Tour of the Rio Grande 2022

Overview

Tour of the Rio Grande is a bicycle event that offers many different ride distances. I chose to ride the Century (100 miles). I had done this event in 2019 and wanted to do it again, but it wasn't offered in 2020 and although it reappeared in 2021, it escaped my notice. As centuries go, it's fairly easy in that there's very little elevation change, but it's well done and is surprisingly social considering the fact that they don't have a post-ride beer garden.

It's not a race and—temporarily—being short of cash, I chose to use the rest stop food rather than use Tailwind in my water bottles. That meant I stopped five times. I'm also a big baby when it comes to traffic, so I took a lot more time (6:49:23) to finish this supported 100 mile ride than I did on my last unsupported rest day 100 miler (6:07:31).

Why?

I chose to ride ToRG for a few reasons.

One is that my brother-in-law has gotten into biking and he and I were going to ride some centuries this year, but he got injured. So, although our centuries together are deferred to next year, I was already looking forward to "them". In reality, although I rode the Santa Fe Century earlier this year, I probably won't be riding the Day of the Tread Century a month from now, because it conflicts with the Albuquerque Road Runners "Forever Young" footrace.

Two, in theory, I run six days week and ride my bike on Sundays. In reality, I often skip the bike ride because I'm a fair weather rider, especially after going over the handlebars due to me overly applying the break when coming up on black ice. Today, however, was good weather, so sure!

Three, I plan on running the Tortugas Mountain 24 hour race in Las Cruces on a Friday evening before returning to Albuquerque and then being the five hour pace group leader for the Duke City Marathon on the following Sunday, so by "running" (cough!) the AA 50k on Friday evening and then riding the Tour of the Rio Grande the following Sunday, I was able to make sure that the timing worked.

Notes

Off course briefly

Before the tour started, I ran into my friend Bill Dyea from search and rescue. We chatted a bit which was nice, but perhaps I should have used a little of that time to review the cue sheet, because I did miss one turn, the one going back east on Rio Bravo.

When I got to that intersection, I thought I was supposed to turn, but I looked carefully and didn't see any signs. Perhaps there was no sign, because the turn is "obvious", but I wasn't sure if there was a "backdoor" route that avoided Rio Bravo in the early afternoon when it was really busy. It's also possible that there had been a sign and it was removed or that it was still there and I just didn't look in the right place.

So, without seeing a sign and having a green light, I crossed Rio Bravo. But shortly after getting to the other side I stopped, got my bicycle out of traffic, turned on my phone, brought the course up on Gaia, saw that I made a mistake, then backtracked back to Rio Bravo and got back on course.

Trains weren't bad this year

Unlike three years ago, I only had to wait briefly at a train track crossing. There was indeed a train on the rails when I got to the infamous crossing, but it was a relatively short train and half of it had already passed.

Roadkill was

There was a ton of roadkill out. I must have seen at least a half dozen dead raccoons, two or three skunks, a couple of dead porcupines and even a coyote. Although I don't recall seeing as much roadkill three years ago, two data points isn't enough to draw any conclusions.

Signs definitely could be overlooked

Other than perhaps a sign marking the Rio Bravo turn, I didn't miss any signs that marked the course, but many people did miss the turn for the first aid station. That aid station is at the Las Lunas Railrunner (the local "commuter" train) station, but you have to take a left turn (on the way out) to get there. It's at about mile nineteen, but luckily (for the people who missed it), the second aid station is at about mile 31.

Bad (drunk?) Driver

As I was north riding on Isleta and approaching Gun Club, I saw a driver turn left from Gun Club and swing so far into the bike lane that his tires were inches from hitting the curb. The driver then overcompensated and swung past the left boundary of the lane before eventually settling into the middle. I was in no danger of being hit, because I was well behind, and I doubt that the driver would have swung that wide had I been in the way, because a bicyclist is larger than a curb, but … drivers still scare me.

Too much caffeine

Knowing that I was going to be stopping at all the aid stations and that traffic (potentially including a train) might also slow me down, I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to finish the ride in the allotted seven hours, so … I drank a quad espresso just before starting and another quad espresso at mile 50. Perhaps that was not a good choice, because I'm going to have a fair amount of trouble sleeping at my normal time tonight.

Knee held up nicely

I had injured my left knee when I fell at the Big Cottonwood Marathon fifteen days ago. My knee didn't give me any trouble at the AA 50k Friday evening and it didn't give me any trouble on this century. However, right now about seven hours after finishing, my knee is complaining.

Music as a crutch

ToRG doesn't allow people to ride with earbuds. I don't think I'd have used them even if I were allowed, because there's enough traffic that I really want to be able to hear the cars behind me. However, this ride did suggest to me that I rely on the beat of music to speed me up. In the future, I should take that into consideration.