So, the purpose of the trip is riding. There is a fair amount of eating and drinking but riding is the purpose!
Over 1/2 way!! I have ridden 8 times, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and hopefully will ride 5 more times, assuming no more rainouts or an attack of “this getting up at 5am each morning is a pain.” I did have to take Friday Jan 10 off, there was a torrential downpore going on at 5am. It is ok to ride with a little rain. I was rained on a very little Thursday and significantly more Sunday. It is not the comfort but the safety. As I understand it, there is always a little oil on the roads, from cars etc and that oil floats with the start of a rain and can make the roads glacial. I fell riding back in New Hampshire in December, not due to any road condition, but I was forceable reminded that one unlucky turn, one mistake and my riding days could be over!
Thursday and Saturday were my normal Cancun freelancing. Anyone who is riding meets at Kilometer 0 of the hotel road about 6AM. As of last year, there are always a lot of chase vehicles that stay behind the riders with a flashing light. They also can fix flats and a car has so much drafting power that the more experienced riders can use the car to drag themselves back up to the fast moving group. Years ago I was with a group on the hotel road and used the car in that way but riding balls to the wall 1 foot off the bumper of a car is not my cup of tea. I think there was a particularly friendly young lady with us and I was foolish enough to join her in this death defying maneuver.
Either I am getting weaker or the general Mexican rider is getting stronger! This year I am getting dropped right away! The hotel road is marked with Kilometer signs. It would be very hard to read the signs when in all out race mode but one knows the general landmarks. The pirate ship with hill up to a bridge is at 5K. The road divides for .5K at 9K. The big yellow shopping mall is at 13. Then one gets Fred’s, another yellow sign and finally the hill up to the Cancun sign where people take selfies at 18. Then it is past the archaeology sight, the bus turnaround, the first bridge at 22 and another bridge at 24. The Blue Tower after 27 and then I turn right for home. This part is unsigned as far as Ks but is about 15K in all and about 7K into it, a bike path takes me to 3K from Cancun and then service roads and local roads back to the shop where I rent the bike.
Both Thursday and Saturday I got dropped BEFORE the pirate ship at 5K. Both days I just motored home at my own pace. Sunday, no one came to ride at 6:00, 6:15 and finally I left on my own at 6:30. A slow group of 6 and a chase car pulled in ahead of me and I was able to catch them. I road with them all the way to when they pulled over at the Blue Tower. We took a group picture and they headed off toward Porto Moralas while I took my normal road and bike path home along the mainland. Hopefully I will see them again. One could tell that while young, they were just learning. Several had cages on their peddles instead of the normal clipin. I am the only rider on the hotel road with just a tennis shoe.
Monday was my first day with the slow group from Elite bike shop were I rent my bike. It is just around the corner from my Airbnb and they start st 5:50. I had planned to ride with them Friday, but the rain. Nixed group. I warned them I was slow. I was able to hold them at the Pirate, at 9K, I had to work sometimes but generally I was able to hold them and kept hoping they would stop for a little siesta. No luck, even at the Blue Tower they just motored on. I am losing desire. I was kind of counting on that stop so when they just kept to the main road instead of transferring to my bike path, I dropped back and waved the chase vehicle around. When I finally arrived back at the bike shop they all clapped for me and included me in the mandatory picture. A young woman who had identified herself as the slowest rider said it was the first time she has ever made it all the way around with the group. I congratulated her on no longer being the slowest! On one of the steepest hills, leading up to the Cancun sign, one of the stronger girls put an arm around our friend to keep her momentum up.
Tuesday I was back at Kilmoneter Zero at 6AM. Rubin showed up!. I am always a little slow to recognize anyone with bike kit on but Rubin has a iron leg from the knee down so he is easier to spot. I had asked an older man, Jesuslouise, at the Monday ride, if he had seen Rubin lately and he said Rubin had fallen a month ago and had stitches. He also said that Rubin was getting faster and faster and therefor harder to keep up with. Rubin remembers me, figured out that it was Jesuslouise who had told me about the fall and asked after the Elite leader Alberto.
A moment later a pelaton of 30+ riders showed up, Rubin took off with them so I hopped on. I was able for the first time to hold them until the 5K pirote but then just motored home on my own. There had been a young lady at 0 K that I did not think joined in this group. She looked very fit so I assumed she would soon pass me but she never did. One bad incident. While I was in the blackout dark zone, a group of 30 plus came racing by. The first two leaders are able to see me but then the others are completely surprised by what appears to them to be a rider droping back through the group on the right side like a stone! I was scared and yelled for more room. As I came in the last stretch on the service road, I joined a group of about 5 and followed them to the bike shop. They were clearly part of the “fast” ride that goes out Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. They included me in their picture and I complained a little about the danger of the dark zone.
Wednesday I felt I would be in pretty good shape. I should be getting stronger and I almost made it all the way with them. The same slower girl was there and a lot of new people. Riding out I told her that I hoped some of the new people were slow but she did not think so. She admitted that Monday she used an old trick of mine and went to the front and slowed the whole group down! This ride I had plans of racing ahead just before the bike path and hopefully being able to get on and off it without loosing the group.
That plan soon went up in smoke. My slower friend dropped back seriously puffing at the 5K pirate hill and it soon because obvious that she was heading for a ride in the car. I had slowed down too much and was unable to catch the group so I road all the way home alone. The dark zone stared about 24K at the second bridge. At first it was not too bad but then I was blinded by the oncoming headlights and soon I was riding completely blind with my small headlight unable to do anything. One has the strange sensation that the trees on either side are coming into the road. You just have to have faith that the road is straight and eventually my eyes adjust and I can see enough to not be too afraid. And, the dreaded Pelaton never came by?
Thursday is the fast group from Elite so I went down to freelance at K0. Only a couple guys where there by 5:55 and they were not in the usual place. Just then Rubin came by with 30 friends, yelled hello Tom and I hoped on. Had to race to get the lights going. I never got in front of the chase cars, just busted ass to stay with them and was happy to finally give up at the 5K pirate ship. Pretty uneventful from there. I was passed by one female led pelaton that I thought might be Elite. Another larger one passed me I think after the dark spot. As always the dark spot was hell but at least no pelaton caught me in that morass. It does start before the 22 bridge and has some turns in it that are very scary but at lest all turns on the hotel road are gradual. The real problem is that the oncoming headlights blind me and then it takes a few seconds for my eyes to readjust down to the level where my own headlight allows me to see the curb. The cars catching me are a mixed bag. Their headlights allow me to see better but I am nervous that maybe my rear lights are not strong enough to catch their eye.
No dog problems on the leg home. A couple riders, maybe 4 in 3 different groups, passed me. Had to yell to get 3 walkers to give me a share of the bike lane. Back at Elite there is no one but 5 of the chairs have “top dummies” in them. A bike kit shirt stuffed with what I assume are provisions for a day, like maybe a rental trip? But the shirts are all different logos? Maybe I can remember to ask at normal slower ride that isn’t really slow enough for me tomorrow, Friday.
Friday ride from Elite again resulted in my getting dropped, all be it a little later than usual. Exactly what transpired, as far as my losing touch with the group, catching back up, losing touch again, even during the end of the ride it is hard for me to reconstruct. This is mainly due to me not having enough oxygen to peddle the bike at the rate desired and lay down memories in my brain. I’m pretty sure that a young man and I were dropped at the first hill, the pirate bridge and with an heroic effort were able to catch back up. I am ashamed to say I did not help him by pulling him along. I did not just draft on him but I was over on the side. Hopefully I gave him some moral encouragement. I am just too afraid that if I put in the extra effort to pull him along, I will just die and have to drop off when we catch the main group.
There was at least one more incident where the main group slowed down for a bus in the road or a read light and I went into the red zone trying to catch up. The final nail in the coffin I am pretty sure came on the steepest hill that leads up to the Cancun sign. But it could have been the hill to the first bridge a K or two later at 20K. In any event, the slower rider and I were dropped again. I went by him this time knowing that I was in trouble if I did not catch on quickly. He signaled that he was going to give up and get in the van.
The dark zone comes at 21K? My goal all along was to be able to ride through it with their bike lights and the lights of the chase van. No luck. I had to survive it again alone. Luckily the pelaton did not come racing by me in that darkness. In fact, I never saw them, which is very strange?
At first, my eyes seem to adjust and I am able to ride with reasonable confidence looking down at the illumination from my tiny forward lamp. But soon I am blinded by the oncoming car lights and I really can see nothing. As I have said, the trees appear to be jumping into the road. I can not see the curb. I have to just assume the road is straight and I am on it. Finally I get adjusted enough to see the white lines and the curb. Whenever a car comes from behind I am able to see even more and be sure and drive myself as far as I can to the right side. Next comes the second bridge, with its small hill at 22K. And finally I can see the street lights back on up ahead. Had one dog incident but it was relatively mild. I arrived back at Elite nd the riders did not clap!!
I found out the stuffed rider kit jerseys are just pillows! Alberto who is running the all day trip tomorrow spoke to me to confirm times and back pack etc. He says we are going to a town with old architecture that I will enjoy and it seems we will eat at the market, whatever that will mean for me?
Friday night I was off to Chinese food.
Saturday was Valladolid. It gets its own page
Sunday I took off. I probably could have made it. My stomach was a little upset from too much water and too little food on the 100+ K Saturday ride. But once I get out of bed, dressed and on the bike, my experience is that most things just work out. I really would have liked being able to show off that I had kept riding but elected the easier and more cautious path and stayed in bed.
Monday with the Elite slower group but the two people I talk to, Cynthia and Exeter did not show after saying they would. Both too tired form Saturday I assume. I stayed with the group all the way onto the main road back and almost to the bike path.
Tuesday was the next to last ride. I freelanced as today the Elite group is faster. The last couple of freelance days things have been a little “looser” at 0K. Not quite the normal everyone shows up and everyone goes pattern. So at 5:55 I got the one rear light on and was on the lookout for a group to just come racing by. Last time Ruben called out to me but this time just the pelaton. I was almost fast enough. I turned on the other rear light to high, jumped on the bike and turned on the head light once riding. It is easy to turn on. But I was now behind the two chase cars and I never made the effort to go on their inside to get up with the riders.
We were almost at the pirate hill when the two cars got caught in not one but 2 lights. That is the end of me. Cars can accelerate up to catch the peleton and I can not. But, I was more than happy. I was at the 5K mark, traffic seemed light and I was running fine. Made it up past Surfin Bureto and a 10? rider group passes me with Ola Tom. It is the Elite group and I am able to tack on before the chase van. I’m working but not dying. Again always saying to myself, hold them until 13K. There is a slight hill here that sometimes results in my losing contact and not being able to catch back on but I am ready this time and power up. I hold them until Fred’s, held them until the Cancun sign hill and indeed that is where I droped. The steady breathing has escalated to all out panting.
The next obstetrical is the darkness. From the Cancun hill to the first bridge is low traffic and I am throttled back, saving energy for what is to come. Up the first bridge hill at 20K and preparing mentally for the dark. Enter it, slow down, concentrate on watching within the small halo of my headlamp. The road here does curve. Not only does that force me to adjust my angle when I can not really see very far in front but worst of all the on come headlights seem to be worse as points in the arc. At least I am avoiding the phenomena that the trees are jumping out in front of me from either side.
I hear the dreaded pelaton coming behind me. They are on me in no time, the leaders shouting warning. I take up my own cry, “slow rider slow rider”. It works and they are past me without scaring me too much or me scaring them. Another K or so and I am out of the dark. That peloton had no chase car? Soon I am passed by two riders pulling hard. Then the chase car with 4 riders drafting the bumper! Then a single rider.
I am past the Blue Tower, onto the return road. I try to stay as much on the shoulder of the actual road to avoid the gravel but it is just too scary, the buses and cars are just too close so I move more onto the shoulder, Make it by the bridge with a curb. It is getting lighter. Finally the flashing light that signals for me the start of the bike path. I pull onto it and soon a small peloton of 6 with a chase car passes, yells Buenos Dias. A couple minor dog attacks. I just stop peddling so that my foot is not a moving enticing target and drift through. A couple of runners and cars on the bike path but we negotiate each other. Off the path and onto the road and here comes the my Elite group again. After hitting the main road, they head South for a few K and then turn back to rejoin my route for the run to the store.
They recognize me and I am able to hold them all the way to the shop on service roads. They are in rest mode. One wrinkle that I have not seen before. At the Plaza Toro where we need to turn left, part of the group turns right and comes around with the traffic. Once back at the shop, they change a few wet cloths and prepare for a coffee. I stretch, say hello to many of them that were on the Saturday ride and I head home! I do have a chance to give 50 piceos to the chase driver.
Wednesday, last ride. Cynthia finally shows up after missing Monday ae too tired from Saturday. Exeter never shows! I am worried all the way along. I know I can not trust Cynthia to keep going. She might fall back and fall back and get in the van which would leave me too far behind to catch up. Several other riders fall off and catch back up. Again I am afraid to fall back with them so I try to keep as close as possible to the pelaton. One, and it might have been another day, came back to blow his nose and I had to just let him blow it on me as I was unwilling to pass him. Finally I think they understand that I am just going to hang at the back. Was able to hold them at all the junktures: Pirate, (k, 13K hill, Cancun Hill, first bridge hill at 20K and into the darkness. They slow down of course and I pull in as much as I can so the van lights help not only me but the rest of the group. Cynthia suffers changing gears too late on the last hill to mainland. I mansplain to her after the ride that one really needs to get into the lowest expected gear early and not need to change once one is in trouble. Changing gears works bet and is smooth as long as you do not have ALL your pressure on the peddles. Her reply is that she wants to build up strength by being able to get up hills in higher and higher gears. Anyway, she makes it up and for the first time I stay off my bike path and follow them on the road all the way to the shop. Having the van protecting us allows me to have more confidence in feeling safe on the road and not on the sandy shoulder.
I congratulate Cynthia on making it around for only her second time. Earlier she had told me that she has a 17 year old daughter who is studding French and going to Europe for 6 months and then off to college. Her daughter already has English and Spanish. I turn the bike, helmut, lock etc in. Owner Alberto is there. I am able to thank him again for Saturday and he says he noticed the portugal reference on my card and I roll out the Cancun, LA, Lagos story.
Below are some random musings on the Hotel Road:
The road is normally very well lit with high power very tall street lights. My guess is that they are connected to electronics that turn them on at dusk and off in the morning. For years I have experienced the phenomena of lights out for a K or 2. It always occurs in this final 6K where there are no hotels or shops, just woods. My guess is that this section’s electronics don’t fail more often but no one races to fix them. If there was such an event closer to the population center, I think it gets corrected immediately. Of course I also think the darkness area can change from day to day. This makes no sense. Is a bird sitting on the censor? I think the best explanation for day to day variance may be the death of brain cells that allow me to retain locals.
After the darkness, which might not exist one day to another, is a long straight stretch leading up to the Blue Tower, after 27K. From there the hotel road ends and I take the ramp back onto the mainland and head back to Cancun. This road is heavily traveled, but by now it is daylight. There are 3 lanes of traffic, but there are some sections where cars come very close to my shoulder path. Usually the shoulder, while narrow, provides pretty good surface for riding but there are occasional rough parts. Overall the normal hotel road is almost perfect this year. Other years there have been more pot holes and obstacles to watch out for.
Because this part of my route is not signed with Ks and I do not keep a GPS log, I am only guessing that it is about 15K long. It is shorter than the “ride out” as the hotel road not only covers the same distance as this leg, North to South, but the hotel road also travels East out to a barrier island and then back, which this last mainland leg does not.
About 7K into this leg a bicycle path stats. It has a wonderful surface but can have random foot and slow moving bike traffic in either direction. It also has a couple POSTS that have to be maneuvered around! The other riders who use this leg do not take the time to get off their bikes, move over to the bike path and do the same when it ends about 3K? from Cancun. I think it is much safer but using it does result in my arriving back in Cancun behind any group I am riding with. And, as you will read elsewhere, this can result in a round of applause for the slow old man having finally finished where as I have just been loafing along on a safe route!
The bike path, as I have said, ends abruptly about 3K from my bike shop and Airbnb but right away one is able to turn onto a service road with no traffic and then a fairly safe and smoothly paved city street leading right home.