Below is a narrative of my rides so far.
Elite Bike Shop, from whom I rent my bike, has group rides on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The other 4 days I am on my own.
My first ride day, Wednesday, I was on my own. Coming in from the airport, I had seen that there was a lot of construction on a road I often use. In fact, they had even torn up a bike path to put in a pipe? Hopefully they will restore the path and maybe even extend it.
It had been my intention to get up Wednesday morning at my normal 5am time and be ready to ride at the start of the hotel road circle. I finked out. About 3am I got up and turned off the 5am alarm. I got up about 7. I eat strawberries in the morning. There is a bike path that leads from my home, Plaza de Toros, south. It runs for about 3 kilometers? It used to go further, or at least connect up with the bike path along Av. Tulum that I just described as gone.
This bike path is famous in my history as I fell in 2022 for the only time in Cancun on it! It was at the end of a long ride, there was a signpost in the middle of the bike path and I choose the wrong side. I was fine but the bike was a little bent. The shop bent it back!
Anyway, Wednesday, on my “late start” ride I went out to the end of this path. I further explored the next kilometer where they had torn up the bike path and then headed home. A couple of years ago I had discovered an area they call EXPLANADA DE LAGUNA NICHUPTE. It is pretty large, certainly a kilometer long. It has a nice promenade along the inlet looking across to the Hotel Zone. It is crisscrossed with new roads. It was meant for further hotel development but it is empty and beautifully maintained as a kind of part. The only thing one has to be aware of is dog packs! The dogs are not aggressive as they are street dogs, used to surviving by keeping a low profile. But if they see a fast biker as a threat, they do stand their ground. The roads are a little “bouncy”, Mexican cobbles. Nothing like Belgium ones but not to be mistaken for a smooth surface. The promenade is smooth and I ride along that. Then home. A very short first day.
Thursday was a normal bike shop ride so I showed up at 5:40 after the 2 minute ride from my airbnb. As I approached a group left the bike shop with a chase car. I yelled to them, hoping they were a slow group getting an early start that no one had told me about. Several of the riders know me from previous years. The leader came right back and told me, no, this was a fast group. Oh well, I can always hope.
There were about 20 riders still at the store. I found the chase car driver and gave him 20 Mexican dollars, about 1$ US. Later that day I checked and I should be giving 50 Mexican dollars! Pretty soon we start out. Again I am always in hope of as many slow riders as possible. One woman looked like a possible candidate but then she surged ahead. Slowly everyone passed me as we got started on the real Hotel Road. Another woman seemed be struggling and so I hung with her. She waved the van to come pull her. This is a normal trick they do. The rider gets about 2ft off the back of the van and is pulled along in the draft. Years ago I did this but at least this day I was strong enough to keep up with the van and her without being crazy close in the draft. After a couple kilometers, she gave up even this and waved the van to pass her and rejoin the big group. I introduced my self and found out this was Lorie. She did not last long. She said she was too afraid riding without the van protection from the rear and prepared to cross the road and head home. I soldered on alone.
It was not bad. I have a great new REALLY bright red flasher setup in back. I also have 2 lamps on the front. I only turn on the one after I am dropped. The other is even more like a car headlamp. I have not turned it on at all this trip so far. In previous years I have run into sections of the hotel road where the street lights are out. Normally the Hotel Road is reasonably lit. But further out, once the Hotels stop, it is great to have this powerful headlight incase the street lights are out.
Occasionally, there are metal dimples in the road that make a humming noise to warn cars of an approaching traffic light. I can’t really describe them. If you saw one you would say, oh yes. They are a little scary for bikers in that they bounce one around a bit but I have never slipped on one. The traffic lights are mainly not active in the 6-7am timeframe but they are there. Another big danger is pot holes. Thursday I saw a couple marked with orange cones as I road out. I am pretty sure lorie turned around right after the Pirate bridge that comes about 5K. The next big landmark is where the road divides at a shopping district that has a night club Coco Bongo along with everything else. For the rest of the Hotel Road, the north and south bound lanes are in sight of each other but not at this one point.
I was beyond the divide in no time and passing my lunch place Surfin Buritto at 10K. The next sights or landmarks that I am checking off in my mind are a little confused. There is a Farris wheel, a yellow mall, a Harry’s restaurant, a fence that has a grass cover. Finally at 19.5K I approach the Cancun sign. I always remember the danger point right before here. I am given a third lane, which I love as it gets me further from the flying busses but then it is abruptly taken away and I almost run into a curb. Made it. Up to a bus stop and bench across from the Cancun sign. I sit down for at least 5 minutes to rest. It has really been a very reasonable ride. I will turn around here. The group has probably ridden onto the Blue urb at 24K. Last year I would have gone there and then proceed on to Av Tullium and take that road home. That is where the construction now blocks the path.
I cross the Hotel Road and start back. Everything is fine. I do hit a pot hole but survive. Opps didn’t. I soon feel a flat time and pull over. Yep, front is flat. I take the bike onto the sidewalk and turn it over in preparation for playing bicycle mechanic. Before I can get out any tools, a bike group comes by. They pass in a second but turns out one of the women who works at Elite and was on the ride, recognized me on the side of the road. She yelled to the chase car to back up and collect me. The man put my bike on the 5 bike bike rack n the back and I climbed in. The van was full! Two bikes, 3 people but I was finally able to climb over and get in a seat with a lot of help from the other riders. As far as I can tell, the other riders where just tired as their bikes seemed fine upon arrival back at Elite.
Once we arrived at the shop, Jorge, who actually does the rent a bike paperwork started right away to fix my tire. He had real trouble getting the wheel off the bike. He asked me for the spare I carry. Soon he had it all set. I did miss the picture and I said I would stop in later in the day to buy a new spare. In fact, I bought 2! I am pretty sure the older man with the white beard who you will hear more about Saturday, was on the ride and acknowledged knowing me from last yarer. We bumped fists. He does not speak very much English.
Friday. I go down to the circle at the base of the hotel road where I have met the other riders for 7 years when there is not a shop ride. No one shows up! I see a couple riders heading off in the direction of the shop. I am sure they are not meeting there, but upon further reflection I think they are meeting in that area but I did not want to take the chance of chasing after them and loosing them.
I do see a rider on a older bike and with a big headlight head down the bike path that is mainly used for runner on the “exit” side of the hotel road. Once I am sure that no one will show up here, I decide to try that route. I follow the bike path all the way to Surfin and a little beyond where it stops. 10K I have to go slow. There are trees in the path. There are low hanging branches. There are concrete road furnature cylinders. And of course there are runners and walkers. But all in all, I do not hit anything and I am beyond Surfin safe. I sit down at a bus pullout until it is fairly light outside and the automatic street lights have turned off. Then I ride home as fast as I can. There are a few times when the buses are too close but there are also lots of stretches when there is no traffic. This bike path/real road ride is not as nice as a normal hotel road ride but it is certainly more exercise and preferaber to what I did Wednesday on the bike path and unused hotel roads near my airbnb.
Saturday. I have fallen behind in reporting, surprise surprise. Today was the first real success. I road 40+ K at a reasonable clip. This a shop ride day so we left about 6am. I tried to count riders, it was less than Thursday, maybe 15. Lots of the women missing. I did not see an “early” fast group leave and assume there was none.
I was able to stay with the group until Surfin Buritto at about 10K. I was working hard, repeating to myself that I would hang on until Surfin and then waved the van around. It is hard for me to report but I would say the group was doing about 18K/hour which is fast for me. I was able to proceed on alone to the Cancun sign. The mile stones are always a confusion in my brain. Surfin, small yellow plaza, ferris wheel, orange cone. There should be a large yellow plaza and Harry’s but I never saw either. There are K markers all the way along but they are hard to read. I did notice the grass wall that hides construction and the Purple sign on the right. In one sense Cancun sign felt further, was not coming as soon as I expected and then I was there.
I sat down on the South side bus pullout for 5 minutes. Crossed over and right away 2 bikers came and yelled Tom. I jumped on my bike, was able to catch them and report to them that “I am on”. The one man, who has a smaller white beard, did most of the pulling. I would say the larger man in red was slower. They were moving right alone. I would have been happier with a slower pace but I was able to keep up. As always, I just keep repeating the name of the next goal like Surfin or Pirate and I was able to hold them. A faster biker came along and the white beard took off with him, The red shirt really pushed me to get in front. I guess he hoped I would go off with the other two but I had no intention of such work and later he came back in front. Later we picked up the white beard who had stopped for us.
At the end of the hotel road, I expected them to proceed onto the bike shop but they pulled over to the right exercise area.. Told me their names (I have not idea) took a picture of the 3 of us and asked how old I was. I then proceeded alone to the bike shop, sat around for 10 minutes and the main group arrived. Only one man had gotten in the sag wagon. I got into the picture and walked home. I will go back to the shop once it is open to see where the non-bike shop ride leaves from on sun, mon,wed,friday etc. And I hope for some advise on how to buy a safety pin to better secure the pockets in my riding shirt.
Sunday: Did 40+ again today. Same route, out to the Cancun sign and then back. Sunday is of course a non-elitebike shop ride day. There clearly are other groups riding. I see them all the time, I asked at Elite where the other groups meet up and I have a general idea. But today I just decided to ride on my own and maybe one of them will overtake me and, very unlikely, be going at a pace where I could join in.
The trip out was luckily uneventful, or at least I do not remember anything! I put on both headlights right away and kept saying to myself “going to Pirate, concentrate on the floor”. By that I mean that I am at first aiming to get to the Pirate bridge and I want to be concentrating on looking for danger in the road right ahead of me. I may adjust the big headlamp to show a little further ahead. Have to see how that feels. After the Pirate, 5K, I changed the mantra to Surfin and concentrate. Made surfin 10K with little pain and now I am trying to memorize landmarks until Cancun Sign at 20K where I will turn around for the 3d time. So far I seem to have Little Yellow plaza, Ferris wheel, Concrete medallion statue in the median, Purple sign on the left, Harry’s, green grass fence and then Cancun sign. I sat down as always at the sign and rested. I even got out my phone from its ride location in the spare tire pouch under the seat and entered the time and my memory of landmarks. It was 620. I got up and prepared to cross the street and start home. Just then 12 riders came by with one chase vehicle. They were the first riders I had seen. That makes sense in that I started very early at 5:30ish.
The main focus of the first Ks of the ride home was to find the pot hole that gave me a flat tire on Thursday AND avoid it. My memory Saturday, when I rode this section with the two men who had early turned from my Elite group, was that the pot hole was much further toward Surfin than I had originally thought. On Saturday, the man in Red pointed it out as we approached, as is the rider custom to warn riders behind. Today I had to find it myself so I went slowly and tried to count the bus pull outs or any other landmarks that would allow me to pin point the dastardly obstacle on future mornings. It really is at least 2-3K from the sign, after 3-4 bus pull outs. One can get to the inside, right of it and you do not have to go out around into possible traffic. Uneventful ride home. Landmarks, surfin, Pirate, and then in the last 2k, just before a hotel complex with Stone pillars, I was passed by a young lady along who said Bon Diea. She had her own chase car and was not going too fast so I was able to latch on behind the car. I would have loved to seen where she went at the end of the hotel road and maybe follower her. I think they turned left as I do. But, just before the end of the road, we came upon two men pushing a taxie. The woman went right by. The chase car had to stop and get around slowly with me but then I was dropped. I always mean to talk to Elite about how much it would cost me to hire my own chase car and I certainly will have to adopt such a plan as I get older.
Monday. Decided to stay off the Hotel Road today for no reason other than giving my mind a rest. Always stressful to be with such traffic. I left the alarm off, got up about 7:30 and left by 8:30 I was back by 10:15. There is a very strange straight looking road that leaves Cancun near me and heads in the direction of the airport. It was pointed out to be maybe back in 2015 by a man I used to talk to at El Estradio beer bar. His talk regarding it was that it had a bike path in the median strip that his family used. I had noticed it before as it was the only straight road in Cancun other than the high traffic arteries to Playa etc. Back then I road it but decided that the medican bike path was too twisty and overgrown. Fun but not a real ride. I never got near the end of it.
So today I took my local bike path towards Av Huayacan. You can see it clearly on google maps as going in a strange direction and straight! The crux of the problem, even back in 2015 was getting from my Airbnb across Av Tulum, the main artary, to the start of this Av Huayacan. This year it is even worse as there is a multi block construction project right in the way. Back and forth, this way and that, walking my bike, I finally got tot he start of Huayacan. Its trafic is fast. The road sholder is not wide but it is there. There is sometimes some gravel in it but I was going slow to be able to map any pot holes etc. There was at least one open manhole and a pot hole or 2 but the cars seemed to be giving me just enough room. At least there are not the buses stopping and starting to pick up passengers. Also, it is now light. I am not sure if that is good or bad in that my tail lights may show up less. I also always say that the drivers on the hotel road at 7am were there yesterday and know a lot more about what bikers can and can not do, like stop suddenly!
As I have sid, I did not ride nearly as hard as I do on the Hotel Road. Being careful. I always stopped if there was a car in the sholder inorder to not be passing it. I was maybe 1/2 way out when I was slowed down for an intersection and saw 3 bikers attempting to cross and head off to my right. They were able to cross, said Boanus Deaaos and headed off. I took up pursuit. They were moving but at a doable speed, nothing like Hotel Road. They also knew the terrain and so slowed down at speed bumps etc. This was great. I was getting more exercise, did not have to worry about the road and looked forward to talking to them. But, after a reasonable period they turned off onto a parallel dirt road. They had hybread bikes instead of my road bike and I decided not to follow.
I think that was a mistake. I think the road they turned onto actually ran parallel to the one we were on and was just the right hand side and became paved very soon. Anyway, it finally dead ended into another cross street.. The phone said I was close to Walmart but I could not recognize anything. I took the right, traveled a fair way and then again was forced right and came back out onto Av Huayacan. I was close to its start so I just took the median bike path. The next challenge was getting back across the main arteries that I had so much trouble with getting to Huay in the first place. I did a fair amount of walking with the bike and finally came to a gas statoion that provided access to the road I was walking along but in the North direction. I was able to cross it. Continued on East on back roads and got to Av Tulume that is the main drag but the traffic there was not bad. I was able to cross, took another small cross street and finally arrived back at the bike path from my Airbnb that I had started on. Easy ride home. I think I left at 7:30 and got back at 9:30. I am not at all sure I will be able to retrace my steps, the return steps, which could provide a nice easy way to Huay instead of the terrible construction I had to go through to get to it this morning.
Tuesday. Another Elite ride day. We left at 6am and I was back by 8. As we start out, as they gain speed, I always fall back. I have to be careful that anyone who falls back with me is not going to quit like Lourie did on Thursday. But all seems well. The only person dropping back seems to be able to catch up quickly. A man had spoken to me before we left. He had pretty good english. Turns out he was one of the “minders” and came up along side me at the back and put his hand on my back to push me along to catch up and join the drafting. I very rudely yelled at him “Do not touch me”. I went on to explain that I knew he wanted me to join the drafting but I prefer to ride back here. Anyway, he and the rest rode off. I was able to hold them until Pirate but was really suffering, pant breathing and dropped off soon after.
Really uneventful on the way out. As you have read, I always try to keep track of the landmarks to know that I am making good progress. At he same time, I have trouble remembering things due to brain oxygen deprivation. My notes, made at the Cancun sign once I stopped at 6:40 say See Farris, pass little yellow, pass another little yellow, pass farris wheel, then concrete medallion purple sign on left, Harry’s again unlit, grass fence, 7/11 store and then Cancun sign bus pullout and a 5 min rest! A couple of groups passed me, I think while I rested. I am sure the Elite group went by homebound on the other side soon after I sat down. That must mean that they turned around at the bus turnaround instead of going all the way to the blue globe statue. I’ll have to remember to ask.
Trip home was uneventful. I was passed by at least one lone women rider with a chase car. Maybe the same as a few days ago when she passed me much further along, down by the end of the hotel road and I was able to stay with her four a couple Ks. My main focus on the start of the return is to find out exactly where the pot hole is that caused my Thursday flat tire, I now know that it is further along than I first thought. It is after a hotel that is called Royal? It is after a blue overhead destination announcement sign? It is on the right but not up against the curb so that I can travel between it and the curb. I do not need to venture out into the traffic stream.
The great danger on the return route has always been buses that are parked in the right lane so that I have to venture out into the left and HOPE that another bus is not coming to mush me between the two. Usually these danger parked buses are out beyond Surfin. Not today. I ran into at least three of them in the last Ks of the ride. But each time I was able to listen and hear there was no other bus coming and venture out to pass as quickly as I could, Usually if a bus is blocking my path I will slow down and be sure he is not moving. If he is moving, I just wait for him to get out of the way.
All in all, a reasonable ride. I did swing by Elite. Some of the riders were still having coffee in the cafe but I just kept riding and will see them again on Thursday. My plan as of now, 8pm Tuesday, is to ride the hotel road alone again out to the Cancun sign. We will see!