The Santa Fe Century Ride

Once again, I reluctantly talked myself into doing the whole enchilada, the whole shebang, the entire 103 mile Santa Fe Century bike ride. the passage of a year slipping under me didn't make it one bit easier. This time I had company. A friend from Estes Park Colorado came down to do this one also.

Jim Bangs and I on the road

I thought maybe I'd have better luck if I had a friend along. Turned out the altitude and old age didn't help me quite as much as I hoped. I mean really..... I've had many more years to train and develop strategy, so I ought to have a definite advantage over a young man.... right? Nah....didn't seem to work that way at all. But we did enjoy the ride together. Santa Fe Century is in my opinion one of the better bike rides in the country. It's one of my favorites anyway, or I wouldn't come back to beat myself up again on it.

Early morning picture of Jim ...

The first 40 miles is mountainous riding, winding south from Santa Fe on the Turquoise Trail, Highway 14. There wasn't any shortage of long steady climbs up through Madrid, and up to Golden.

Starting up the climb south of Madrid...

This is a tremendously historical area. The tiny almost ghost town of Los Cerrillos was a mining town in the early days, and a trading center. It is one of the oldest towns in the area. Today, they mine turquoise around the surrounding hills, but the town is mostly a ghost town. Because of the unpaved Main Street, and boardwalk that makes it look like an old west town, it has been the object of more than a couple western movies. We didn't go into Los Cerrillos on this ride, but I did last year, so I included one of those photos of the Los Cerrillos main street.

The main building here is still a functioning country store. A very unique little town, and if you don't mind the extra couple of miles, well worth the visit.

Madrid, is another old mining town, built by the Santa Fe to mine coal for their steam engines. It's company town heritage is still very evident. Today, it is an artist colony, and tourist attraction. Nothing much open there on Sunday. Another picture of Madrid from last years ride.

The old steamer in Madrid.

A little of the artwork in Madrid.

Golden, is what the name implies, an old gold and silver mining town that was at one time a bustling metropolis, but today is mostly a ghost town. The store and post office is about the only thing here.

Leaving Golden, the road continues to wind up a bit higher before dropping off a bit to our turnoff for "Heartbreak Hill". An extremely steep climb of a little over a mile that is a walking hill for most of us.

Heartbreak from the bottom.

And from the top looking back into the valley we started from.

After we got over Heartbreak, it was downhill a bit, then through a bit of a valley to the small community of Cedar Grove where we had another rest stop at the local fire department. Down the road a bit after the rest stop, we turned east toward Stanley, and what should have been the easiest leg of the ride, the dash mostly downhill to Stanley. Should have been....... except for the east headwind, one of the toughest winds we had faced all day, and turned it into a tough ride. The small community of Stanley has it's heritage in ranching, and from the looks of some of the old buildings, the town is probably from the 1800's. This entire ride is through very isolated roads and sparsely populated communities, most have nothing at all for purchasing supplies, so the excellent support of this ride is what makes it possible.

Stanley...

Stanley rest stop...

From Stanley on, we had a tailwind, which was very welcome. Gallisteo was the next town on the route, and again, a very small town that rolls up the streets on Sunday. Not much there except for the little church. Another rest stop before the long and steady climb back up into Santa Fe. By this time, I was getting very tired, and took more frequent rest stops of my own. Jim had to wait on me several times between here and Santa Fe. Finally though, a little five mile dash on I-25 back into town, past the hospital, down the bike path and a confusing little maze of neighborhood streets, and we were back at our hotel.....

I was tired....Jim looked like he could do another.

And so....another Santa Fe Century bites the dust. I may have been tired at the end, but very satisfied, and while I didn't set any speed records (13.1mph average), I DID finish, under my own power. I was even stupid enough to invite a skeptic to ride it with me next year, just to see if he can climb Heartbreak under pedal power. I guess next year will tell the tale.