Tour de Acoma

A couple of weeks ago, Josh and I rode the 50-mile Tour de Acoma.  I'd been looking forward to this race for a long time, and it didn't disappoint.

We drove out to the Sky City Casino early in the morning and tried to stay warm while waiting for the race to start.  After a beautiful sunrise and some last-minute technical difficulties (remedied by Mr. Mechanic Josh), we were off on the roads with a few hundred others.  This race is particularly awesome because not only is it an incredibly beautiful course, but many of the roads through the Acoma reservation are typically restricted to the public so this course allows a totally different view of the gorgeous mesas of the area.

Only about five miles into the course, Josh got a flat tire.  Josh is the king of getting flat tires.  We had been riding along with the mass of riders, but as soon as we stopped to fix his flat, the entire field passed us by.  It wasn't a big deal since we weren't actually trying to race,  but it does suck to feel like you're all alone in the very back of the pack.  Luckily, as we stood on the shoulder working on J's flat, a couple of our cycling buddies from Albuquerque passed and recognized us.  They waited for us so that we could all ride together, and we stuck in a group until the end of the race.

This course was seriously so beautiful.  I had a goofy grin on my face for much of the ride and I was snapping photos all along the way.  We rode just past the base of Enchanted Mesa, and then had a water stop just under the main mesa where the Pueblo of Acoma is built.  After the stop at Acoma, we rode through the valley and then had a super steep climb back up out of it and a beautiful view of everything below.  I was giddy.

I can clearly see why this is one of those rides that many people will do every single year.  I definitely plan to return to this race.  Hopefully I'll be able to do the 100-mile event sometime in the future, but this year I just couldn't get in enough training time prior to the race.  The Pueblo of Acoma really puts on a great event.  Plus, their tshirts have a Kokopelli riding a bicycle- you can't get much better than that!