Pie Town- 2.30pm Monday (day 17 + 2.5 hrs)

A very tired and dry sounding Simon just called from Pie Town. No pie though! The cafe was closed, but fortunately the Post Office was open and he'd posted himself a care package.

The Pie Town Cafe - closed as usual.

He had just had 16 miles of slightly rolling uphill, with corrugations & a headwind- so didn't sound like it was much fun.

Yesterday he did 270km. Saw a herd of about 20 red deer.

Fortunately it's not too hot today (he said it was 24 deg. C). He might only go on another 20 miles today.

But it gave him a real lift when Janet & Bill (my folks who we are staying with in Santa Fe) offered to go down and retrieve him from the border. We had been wondering how to manage it, the prospect of driving down there (about 8 hours from here) with a one year old wasn't very appealing, so we are super grateful that they have volunteered!

Keeping track

Now it's getting more down to the wire for Simon I'm going to start using the GDR race start time to keep a track of the days.

So, they started at noon on the 20th of June (we'll go from noon to noon)- it's now just after 2pm on Monday the 7th of July. Which means that he is 2 hours in to his 18th day.

Add a comment if I've got it wrong!

Day 16 call-in from Cuba

Simon's call-in:

• Day 16, from Cuba, New Mexico 888 KB, MP3

The dates have become even more confusing; yesterdays Podcast was definitely "Day 15, Friday 4th July", but today they're saying "Day 16, Sunday". The riders started at noon on the Friday 20th June - so the end of "Day 1" is noon on Saturday the 21st.

Whatever the time... Simon is still plugging away at those miles.

Cuba -mid day Sunday

We were out when Simon called this morning at 11.50. His message is pretty much as follows...

It was a really hard ride to Cuba & his legs feel exhausted.

He saw cougar prints in the dirt after being warned in Abiquiu about cougar being around, and to watch his back. (sadly a man in northern New Mexico was killed a week or so ago, by a cougar they think, so I guess the warnings weren't unfounded)

The ride from Abiquiu was the last big "hill" of the ride though, it's mainly just rolling stuff from now on. He's hoping to make it to Antelope Wells by 20 days. He's got 160 miles of seal in front of him & 3 out of 4 bolts are lost from his middle chain ring.

He sounded pretty tired.

Day 16 Sunday afternoon

From the GDR blog:

Simon called from Cuba at 11:45 a.m. Sunday. He said he couldn't find a pay phone in Abiquiu but he arrived about 5 p.m. Saturday. "Bit of a grunt over to here," he said. "But that's the last big hill of the ride." He was planning to hit the alternate route and shoot for Grants later today. He congratulated John Nobile "on taking it out," and said he hoped Geoff and David were feeling better and maybe even starting to think about next year.

The track south of Cuba through high desert [Source]

And the leader board:
Click to enlarge

Cuba is 2,133 meters meters above sea level.

At Cuba, Simon had pedaled 3,130 kilometers and climbed 42,062 meters in just over 2 weeks (Mt Everest is 8,850 meters tall). It's 152 km to Grants including 2,438 meters climbing (Mt Taranaki is 2,518 m). Simon has averaged 2,628 m climbing per day.

The finish line is 870 km from Cuba, with 10,668 meters climbing.

The weather in Grants is currently: 31 °C, partly cloudy, wind 26 km/h from the SSW (which sounds like a head wind).

Day 15 Friday call-in from Pletoro

Simon's call-in:

• Day 15, Friday, Pletoro 315 KB, MP3

And the leader board:

Click to enlarge

Abiquiu- 6pm Saturday

Simon called this evening from Abiquiu, New Mexico (the closest he'll be to us, till he gets back to Santa Fe (didn't mention that to him though!)). No pay phone there either, so it was a pretty quick call.

He said the Brazos Ridge [see weather ] still had snow on it. At El Rito he bought a bag of ice & put bits of it everywhere he could- down shorts (yikes!), pockets, back of his pack. It was pretty hot here in Santa Fe today, so that sounds like a good idea (though we did get a good downpour this afternoon, and it cooled off alot- Simon didn't mention that he'd had any rain).

Along Brazos Ridge (Simon had snow here) [Source]

He's going to head on out and get a couple of thousand feet of climbing under his belt before he hits the sack. I'm pretty sure he said the climb out of Abiquiu is the longest in the GDR. So I guess he'll be waking up to more climbing

South of Abiquiu

Tomorrow he's going to try to get to Cuba in the morning, have a siesta, then push on in the afternoon.

Heading towards Cuba