El Paso to Hatch

This is what might be called an ultra-distance ride. Just as the marathon is the signature distance event for runners, the century (100-mile) ride is the signature distance ride for cyclists. And just as there are runners who push the envelope with ultra-marathon events of 50 to 100 miles, there are cyclists who routinely go far beyond 100 miles.

The organized form of this kind of riding is the brevet, also known as randonneuring. The shortest brevet ride is 200K (125 miles) with longer rides of 300K, 400K, 600K and the granddaddy of them all, the 1200K Paris-Brest-Paris Brevet, held every four years and which dates back, in various formats, to 1891.

Enough about that – I just wanted to give you some background to understand why I rode such an insane distance in the middle of summer. It happens that I know some brevet fans, and two of them – Margaret O’Kelley and Bob Lynn – invited me to join them on their favorite training ride: a 150-mile ride from the northwest edge of El Paso to Hatch, NM and back.

A map of our route is embedded below. I won’t go over too many of the route details but will highlight some and also our stopping points. Stopping points are crucial on a ride like this – there are stretches of up to 20 miles without easy access to water.

Also – I don’t recommend doing this alone, and definitely do not recommend it for anyone who has not done some distance riding. I ride 100-200 miles a week, and in the past have ridden many centuries, including two official brevets of 200K. I had not done a century for almost two years, so I wanted to get in a distance ride – hence my invitation from Margaret and Bob to join them. I thought I might just tag along for 100 to 110 miles of their ride, but felt good enough after 55 miles to keep going. As it turned out, I did OK and kept up with my friends for the duration – although I was fighting an overheated body at times.

We started at Crazy Cat Cyclery at 5:15 a.m. (Margaret and Bob had headlights and we all had taillights – I have a headlight but left it behind on this ride since it would be light within a few miles).

We took the I-10 frontage roads all the way to Berino, NM, crossed over to NM 478 and then made our way to Mesilla via Mesilla Park. Our traditional stop — The Bean in Mesilla — wasn’t open yet so we rode up to a nearby McDonalds for breakfast. Back to Mesilla, then took NM 292 to Roadrunner and eventually got on NM 185, which took us all the way into Hatch (with a stop at Fort Selden to refill water bottles).

NM 185 is the old U.S. 85 – one of the byways of Southern New Mexico. It runs along the Rio Grande, skirts the Robledo Mountains and passes through chile fields. There are quite a few rolling sections between Radium Springs (where Fort Selden is) and Hatch. In general, this is a pretty flat ride.

We got to Hatch just after 10:30 and had an early lunch at Sparky’s – a great eatery full of nostalgia collectibles. The green chile cheeseburger was fantastic. They also let us refill our water bottles with ice.

From Hatch, we took a slightly different route on NM 154, paralleling the railroad tracks and the river, and NM 140 before reconnecting on NM 185.

At Radium Springs, we opted for a beer and water break at the Blue Moon Bar. This bar has been around for years, is particularly popular among motorcyclists, and is the only stop between Hatch and Las Cruces where you can get a cold beverage (Fort Selden just has water and their water fountain was out of order, so all we could get there was lukewarm tap water).

There is one other unofficial place to get water and even a soda – the border patrol checkpoint between Hatch and Fort Selden, which has a Coke machine for employees and if you’re nice to them, for thirsty bicyclists.

When we got back to Mesilla, we took a break at Shorty’s convenience store. By this time, the 100-degree heat was really taking its toll. We bought a gallon of cold water for our water bottles and used about half of it just to splash on ourselves. We also got some Gatorade.

From Mesilla, we took NM 28 all the way back to Canutillo.

We were fighting a headwind much of the way back as well, so we made an extra stop at La Mesa for more water and ice.

The whole ride took about 13 hours. Our actual distance was a little over 150 miles, since all of us had ridden to the start from our homes.

This was the longest ride of my life (I had done one of about 135 miles a few years ago) and to be honest, I was pretty happy to survive the ride and to manage to keep up with my friends (they told me I was the first person they had invited along who actually completed the whole 150 miles!).

Nevertheless… I am still not a convert to the ways of the brevet. I like the challenge of an extra-long ride – but not that often!!! But at least a century ride won’t seem quite so bad!

Here’s the map of the ride:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/39769254