At an unearthly hour the rude alarm clock tore us apart from sleep. Grants was our common goal for today’s ride. With entering New Mexico an early start was mandatory for me. The advantages: 1. No headwind until midday. 2. No thunderstorms until early afternoon. 3. Riding in the chill of the morning until the heat came in. The way to Grants was an almost 200 mile all paved ride on, compared to the last days, relatively plain terrain. Also the first fire reroute was scheduled for today. This reroute until Cuba would save some major climbs on the original route and was with 60 miles shorter than that. We got an email from Matthew Lee about the two fire reroutes several days before together with a route description. There was no GPS track available. I read the email more than twice but not today or yesterday. A fatal mistake! After our standard self made early start breakfast we were riding out of Abiquiu at 3:30 am. Surprisingly my legs were in a very good shape and we made a good pace. After two miles I already pulled off my leg warmers and my wind vest. A few further miles Thomas had to do his "bigger business" right next to the road. I decided to go on. That was my second big mistake. So I was riding and riding and riding with a really good pace on road 84. Even climbing was no matter today. With this pace I would be in Cuba for a second breakfast at about 10:00 am. I also decided to send all the stuff that I really wouldn’t need anymore already to Las Vegas, where I would fly back to Germany in one week.
At 5:30 am I switched off my flashlight and was wondering about Thomas. Where has he got to? Usually he was always faster than me and able to catch me up in a short time. But even on that prospective road no trace of him. I explained it to me that even Thomas could have a bad day and I had a really good one. The road had its typical stretched climbs and downhills. The sky was cloudy at this morning so the temperature was very comfortable. After a while I saw a billboard with an advertisement about any touristic region in Colorado. Very strange! Why on the way to Cuba there is an advertisement about Colorado? I needed some further miles until I got that I had totally got lost. I finally checked the direction where I was heading to on my GPS. The arrow that indicated the travelling direction always pointed to the north. But normally I had to move toward west. I scrolled down the screen to check where the reroute hit the original track again. Oh my goodness! The insight came drop by drop. I immediately checked the email from Matthew and I got ruthless at the painful knowledge about my own bloody stupidity. I got tears in my eyes, but that were tears of anger. Yes, so much stupidity at once really is saddening. For a short while I stood in shock. It took a while until I was able to gather my thoughts again. I calculated my options. Getting to Grants today and finishing in less than 25 days was now out of sight. Spending a night ride until Grants was not possible, because I just needed a night ride for the second fire reroute two days later. Two night rides and the second one with more than 250 miles overall would definitely exceed all my optimism and the faith in my endurance skills. There was no other option than backtracking until the junction of road 96. That would mean about 40 miles. Overall the whole unintended excursion cost me 80 miles and 6500 feet of climbing. Unfortunately this excursion did not remain undiscovered. A lot of people at home were following my misery online on Trackleaders.com and later on I had to answer all these nagging questions what happened there and I got a feedback how helpless they were sitting in front of the screen without any possibility to inform me about my failure. But that’s the Tour Divide - recognize your own mistakes, correct it and live with it.
At 5:30 am I switched off my flashlight and was wondering about Thomas. Where has he got to? Usually he was always faster than me and able to catch me up in a short time. But even on that prospective road no trace of him. I explained it to me that even Thomas could have a bad day and I had a really good one. The road had its typical stretched climbs and downhills. The sky was cloudy at this morning so the temperature was very comfortable. After a while I saw a billboard with an advertisement about any touristic region in Colorado. Very strange! Why on the way to Cuba there is an advertisement about Colorado? I needed some further miles until I got that I had totally got lost. I finally checked the direction where I was heading to on my GPS. The arrow that indicated the travelling direction always pointed to the north. But normally I had to move toward west. I scrolled down the screen to check where the reroute hit the original track again. Oh my goodness! The insight came drop by drop. I immediately checked the email from Matthew and I got ruthless at the painful knowledge about my own bloody stupidity. I got tears in my eyes, but that were tears of anger. Yes, so much stupidity at once really is saddening. For a short while I stood in shock. It took a while until I was able to gather my thoughts again. I calculated my options. Getting to Grants today and finishing in less than 25 days was now out of sight. Spending a night ride until Grants was not possible, because I just needed a night ride for the second fire reroute two days later. Two night rides and the second one with more than 250 miles overall would definitely exceed all my optimism and the faith in my endurance skills. There was no other option than backtracking until the junction of road 96. That would mean about 40 miles. Overall the whole unintended excursion cost me 80 miles and 6500 feet of climbing. Unfortunately this excursion did not remain undiscovered. A lot of people at home were following my misery online on Trackleaders.com and later on I had to answer all these nagging questions what happened there and I got a feedback how helpless they were sitting in front of the screen without any possibility to inform me about my failure. But that’s the Tour Divide - recognize your own mistakes, correct it and live with it.
I just tried to flag down a car that could drive me back to the junction with road 96, but without success. Who would like to pick up a dirty and stinky rider with an also dirty bike? After a while I abandoned all my hope for a quick trip back and got back onto my saddle. During the ride back it welled up inside me like a volcano wanting to bubble over. And of course I was just about to scrap the whole thing again. It was just a small comfort as I saw these gorgeous rock formations very similar to that one I had already seen in the Staircase Escalate National Monument in Utah a few years before. This is a real drawback of riding in the dark - the missing landscape.
It was past noon as I reached the junction to road 96. 80 miles just dust in the wind and my legs felt like the same. The sun was burning hot and a light headwind came up. Except the Abiquiu lake, that I should already have passed in the early morning, the boring landscape was not able to pull me out of my dark mood. I couldn’t calm myself down at all. What a bummer! I tried to kill the time with ranting and raving. I passed the jerkwater town of Coyote and stopped at a small grocery store right next to the road. After a quick resupply I took a seat on the bench in front of the store and tried to drown my frustration with some cans of Coke (not the right stuff for that). The store was located right across the post office (What I’ve noticed during the whole Tour Divide - every small jerkwater town and it didn’t matter how small it was had a post office). When I get to Cuba the local post office will possibly be closed. So, why not! I stepped in the office and the female staff gave me the biggest box she had. I was just wondering that I would be able to ship the parcel to every post office in Vegas. My understanding was that if a city or town has more than one post office there will be just one that is responsible for the general delivery stuff (…and I was right how I had to figure out later on in Vegas). Ok, she had to know it! I chose an office in walking or better in biking distance from the Strip. While she filled out the address label I went out to pack the box. I almost unpacked all my bags. In the end I had some trouble to close the box again. I put in the most of my warm clothes, my tent (stupid mistake), my bear spray and my dog dazer (stupid mistake too) and also my rain pants and shoe covers, overall more than 6lbs (2,5Kg). I got a recipe with a tracking ID.
Back on the road again J.D. Pauls caught me up and passed me by. With such stupid mistakes I was an easy pray for the pack behind me. The last turn I had to make was onto Highway 550. In Cuba I first checked in the frontier motel and did a full resupply at the gas station right across the street. The self service laundry right next to the motel took care for my stinky bike clothes. As I checked my emails I got the next shock from Matthew. The second fire reroute was closed now due to flooding and the Gila was open again. In the first moment I wasn’t aware about the consequences at all. But as I tried to untie the knot I was facing a fatal concatenation of unfortunate circumstances.
With my excursion today I lost one day definitely. With the Gila back in the game I needed one further additional day. But to tackle the Gila in two days I needed my tent what was on the way to Vegas now. Without a tent and even I would spend a night ride I was not able to finish the race in a decent time without missing my flight back to Germany. Postponing my flight was not an option at all. I twisted and turned all option forth and back but the result was always the same. I had to quit the race. So close to the finish and then an email like this. During the dinner at a Mexican restaurant around the corner I had time to think about my quit. The food was excellent, but it wouldn’t taste. As I came back Hamish McKee from New Zealand was standing in front of the motel. We talked together and as I told him about the Gila he was not very amused. But he gave me the tip to ask Matthew if the Gila is a MUST and if the fire reroute would be still an option. Apparently in my clouded mind I forgot the simplest things. Of course, why not! I sent an email to Matthew and got an answer within the next hour. The Gila wasn’t a must. Today some other riders passed the fire reroute but with a delay. I hadn’t got a clue what “with delay” meant, but I should learn it hard by myself two days later. Ok, I was back in the race and felt very much relieved.
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| Abiquiu lake |
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