Big Wheel Racing

Nate and Lisa saddled up for NM Brevet’s Radium Springs 200K on December 1st. The ride started at Leasburg Dam State Park and followed the Rio Grande north to Hatch, then over to Caballo Lake then up to Hillsboro. After climbing to Hillsboro the route returned south on NM26 and back to Hatch. Riders arriving the night before were welcomed with a steady rain and wind. Rain eased to a drizzle around 6am, and stopped entirely for the start at 7. Soon it was a mostly sunny day, however, very soon the wind started to pick up. By 8:30 wind was building to 15-20mph sustained, and gusts were far higher. Lisa decided the wind was becoming too great an issue and called it a day. A very wise choice, as Nate (who is in possession of about 2x more road huggin’ weight) had his hands full keeping it on the road descending into Hillsboro, and also received a full-body workout fight the 1/4ing head wind on the return south. The combination of Hammer Nutrition Perpetum for nutrition and nuun for electrolyte replacement and hydration worked extremely well (nuun tablets were extremely convenient, just a tube in a pocket and way easier than messy drink powders that would have blown away in the wind). A couple
Honey Stinger gels and a tasty ham and cheese sandwich in Hillsboro courtesy Liz rounded out the days feasting. Nate finished the route in 8:14, and was the first one back to Leasburg Dam with the next pair of finishers 45min back.

John and Liz organize the NM Brevet series and do a great job of taking care of all the folks on the course while providing encouragement and somehow finding the most scenic and challenging riding in the state. And, in this ride which was advertised as 200K, we got an extra 10% at no extra charge for a total of 135miles.

Leasburg Dam provided a great start/finish area, a nice clean campground with extremely friendly and accommodating staff. And, with showers at the campground, what more could you want??

Nate post ride and shower, in his trademark “ahh shucks, I just road 135mi” look.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Race Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.