Buena Vista Bike Fest – The Aftermath
May 26, 2009 Leave a comment
I headed up to Leadville about 6:00 Friday night. Arrived about 8:30. In the morning I got all my gear together, grabbed a couple cinnamon rolls (breakfast of champions) from the breakfast bar and headed down to Buena Vista. Leadville sits at over 10,000 feet above sea level, but is still in a valley formed by the Arkansas river. This morning low clouds obscured the high peaks on either side of the valley.
My drive to Buena Vista covered the same route as the day’s ride. I was surprised to see a number of riders already on the course. Obviously they weren’t waiting for the official 7:30 start time. I got into town, registered and headed out. I passed a bank’s time and temperature sign a couple blocks down the road – 7:30 – 49 degrees. I had already made the decision to ride the 62 mile route (Metric Century) which meant following the highway from Buena Vista to Leadville and back. There was 1600 feet of climbing in that distance. I felt pretty good going out and made good time to the first rest stop. There was a decent breeze blowing South to North and I sure that helped things along.
I continued on to the second rest stop which was also the turn around for the 62 milers. The ride back was not as easy, my decent breeze was suddenly a stiff head wind. I searched for some other riders to draft behind, but there weren’t many on the course. It seems like most riders were doing either the 50 mile or 100 mile courses. I passed a couple other riders and finally saw someone in a yellow jacket off in the distance. After a few more minutes I realized I wasn’t getting any closer. This was someone I could ride with – I just had to catch them first. I kicked my speed up a couple mph and fell in behind them after a few minutes of work. We swapped taking turns for the rest of the ride. Her name was Diane and she lived in Colorado Springs. Her husband was doing the century. They were leaving to do a bike tour of the Dolomites in a month or so.
With about 5 miles to go, I started to hit a wall, but I had one last hill to climb and then a downhill into Buena Vista. The wind had eased some, so I just toughed it out. After the ride was lunch which was really good for an organized ride. One of the sponsors was a brewery and they gave all the riders a BVBF pint glass and a ticket for something to fill it with. I grabbed a grape pop. I had a 2 and a half hour drive ahead of me yet. Good thing too, I had to pull over in Leadville and get some caffeine otherwise I wouldn’t have made it.
