A longer day time wise today with twice as much climbing as yesterday and brutal headwinds to start the day off. Took it at an easier pace than yesterday to keep easing into the Tour.
Some great riding in exposed desert like landscape (reminiscent of Borrego Springs area).
I ended up riding the last 50 miles in by myself after Greg opted to sag in and Bob was climbing at a slightly slower pace in a group behind. Finished at 7:55 (5 minutes before the threatened cut off for sunset) though there was a bit of leeway as Bob’s group came in 20 minutes later and were still OK.
Of the 16 riders who started only 8 remain who have ridden the entirety of each day. Gives some idea of how tough this is as these are all strong riders.
Absolutely incredible tour! 1900 miles with 90k of climbing over 12 days.
PacTour have been running supported tours for the past 30+ years and are organized by Lon Haldeman and Susan Notorangelo, both former RAAM winners i.e. they know just about everything about ultra riding. Their elite tours are harder versions of their normal tours, typically coast to coast crossings. This was their first time running this route along the Rockies as an elite tour, normally it takes an extra 7 days, and by the end they said it was the toughest tour they had ever run. This was due to a combination of long days, elevation gain and extreme weather conditions.
It was really well run with 16 riders (a 17th, a former RAAM finisher, joined us half way through) supported by nearly as many support crew. Their model is to have a very regimented, repeatable pattern each day so that all you need to focus on is riding and recovery. A typical day would be up at 5 am, breakfast in the car park at 5:30am, load trailers at 5:50 and roll at 6am. Everything would run on time. Often ~12 hours of riding and then prep the bike and recover for the next day.
Stunning landscape and a wide variety of weather conditions. The first day was ~200miles in 100 degree heat to “ease” us in to the ride.
The first day of the tour was a relatively flat stage though heat was a challenge. We started from El Paso at 6am and by noon it was 100 degrees!
Lon and Susan run a tight ship and everything is very well organized from years of successfully running tours. I am actually the only first timer on one of their tours so it’s a good indicator when so many people are repeat customers. Their goal is to have repeatable patterns and full support so all us riders need to focus on is riding, eating and recovering so we can do it all again the next day. Support starts with breakfast before the ride and goes on through the day with sag stops every 25-30 miles. It makes for a nice rhythm to the day.
We rolled out last from the hotel park (thanks Bob 🙂 ) but the three of us ended up riding through the rest of the pack and ending up in a small group at the front. Not quite our plan of starting easy and then backing off. We ended up averaging 20mph for the first 100 miles and probably pushed it a bit long once it started heating up.
Had to back off the pace for the second half of the ride but fortunately had a bit of a tail wind and some cloud cover so the temperatures got a bit more manageable. Bob, Greg and I ended up splitting up on some hills 50 miles out so rode in at our own paces. All in all I felt I controlled my effort pretty well so ended the day feeling pretty good leading into another big day tomorrow. Forecast is for it to be a bit cooler so fingers crossed.
