Day 7 Gallup to Albuquerque (135 miles)

Hot dog, jumping frog, we're in Albequerque!

Left Gallup at about 7 this morning. Headed out on quiet, flat roads with a slight tail wind for about 10 miles, then turned on to the Interstate. We were warned about this, it was absolutely the worst bit of road I've ever cycled on. Covered in gravel and debris, I kept the speed right down trying to avoid a puncture. It worked out and we were very glad to get off at mile 20 for the first SAG. Here we reached the continental divide. This is the place where on one side of the line water will flow to the Atlantic and on the other to the Pacific.

From there the roads were great, flat, smooth and a nice tail wind. Again we were doing 20 mph without really trying. I was cycling on my own for about the first time, just pushing it along, enjoying the scenery and remembering why cycling is my hobby. Almost instantly the wind moved round 180 degrees and I was into a headwind, speed dropped to about 14 mph and was having to work hard. This continued for about an hour until I was caught by 4 guys working a fairly aggressive paceline at about 20 mph. We worked like that until they peeled off for a toilet break and I continued to the lunch SAG on my own.

After lunch the winds changed again and it was a fantastic tail wind for pretty much the remainder of the day. I think it sounds like I'm getting obsessed by the wind, but it really makes all the difference between an enjoyable 9 hour day of moving fast and having long breaks and an 11 hour day of constant slog.

Cycled through Grant County which is Indian land and also one of the poorest counties in the whole of the US, pretty bleak. Run down home steads and trailers thinly spread in largely scrubland. Over the last few days I may have given the impression it's all rather vast and boring scenery, but it's also majestic and beautiful at times, amazing plateaus and rock formations.

Got back on the Interstate with about 40 miles to go. There were road works and the shoulder wasn't wide enough to ride on safely, so we were ferried through in the van. This cut off about 4 miles. I still feel bad about the miles I missed on the way to Blythe, but this is different, there was no avoiding it.