#mounting the bike in synch

[davidbrigstock]

May 21.

Tour Day 15. My Day 7.

It’s a rest day. It provides the opportunity to catch up with sleep, laundry, and other chores. We took the hotel shuttle bus to downtown Santa Fe. There was a small outdoor art show and I ended up buying a piece from an artist by the name of Muller Davis that had a bicycle theme. He’s going to personalize it to commemorate this trip and ship it to home.

Some of you may be wondering about a typical schedule. My iPhone alarm goes off at 4.30 am and I’m up by 5.00am. Then a visit to the ice machine so I can get the camel back bottles and hydration back pack ready for the day. One of the bottles gets Gatorade or similar; the rest get water. I post the live track link on here and make sure that the phone and wahoo are synched. Find the correct bike route in my wahoo. Make coffee in the room and do all that necessary stuff in the bathroom. Apply sunscreen, get dressed (mostly in bike gear). Put all the essentials (first aid pack, extra sunscreen, bandanna, etc) in the jersey pockets. Attach navigation cue sheet to clips on handlebars (a back-up in the event of GPS failure). It’s now 6am. Head down to breakfast, then back to room to put on remaining bike gear, finish sunscreen application (face etc), and put outstanding items into the duffel bags for transport to next hotel. It’s now 6.30am. Head downstairs with the two duffel bags and leave them for the crew to load into the truck. Back to the room to collect the bike. Make sure the lights, GPS and phone apps are ready. Don’t forget or misplace gloves, cap, helmet & shades. Snap the iPhone on to the stem mount and connect it to the battery pack. Check tire pressures and add air if needed. 90 psi for me. Listen to a brief summary for the day from the crew about the route and then sign out (so no one gets left behind). It’s 7am and we’re on our way.

What’s in my bike bags? The rear bag has 3 tire levers, 2 spare tubes, tube patches, tire patches, CO2 cylinders, mini pump, tool kit, chain link remover, & needle-nose pliers (for pulling sharps from tires). The front bag has a heavy duty battery pack so my phone will stay charged all day (some of the navigational apps are very power-draining), a few energy snacks, scissors (multiple uses), and a spare battery for sram gear changing.

At each SAG, we have to remove gloves, gel our hands, and sign in before heading to restroom / toilet or handling food. Before we leave we have to sign out. That way no one gets left behind before the crew departs that location. Often some clothing items like wind jacket and leg/arm coverings come off and are stowed in my camel back pack.

Upon arrival at the hotel , we sign in and if we are lucky our rooms may be ready which is bliss. If not we wait. That’s why adding a decent lunch stop before we arrive at the hotel is a sensible idea as it helps reduce the chance that the rooms won’t ready by the time we get there. We typically are riding for about 5 hrs so some of our breaks at SAG and lunch stops are unhurried events so we don’t arrive at our destination too early. After all we may be dealing with a hotel check-in time of 3pm. Once we have our room key, each rider takes their bike to the room which usually usually involves an elevator ride. The 2 duffel bags have already been delivered by the crew to the room. Strip off, shower, throughly hand wash the bike gear (no, I don’t wear underwear and yes I wear bib-shorts as they fit more comfortably as they do not have an elasticated waist), and figure out a way to dry it. Those window AC units that I used to dislike have now become a godsend, although some ingenuity is needed to get the wet stuff hanging near it. (Some hotels have washers and driers if there is sufficient time but that’s a luxury usually kept for rest days - that’s the case at the current hotel but there was a towel rack above the bathtub so I hand washed the clothes just to use it! That said, everything will get fully laundered tomorrow). Sort out street clothes for the evening and bike clothes for the next day. Charge all my bike gadgets using a multi-outlet USB charger. Check tires for any signs of sharps. Replenish snacks in the front bike bag. Rest. Then eat - usually at around 5pm at an adjacent restaurant for which we have prepaid as part of the tour fee. If time permits, I’ll do a quick stop at a nearby grocery or convenience store for certain essential supplies (eg Swedish fish, Twix bar for a treat that evening or Gatorade as I don’t want to wait until the first SAG to start replenishing electrolytes. I use gatorade powder in my water for simplicity, one box of which has enough sachets to last 10 days). By 7pm I’m back in the room and starting to organize duffel bags for the next day departure. I have one bag for all cycle-related gear (1 orange ribbon - see pic) and one bag for everything else (2 orange ribbons). By 8pm I am checking (= deleting) emails and writing this blog which actually requires a lot of thought and selection of photos. Then sleep until that awful 4.30 am alarm.

And so the cycle (excuse the pun) continues day in day out. Living out of two bags is challenging and requires a lot of planning to stay properly organized.