After the normal shop ride Wednesday, we were sitting around, me just there as they are speaking spanish. Cyhthia mentions that she will not ride Friday as she is resting up for the Saturday all day trek. Alberto, the shop owner sitting across from us offers me the chance to go and I jump at it.
Soooo, I got to the bike shop at 5:30 as requested. We waited probably until 6:30 for Steve who is staying out on Isle Mujeres. More about him later.
We drove like 2 hours? One mistake where we missed a turn and had to pay a man with a wire across a dirt road to get back on track.
We pull over in a small small town and proceed to download the bikes that has to take 1/2 hour. We all have a back pack in the car so I am just riding with my normal kit, not carrying anything extra on the bike. During the delay starting in Cancun, I was able to go back to where my bike was racked and get the water and the most precarious of the 2 rear lights off and into my pack. Wanted to be sure they did not decide to jump off during the motor ride.
There is of course a group picture. Some people use the woods bathroom as I should have. The pictures with the Elite logo are taken by them, the others by me. You can see all the posted Elite pictures Click Here
That is Cynthia on my right.
About 21? riders
I missed out on the Fluffer Nutter and suffered as a result.
Off we go. The main problem, beside for a little too much speed are the speed bumps for the cars in the road. I really need to slow down to take them and then struggle to catch up. There were a couple stops to check directions but really no time off the bike that I remember. I am riding with Cynthia, the young lady who rides with Elite and Monday made it around the Hotel Road for the first time She suffers and I try to get her to be more steady but when she feels good she goes faster and then suffers later.
This is Cynthia getting a hand from one of the leaders?
Early group with car at the front. We are supported with two vehicles. Here you see the black Van. The other large van with a trailer you will see more often.
View of the group riding along with Exeter second. I thought I would get to learn his name at subsequent shop rides but he never showed again. His english was almost native speaker level. He grew up way outside of Mexico city and came twice to the United States for summer English. I call him Exeter as the second summer was at Phillips Exeter. He may have also gone to college in Texas.
I am pretty much at the back of the pack. For that reason I am in picture after picture as the photographer is in the following van! Good thing I am the only one in bright yellow!
We have been riding a long way with a few regrouping stops.
This is one of our stops.
Another early stop.
tom and Exeter at the rear
tom at the rear
Tom and Cynthia at the rear
Tom at the rear
I remember one regroup at a square. Maybe 60K. Then, we come across Alberto and the bike van parked at the side of the road. Cynthia nicely yells to me to come back and 3? of us just wait. The rest, the whole pelaton, comes back in 20? minutes. I had put my rented bike up against the trailer and had the sense to take my only picture of it!
my bike
We then proceed onto a square with a church were we sit and I get to hear Steve’s story. He is a powerful rider. Races. Goes off for a week at a time riding hard in native Vancouver, carrying almost no cloths! Wife is with him in Cancun and their 12 year old son. I think the mother and son are on their way to 3 months? in a school in Costa Rico. This is the normal pattern. Mother and son go somewhere in a foreign country, son is enrolled in “traveling School”. I had never heard of this. Gave Steve my card to send me the info but he never did and I have not taken the opportunity to write to Alberto and ask him to poke Steve on my behalf. Steve started out poor and now owns an office cleaning company in Vancouver and has a manager who has been with him 13 years so that Steve can be away for stretches. One of his best lines, when asked how he was doing being at the head of this 150K ride, was that at this pace he could ride 24 hours a day. I asked him how he survived the rutted road that did me in and he said his downhill mountain bike skills click in and he just chooses the best path, even in traffic!
The church: Tom is talking to Steve on the right
Steve had me take this picture of him!
After 15 minutes sitting in front of the church, Alberto and the van arrive with two riders who we assume got lost. There is another chase car van that has been with us. When things are going well, the non-trailer-pulling vehicle will often drive at the front of the Pelaton and the van at the back. Of course as people have mechanicals, usually the van has to stop and the smaller car moves to cover out rear, our more vulnerable side.
Now that the van has arrived, we set up in a town square for the most substantial on-ride eating. There are lots of boiled eggs, bananas and bread. The nutello to put on the bread is soon exhausted. Riders drink a lot of soft drinks. There is unlimited water and ice. There are some granola type bars. Cynthia is pretty waisted.
Lunch Time!
The children from the town and the dogs hang very close to see what will be available.
Children at Church
The leaders were smart enough to bring dry dog food that they spread out, or maybe it was some type of human food that no one was eating. I did not get a picture of the spreading nor of the kids who came in and collected it after the dogs had had their fill.
We head out, have a couple regroups and “is this the correct way” stops. We come through one town with fairly rough roads. I am suffering trying to hold on to the group I am with. I hit a speed bump too hard and knock my seat out of alignment so it is slanting too far downward for me to ride comfortably. A young man pulls out an allen wrench, takes off my under seat pack, realigns the seat and we are back heading in the other direction having missed a turn. Clearly knocking the seat out of alignment is a sign that I am tiring.
Where are we?
Next we head down what turns out to be a very rough track. Soon I have fallen behind. One woman is with me, staying behind me. I thought at the time that she was part of the “team” but I now think she was just another rider. The van and trailer are with us. I can’t keep up the pace. The road it really terrible. I am yelling each time I land too heavily in a hole. Very Noisy. This would be a hard road for a trail bike and we have road bikes that are “firm”, they have no suspension to dampen bumps.
The last two of us on the road from Hell.
I go for a pretty long time. Cynthia is in the van, having already retired, and thinks we have now gone over 100K
The crew in the van!
Below are the pictures I took out the window once I had given up riding this stretch and was in the van,
I am not the last one to give up! We pick up like 4 more people before we get to the end of the rough road and a Beer stop!!
This group got there before me and the Van!
But there was still some left for me! Worth mentioning the man with the yellow helmut holding up the five fingers.
His real name is like jose louise but Alberto, owner of Elite, says that they all call him Marvel as his helmet is like the comic book person. Anyway, Marvel has good English. I talked to him on one of the first Elite Monday-Wednesday Friday rides. He told me the story that Rubin, one of the few Hotel Road 6AM riders who I have talked to over the years, had fallen a month ago. Marvel was the first to find him and help him get to the hospital. Marvel did not know that Rubin was back riding but I rode WAY behind Rubin a couple days later on the Hotel Road. One more Marvel story. He comes up to Steve and I at the end of the ride and brags about being the oldest rider on the Trec. I kept quiet.
normal scrum for selfie
Last group photo!
Finally the end of the ride at the town of Valladolid. I am the only one who did not ride the last 8K? leg. I just had had enough of chasing to catch up. So it was just Alberto and I in the Van as we find the town and then searched for the park where we would pack the bikes and head off to dinner. But first of course the group picture at the Valladolid sign that has the same multi color as the Cancun sign.
Just in case you did not see it, With Tom in the D.
The process to load the bikes takes a long time and many people. Note the ladder that Alberto uses to get to the top of the van!
More loading
Ready to leave.
Organizing to go to dinner
At the dinner table
Another shot showing the whole table. A smaller group ate elsewhere. I ended up with this one because the other location had no cervaza!
And lastly, our faithful leaders!
Here are three items I was sent before the ride. The first is a spreadsheet image of distances. The next two are maps though I do not know how they are related.
