Ok we just finished!!! We are in beautiful Santa Fe!!

Very happy the challenge is behind us, not that it wasn’t great, but we need some rest.

All in all, here are some numbers:

• Day 0: 45 km Vegas Airport to Mead Lake Las Vegas
• Day 1: 230 km to historical Route 66
• Day 2: 135 km to Grand Canyon going through dirt tracks and cattle, over rail roads… finishing with 90km of hitchhiking as the sun was down…
• Day 3: 125 km in direction of Page, AZ (Lake Powell dam) but changed the route to cut it a little shorter and ended up in Tuba City, a town you don’t have to stop in, unless you wanna taste a real authentic $5 Taco Belly…
• Day 4: 170 km to Monument Valley and arriving in a middle of a thunder and sand storm… This is Utah, our third state.
• Day 5: 185 km probably the most beautiful day going to Cortez, CO
• Day 6: 75 km short day going up hill and finishing in Durango, CO, probably the biggest surprise… A town “of many uses” as they say about their National Forests… Beautiful bricks and wood architecture with casual bars, restaurants and breweries. Everyone has a mountain bike or kayaking equipment. The town lives and breathes outdoor sports. With the large snowy mountains just right next to it, I expect the winter season to be all about skiing too…
• Day 7: 170 km enter New Mexico and say Good Bye to civilized world… No gas station for 140 km… Not that we need gas in our eco-friendly bicycles, but we need our every 2 hour junk food refueling, and gas stations are usually the best places for that.
• Day 8: 170 km getting closer to civilized world or should I say uncivilized population. It was a first, but a guy in a big pick up truck pulling a boat threw his coke at us and finished us with the can… Unfortunately it was one of many incivilities we have witnessed or suffered from… The scariest thing is the amount of beer bottles and cans thrown on the side of the road…

Now enjoying the luxury Bishop’s Lodge in Santa Fe, NM and its awful service. They certainly missed their only chance to make a first good impression, as the receptionist totally ignored us for 20 min before checking us in. Then we had the pleasure of hearing the very polite Restaurant Manager telling us about his bread that was just about to get out of the oven, but that we never got, because it actually didn’t exist… A dinner bill that doesn’t add up, a wifi in the room that doesn’t work (never worked), the front desk giving us wrong infos about the shuttle to the airport, the bed sheets not even lasting 1 hour of sleep before being a big mess, the room not done at 3pm…

I should probably go to church more often to get better service at the Bishop’s Camping Ground, or Motel or whatever they call it…

Spoiled child’s considerations put a aside, this Las Vegas – Santa Fe challenge was a great experience. We had the most beautiful landscapes ever and our muscles really hurt, which was, believe it or not, a starting point in deciding about this trip (getting hurt)…

All together 1300km cycled (808 miles) in just a little more than 8 days, which represents 156 km a day (98 miles)…

It was pretty stupid and pointless but we made it!!

It is becoming quite common to say, but it was stunning and tiring… We started at 9am and arrived at 7pm…

That being said, the day was amazing! Going North West in Arizona and arriving in Utah, right in the middle of Monument Valley!! Right now enjoying the view from the hotel room (see below)…

We were very lucky with a moderate to strong tailwind for the first 115km and then a strong head/side wide with sand for the last 50 km…

And to make it short, this is the toughest thing ever…

In a few words:

• We landed in Las Vegas with no problem.
• Assembling the bikes no problem too.
• Then a quick lunch on the terrasse of the Paris Paris hotel on the strip… Very “chic” but also quite useful to watch the unlocked bikes on the sidewalk…
• First night 40km away from the airport (enough for Bertrand to get our first flat tire , in this born dead project of luxurious hotel where 90% of the stores around are empty or about to foreclose…
• First real day started a 4:30am for a start on the road at 5:45am… No comment…
• Very tough day, 225 km and 13h+ of cycling… beautiful landscape though, especially around Lake Mead, just East of Vegas…
• Diner at 8pm for 2 dead men walking (barely actually). Pasta for both, but I was unable to eat.
• Short night, impossible to wake up again at 5pm, we decided to enjoy the great local Indian breakfast, who oddly enough looks and tastes very much like any other american one…
• A 2nd really tough day, lots of wind on the historical Route 66… Arriving on a big and fast highway, we decided to take the dead end road on the side… It actually was a real dead end, but on top of that, the “century old” pavement was looking like a mine field and turned into a dirt and rocks road… Quite challenging for our ultra light/fragile road bikes… This day ended with 25km going up hill on the highway and it was my turn to go flat mid way…
• Already quite late on the schedule, we still had 90km to ride according to our plan. But according to what is reasonable in those situations, we raised our thumbs and sat at the back of a old and dirty pick up truck for 15 min. This was immediately followed by an old lady going camping at the Grand Canyon stopping on the side of the road with her mini van, full of random old camping equipment. She asked us first if we were murderers and Bertrand replied murderers would never cycle from Vegas to Grand Canyon… She laughed. We knew we had a ride…
• We only discover the Grand Canyon the very next day in the morning… Stunning!! And at the top it looked like Switzerland…
• This day from the Grand Canyon down to the desert on the East was really one of the most beautiful roads ever… and the best for cyclers (we established an 82 km/h record…). The view of the lower side of the canyon was incredible…
• Since the third day was scheduled like the previous two, we decided like for the previous one… to cut it short after 135km in a red and orange desert.
• We are now in Tuba City, it looks ugly but we had a nice dinner with a couple of French cyclers riding from LA to NY…
• Tomorrow destination Monument Valley with about 160km planned, clear blue sky and 20 to 30 mph wind (gusts over 40).

We are just dead and it is a euphemism… 225km in 13h15min, 2400m total positive elevation.

Alive but bearly only. The sun hit hard on our heads…

Good news, the bikes landed too, and in the same time!! Now a good hour assembling everything before parading on the Strip!

• Road bike (Cannondale – Entry level $1000)
• Clippable pedals and shoes
• Rear Rack (Axiom – Road Streamliner DLX)
• Speedometer
• Rear Side Panniers (Ortlieb)
• Front handlebar pannier (Ortlieb)
• Saddle bag

Spare parts and tools:

• Multitool (Topeak)
• 1 extra tire
• 3 extra tubes
• patching kit
• pump
• gas cartridges
• chain lubricant (missing)

High tech:

• Cell phone with internal GPS (and RunKeeper Application) + cable + wall plug
• Sport watch with GPS,  heart rate and cadence monitor (Garmin – 305 forerunner) + cable
• USB solar charger
• Photo camera (Nikon D90) + charger + 4 SD memory cards
• Video Camera (GoPro) + cable

Cycling clothes:

• Jersey
• Sweater
• Windstopper
• Short (New short missing)
• Gloves
• Socks
• Sunglasses
• Helmet
• Cap (missing)

Evening Clothes:

• Socks & underwear
• 1 pair of pants
• 2 T-Shirts
• 1 pair of shoes
• Glasses
• Swim suit

Health & Nutrition:

• Tooth brush
• Tooth paste (missing)
• Contact lenses
• Sunscreen
• Advil
• GU Energy gels (40) (missing)
• Hand sanitizer (missing)