At the summit of Sandia Crest with my Giant Defy Advanced 2 road bike
From no bike to the summit in 3 months!
Like many, many people, I got a bike during the pandemic because there are no more team sports, so to get exercise out of the house, a road bike is a great way to see scenery and burn calories. I have actually been on bikes of different kinds all my life, starting with getting second place in the New England BMW Championships in 1982, to cycling 100km in Japan and camping in 2007. The torn ACL I suffered in 2015 put an end I thought to my time on a bike as I could not even get my knee to bend enough to pedal. I sold my bike and gave away all my gear. However, after a while, my knee did get better and I could run and jump again, and as you can see from these photos, ride a bike again! It is also my nature that when i do something, I do it all the way (within reason). So where in April I was doing relatively flat rides of 25 miles, just 3 months later that tuns into riding my bike to the highest peak in the area, Sandia Crest!
If you don’t plan to do it, it’s easier!
On many of these rides in the east mountains, my friend from ultimate frisbee, Nat, who of course also can no longer play team sports, has joined me. He started out saying he only wanted to ride 20 miles back in April also. Then over subsequent rides I added at leasts 10 more miles, and maybe another 1,000 feet of climbing. I sold him on this Sandia Crest ride by suggesting we merely do an east mountains route we already had, but on the way back let’s see how far we can make it up the crest road to summit. So we were not exactly planning on riding to the top, which I think helped us actually ultimately make it to the top! We didn’t know what we were getting into, and once we started, then made it to what we thought was halfway (actually not!), I was like there is no way we were not riding all the way to the top!
What’s next??
What is next on the list of cycling challenges? Riding what is called a century, which is 100 miles in a single ride. That should be easy after the 40 miles with 5,000 feet of climbing on the ride to North Sandia Peak!
