Day 19

Yesterday's ride had us a bit spooked, but today's seemed like a return to our old pattern. After being chased by two dogs we started our 91 mile ride with a steep but beautiful climb out of Raton through Sugarite Canyon State Park. While I expected to drop down the other side of the ridge we actually stayed up there for quite some time before a long descent took us toward lunch. A nice pre-lunch ride, but nothing especially noteworthy. I did wear my recovery tights that Sara loves so much yesterday evening and my legs felt much better at the start, so I'm starting to think it's not just psychological.

Our usual threesome led the way into lunch and then, once we'd eaten and re-applied the butt butter (I'm now committed to a new brand we all discovered called "dznuts"! An unfortunate name but a great product! I had to re-apply in a parking lot, so I imagine a few people might have been wondering why I was massaging my ass repeatedly under my shorts (ah - TMI again). But surely I digress.

Post lunch we immediately hit the afterburner and took long turns pulling each other toward Clayton. Into the wind, which was still pretty light that early in the day, we kept our speed between 20 and 25 mph and cruised all the way into the town of Clayton. If you've stayed at the Best Western in Clayton, you will wonder why the hell we were rushing, but we all had things to do that involved massages, the Internet and work - not to mention a driving need to get our butts off a bike seat. We pulled in at 1:30 and here I sit in my tights typing away post massage and shower.

Dinner tonight is here at the Best Western so keep your fingers crossed! Tomorrow is a flat 106 mile ride into Oklahoma. In addition to missing the late afternoon headwind, I have the additional incentive of being able to watch Andy's game if I can finish by 2:00.