We arranged to meet in reception at 5am this morning to give us time to collect our bikes and get a taxi or (in my case) ride to McGhies in time for the 6am start. It was Sharon’s birthday yesterday and I did try and watch what I was drinking but we ended up back the Seahorse bar after the meal and I’m not sure what time we left and went to bed. I was woken up by my phone ringing – it was Lee and I assumed he was ringing to say that he was not coming on the ride. However, he was ringing to see where I was as it was 5.15 and he, Karen & Dennis were downstairs waiting for me!! After lots of swearing I did amaze myself by being dressed and downstairs in 10 minutes but it scuppered my plans of riding to the bike shop, plus it was still dark so I wouldn’t have really been able to ride there.
Waiting patiently for me
We were under strict instructions from the lady at the bike shop to be there before 6am as they would leave on time and not wait for us, which added to the pressure of being late. Despite queue of taxi’s outside of the hotel there weren’t any handicapped ones that would accommodate all our bikes. We managed to persuade a people carrier one to put his seats down in the back and break a few speed limits to get us there at 5.55!
Lee was a bit concerned as we were met by about 15 people all clad in lycra with very expensive racing bikes and he was dressed as he was off to the beach and hadn’t been on a bike for 10 years. Everyone was really friendly and there was even a lady from Stoke riding with us. ‘Riding with us’ is a bit of a misnomer as we set off together but after 5 minutes the main group had gone and we were left bringing up the rear!
The route we took seemed to consist of going up and up and up, heading west out of Vegas. It wasn’t really steep but just constant and Lee did remarkably well to keep going. One of the locals was a guy called Tim and he spent a lot of time at the back riding with us, I think Lee really appreciated is support.
The weather was sunny but not unbearably hot and it was great seeing the sun rise over Vegas, it was so calm being out in the country and seemed like a different part of the world compared to the madness of the Strip. we eventually got to the top of where we were going and that meant it was downhill all the way back – happy days!. Dennis and I managed to get over 30 mph on one part of the ride. We must have been out for about 1.5 hours when we got back to the beginning of the route back to our hotel. We said our goodbyes and continued the descent to Caesars without any mishaps.
Back in one piece - in time for breakfast
Lee said that he enjoyed it but I’m not sure that he will be trading in his golf clubs for a bike very soon! I’m not sure that he will be able to sit down on the flight home either!
