Dry, Windy

To state the obvious, Tucson is dry. It isn't even really that hot out, and we stopped for water twice before we even got out the east end of town. Less obvious, to me anyway, is how windy it was. We battled eastward into the wind for a few hours toward Colossal Cave park. I have to admit I was a little disapointed that we didn't make it right to the cave, what could be cooler than something named Colosal Cave anyway? To ride 20kph was small ring hard work... bike getting pushed all over the place, and doing like 250 Watts.

We turned south again to brave a ridiculous crosswind. When we stopped to navigate with our maps, it was literally difficult to stand. When I walked my bike leading it with my hand on the stem, the rear wheel would slide sideways through the gravel until the frame was at a 45 degree angle to the front wheel. When we picked up our bikes by the top tube, they'd blow out to something just a little less than a 45 degree angle. I can't recall the last time I've been in wind like that. The good thing is, I'm still in the phase where wind doesn't bother me. Sometimes it does, but right now my mind doesn't consider it an annoyance. It's good training, and I enjoy it. I'm sure mid-summer when I've done nothing but ride in the wind for 3 months I'll have had enough, but right now I'll take it as it comes.

The good thing was, we headed back to Tucson on the interstate, with the wind nearly 100% at our backs. We covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time... and at one point I tried to go as fast as I could for one minute. I was spinning my legs at just a hair over 130 rpm, but couldn't hold it very long. The result, with my 53x12 gearing was 75kph on flat ground. Sweet!

All in, we rode about 5 hours and 120k. Jumped in the glacier water swimming pool for a minute, stretched, "machined" a little chunk of plastic into a washer that helped get my rear brake working better (the R3 seatstays are so thin and the brake hardware wasn't really designed for something that thin). Had dinner at El Charro, Enchiladas Banderas and a Margeurita in a big boot mug. Apparently this restaurant has been around since 1922.