the road. We felt like we were biking on an angle, leaning into the wind. At times the crosswinds were so strong we had difficulty going more than 7 mph on a flat surface. One of the bikers call the winds "brutal".

The scenery was beautiful and changed as we rode. Out of Las Vegas there were miles and miles of little vegetation.

Then we had a nice (but a bit scary with the winds) descent. There were no services (including rest rooms) for 76 miles! We did have 3 SAG stops with their usual display of fruit, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, water and Gatorade and lots of other munchies.

We saw a wild turkey, some antelope and snakes (dead).

We arrived at the hotel at 3:00 p.m. after 7 hours of biking. We are hoping our bodies recover for another big day tomorrow when we cross into Texas. We are grateful that, except for being quite tired at times, our health is good.