New Mexico

The impact of the forest fires can clearly be seen on the route the riders will have to take, with Matthew Lee’s SPOT already past Abiquiu and apparently someway west of the normal TD route. I don’t know what the re-route holds in store for the racers, but I know they’re missing some stand-out country on the Polvadera Mesa. Like much of northern New Mexico, it’s pretty rough cycling and has a genuine sense of being in the back country, but it’s also very beautiful.

The route also looks like it will miss out the location of last year’s Rainbow Gathering, which was an unexpected highlight of the ride. Presumably it will rejoin the main route in Cuba (or maybe slightly earlier), after which New Mexico starts to resemble the image I had of it before I’d seen the mountains of the north – vast, flat or gently undulating sweeps of semi-desert with very little between the towns. It’s good ground to make ground, if you don’t mind the relentlessness and the headwinds aren’t too strong. That’s until the Gila, at least, which is probably still a day away, even for Matthew.

Further back, Erik and Blaine are on Brazos ridge, which is equally gruelling but if anything even more beautiful, so at least the riders have something to keep spirits up while the going is tough. The roughness of New Mexico came as something as a shock to me last year after the good going in Colorado – Boreas, Marshall and Indiana passes may get the headlines for being the highest of the route, but the trail surfaces are generally good and the gradients not too steep. The thunderstorms seem even more violent and regular in New Mexico too.

It also came as something of a shock to realise almost as many miles of the Tour Divide route are in New Mexico as are in Montana, so it’s worth saving a bit of energy. It seems as though at least one rider every year, on either the TD or GDR, succumbs to Giardia or similar sickness bugs in New Mexico– within touching distance of the finish. I’m sure it’s not exclusively a problem of contaminated water – I think part of the problem is that people’s resistance is reduced by this point, and that bugs they would otherwise have fought off now have a more serious impact.

It looks like Aidan will be in New Mexico tomorrow, while almost all of the remaining riders will make it into Colorado before Matthew finishes, which was my goal for last year.

Paul Howard

PS: It looks like the Mountain Turtle has called it a day. He's already finished the GDR once, of course.

Two Wheels on My Wagon