Tour Divide Update: Day 22

197km - Cuba to Grants, NM

My route for day 22 was just what I needed after some brutal days recently. This was the only day of the entire Tour Divide for me that was entirely on paved road, and I was determined to make it count.

Unfortunately, given that I was riding with only half of my gears, and those being the climbing gears (which I admittedly appreciated very much on Mining Mountain the day before), my top cruising speed was maxed out at around 25km/h which slowed my progress today.

Heading out from Cuba, I stopped at McDonald’s to grab breakfast and then made my way to the car wash where I pressure-washed a significant amount of mud off my bike. After re-greasing everything, I was thrilled to discover that all of the grinding noises had ended, and everything seemed to be working smoothly. A rare technical win in recent days.

It was as I left Cuba that I experienced my first of several encounters with aggressive dogs - not wild dogs in this instance, but two large dogs (I think one was a rottweiler) who raced across their owners’ yard, under a well-worn hole under the fence, and directly across the road at me, barking and snarling.

I knew I was likely to encounter moments like this in New Mexico (I don’t know why it’s more of an issue there than in other states), and had a series (ok, two) of escalating responses that I was prepared to work through if needed.

First up was the least aggressive of the bunch - acting like their owner. As the dogs raced closer to me, I stopped the bike, got off and stood behind it, and yelled, “No! Stop!” assertively at them. To my surprise, it worked perfectly - the dogs immediately stopped advancing, looked a bit confused, and then started to trot around me but in a much calmer manner. I slowly got back on my bike and rolled down the road while keeping an eye on the dogs, but they never resumed their chase.

After shaking off that encounter, I set a moderate pace, and settled in for the day spinning as fast as I could, knowing that while it was not going to involve a lot of climbing, it was still going to be a long one.

It also turned out to be a really hot one, and I was glad of a few waypoints along the route that let me grab some shade and in some cases, some new supplies.

First up was Torreon Store, a gas station seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but which I believe was actually on a First Nations reserve, where I grabbed a couple of ice cream bars and topped off my water before heading on my way.

One of the features of this day in particular was the interest and curiosity that locals showed about the ride I was doing, and I had a number of people stop, chat, express surprise at the ride and wish me well.

After demolishing my ice cream, I headed back out and into a growing headwind as the route headed eastbound for a bit, which sapped my morale for a while. The day was getting significantly hotter, and I began hunting for shaded spots to take food and hydration breaks as I felt my legs begin to weaken.

After about another 30km, I reached the Chaco Trade Center, where the manager welcomed me by name, told me about the riders around me and and welcomed me to his store. Turned out he was an avid dot watcher and he showed me the live TrackLeaders map with everyone’s real-time locations.

I treated this as my lunch stop as there was essentially nothing else on the route for the next few hours, so I loaded up with food and fluids at the convenience store, and made a quick call home to say hi to the family while I ate.

All too soon I headed back out into the headwind and continued the grind towards the town of Grants. Happily, after a little while the route turned south and the headwind lessened significantly.

I had joked ahead of time with my wife about this part of the route, as it’s so remote and devoid of shade that I actually had a waypoint marked on my map for a “tunnel” (more of a bridge really), where I could stop for some shade to cool down. It was funny in advance, but I actually appreciated it and used it on the day, as I had ridden in the blazing sun for over three hours since I last seen any shade that I could use to cool down.

The first shade I saw in three hours of riding

After stopping for about 10 minutes to walk down some food and catch my breath, I continued on the route.

By this point, it was only about 60km to Grants, and that distance seems to go by fairly quickly. Before reaching Grants itself, there was an adjoining town of Milan where the route turned onto the historic Highway 66. It was right before this turn that I had my second encounter with aggressive dogs, and once again the same tactic worked, with no harm done. Still, I was annoyed that this just seems to be accepted in this region and is not just the result of wild packs of dogs, but neglect by dog owners.

The stretch along Highway 66 made me smile as that’s the setting of one of my kids’ favourite movies - Cars - and candidly the town had a similarly run-down feel to the fictional Radiator Springs in that movie. I kept looking around, hoping to see Mater or Lightning McQueen, to no avail.

I had made pretty good progress on the day, especially compared to previous days, and had to make a call at this point as to whether I was going to push on to a campground about 40km further along the road and maximize the day, or stop early, get some rest and brace for another big day tomorrow.

I chose the latter, reasoning that my best days had typically come after good rests whereas pushing late into the night usually led to a rough next day. So, I grabbed a room at a motel on the far side of Grant’s, close to a Walmart where I could get a big resupply ahead of another big push the next day when I expected to camp in the middle of nowhere - so I needed a fully-loaded bike with all the food and water I could need.

This was July 4, so there weren’t a ton of food options open late, so once again I ended up having a dinner of junk food and was in bed by around 9:30 or 10 PM. Another day when I saw zero Tour Divide riders, but I was getting used to the solitude at this point.

Total distance for the day: 197km (Strava)