Sharkman at the summit!

SANTA FE: DAY THREE

REVENGE AT SANDIA CREST!

SUPER DOMESTIQUE SARA!

Belo News
April 28, 2012

San Antonito, N.M. – For those of you who are regular readers of Belo News, and you’d better be, you may remember last Thanksgiving’s failed attempt of the Sandia Crest climb by our intrepid hero, along with the Great Moultini and Retro Man.  Dirt road, rain, sleet, and then snow caused the riders to have to turn back.

See “Tour of the West!” Belo News (November 2011);

http://belonews.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2011-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&updated-max=2012-01-01T00:00:00-05:00&max-results=44

However, on this day the team was bound to exact revenge on Sandia Crest!

New to the team was Minion, Sara, soon to be known as Super Domestique Sara for pacing our intrepid hero to the summit.

Fortified with a major dose of breakfast meats (Moultini’s bacon along with scrambled eggs) Sharkman was mentally convincing himself he was ready for the climb.  After two days of riding at altitude, Sharkman was sure he was ready.

Retro Man and Sara, arrived and the bikes were loaded on to the legendary Tahoe as they took off for the drive to San Antonito, where the team would begin the ascent.

Sandia Crest rises just east of Albuquerque and peaks out at approximately 10,600 feet.  The team would begin their attack on the climb at 6,500 feet.  With approximately 4,000 plus feet of climb in just 14 miles of muscle cramping effort, the old Shark had his work cut out for him!

http://www.nmts.org/rides/sandiaCrestClimb.htm

Unlike the ill-fated north face attempt of last Thanksgiving, the team was on a paved road on the south east side of the mountain.  The climbing began immediately as they left the parking lot near the Shell Station, as the Great Moultini and Retro Man jumped out to an early lead.

New Minion Sara and the Sharkman brought up the rear as Sharkman realized early that this was going to be a monumental climb and he did not have a 27 in his rear cassette (though that may have been a blessing as he would have ridden in it all morning and taken even longer to get to the top!).

As the team ascended the mountain, super Domestique Sara stayed with the Sharkman as they turned the pedals over and over and over and over again.  At one point Sharkman got excited as he saw mile marker 9 and thought they had gone 9 miles when Sara pointed out the numbers went the other way.  They hadn’t gone 9 miles,……… they had 9 miles yet to go! Oh, the humanity!

Super Domestique Sara

With the Great Moultini and Retro Man off the front, Sara moved ahead to join them as Sharkman just kept turning the 25 cassette in a very methodical approach to the climb.  Leftover patches of dirty snow began lining the shaded sides of the road. The air temperature continued to drop. As our hero began to fade, he pulled out a pack of “Sharkies” that Retro Man had giving to him before the ride began.

How could the Sharkman not know about these energy bites?

He immediately ripped into the package with his shark teeth and began chomping on the shark shaped gummy bites!  A swish of water later, he was fortified and stood up on the pedals and attacked the final ascent to the top where the rest of the team was beginning the celebration!

Looking down on Albuquerque

After a few photos and a quick view of the City of Albuquerque from 4,000 feet above, the team donned some warmer clothes for the spine tingling descent back to San Antonito.

Sharkman, Moultini, and Retro Man at the top

The ride down was well worth the work to get to the top!

Diving into the switch backs, snaking through the turns, without a speedometer on the Pinarello, our hero was unsure of the speeds, but suffice it to say, it was a FAST descent to the car!

Once at the Tahoe, with bikes loaded, the next race began!

Sharkman and the Great Moultini were meeting the family at the Albuquerque Zoo, while Retro Man and Super Domestique Sara needed to catch the train back to Santa Fe!

The Western Contingent 

Racing to the train station, the Tahoe performed flawlessly as the Great Moultini navigated his way to the downtown station.  Arriving just minutes before the train was to leave, the racing pair left their bikes on the Tahoe and barely caught the train.

After a sandwich at a local deli, the Great Moultini and Sharkman met the family at the zoo for an afternoon of watching lions and tigers and bears, oh, my!

Is this a great country or what!