I don’t think I made any cycling friends today…

As a cyclist, I am very conscientious of how we cyclists are viewed by other people. While I am out on the MURTs (Multi-Use Recreational Trails) I try to be a good ambassador for the sport and recognize my fellow trail users with a friendly “hello” and I always warn those users going slower than me that I am behind them and am about to go around them with the standard “on you left.” This morning I was riding down the trail and came upon a guy walking his two dogs – small dogs, not quite rats dogs, but not much bigger. I see that he really isn’t paying too much attention to what is going on around him, so I slow down. He is walking up the path and is to the far right side, which is where he should be. I’m about to shout out “on your left”, when he turns around, sees me and completely freaks out. Even though, if he felt he needed to get off the trail, he could have gotten off on the right with a single step, he instead, bolts off to the left side of the trail, running at least ten feet off the trail dragging his slightly bigger than rat dogs with him. This of course pulls said slightly larger than rat ,dogs right onto the trail in front of me. You can guess what happened next. Well, actually nothing, I had already slowed down because I could see he wasn’t paying all that much attention to his surroundings. I came to a stop and he looked at me like I had just tried to kill him and his dogs. After he had collected his slightly larger than rat dogs, I continued on my way, shaking my head as I rode off.

Moonlight Classic

I don’t consider cycling a religion, but it does carry with it its own holidays – New Year’s resolution, Spring training, Elephant Rock…  One of the more fun and unique “holidays” is the Moonlight Classic.  The MC is held each year around mid July or August and starts around 10:30 pm.  I think the first one I ever rode was in 1997.  For this year’s edition, they managed to arrange for a closed course – not auto traffic.

The route is pretty short, ten miles starting and ending in front of the state capitol.  This year, we let Jessica ride it on her own.   A choice I was questioning when we were lined up at the start with several thousand other cyclist.  I needn’t have worried, she did fine.  Becca got to ride on a trail-a-bike hitched to Marcie’s bike.

The beginning of the route turns up 17th st., past a number of bars.  I imagine it is kind of like the Tour de France - alcoholically uninhibited people on both sides of the road cheering you on.  Except of course in the Tour the riders in the peleton don’t generally head for the side walk to join the crowd for a drink.

After 17th st., we turned south up a gradual incline.  Jessica struggled some, but made it to the top by the botanic gardens without stopping.  She got lots of encouragement.  There were actually quite a few people along the way, people on the side of the road, and other riders encouraging her along. 

We peddled into the first rest stop at Cherry Creek and had the usual rest stop fare – power bars, oranges, water – they even had Oreos.

After the rest stop, we headed up Speer.   We were near where the course crossed Lincoln.  A car is coming down Lincoln.  He has the green light, but there is a cop in the intersection stopping traffic to let riders through.  This guy is so intent on these cyclists “in his way” all he can do is honk.  He wasn’t even trying to slow down.  He had to slam on his brakes and skid to a stop when the cop walked out in front of him.  He almost hit the cop.  The cop really didn’t do anything.  I was kind of surprised.

We turned off Speer, and then turned down 17th Street through the heart of downtown.  We had to circle the park in front of the capitol to go under the ‘Finish’ banner.   I saw a smile come over her face as she crossed the line.  I couldn’t tell if that was a smile of accomplishment, or a smile of relief that the ordeal was over.

We had breakfast, a so so breakfast burrito and headed back to the van.  1:30 am.  The girls were asleep soon afterward.

Elephant Rock

We ended up not doing the 32 mile route as planned. When we left home in the morning a long line of dark clouds hung over the city. By the time wewere ready to start riding, the skies were overcast, and we didn’t have any rain gear for the kids, so instead we decided to try a couple loops on the seven mile family course. We made a quick stop at the rest room and were on our way. We were about a mile or two into the ride, when we got to the first turn. The ride offical directed the people with the white tags (7, 25 & 32) to the left, people with orange tags (65 & 100) to the right. Which was fine except the family riders needed to go to the right also. About the time the 25 & 32s started to head up thefirst climb out of town we realized we couldn’t be in the right place. We back-tracked to the first turn and were directed the correct way. The family ride was actually pretty difficult. I imagine would have been hard for anyone thinking they were just doing a quick family loop. We passed quite a few people walking their bikes up the main climb.

The problem with the loop was by the time we got to the course start again the girls were ready to call it quits.  Rather than push them, we headed back and had lunch.  BBQ chicken on a bun, pasta salad and a chocolate chip cookie.  We were home by 1:30.  I think that is the earilest  we have ever made it back from an Elephant Rock.

Buena Vista Bike Fest – The Aftermath

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.

BTC 2008 – Part VIII – Cortez to Durango

This is the eighth and final part of a series of posts on my 2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado experience.

Today as a relatively short day. There was an optional side trip to Mesa Verde, but having been to Mesa Verde the year before, I wasn’t about to try that climb. For the last twenty miles of yesterday’s ride, I was having foot problems. My right foot was going numb and it was getting hard to pedel. This has happened in the past, but I have never had to do another long ride the next day. Because of the shorter distance, we slept in a little and started a little later. By the time we left, most people were already gone. Though short, there was some climbing to today’s route. I made it over the first climb and into the Mancos rest stop without too much problem, but on the climb out of Mancos, my foot started to bother me again. I pulled off the road and waited for the SAG wagon, my tour was over. I joined about half a dozen other riders who also called it quits. Fortunately, this time we were in a 15 passager vans instead of a U-haul truck.

On the way home, we went north back through Silverton, Ouray and Montrose and spent the night at my dad’s place in Glenwood Springs. We got see the portion of the route we missed the first go round.

BTC 2008 – Part VII – Naturita to Cortez

This is the seventh part of a series of posts on my 2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado experience.

Day 6 was billed as a “century” and was the longest day of the tour.  In reality, it was about 97 miles, but I made sure to do enough riding to make sure I got the full century distance in. We were definitely in the high deserts of the southwest now.  Today’s route had something called Gypsum pass, which wasn’t much of a climb and an unnamed climb out of the aptly named Disappointment Valley which actually didn’t dissapoint. The route after the Disappointment Valley climb was a lot of rolling hills. It was a long and hot day. Becuase of the length of the day, lunch was served at one on the rest stops. It was over a hundred degrees by the time we got to Cortez. We got another motel room for tonight. The heat was just zapping the strenght out of me as we set up the tent to store our stuff. I was so glad not to have to try and sleep in the heat.

BTC 2008 – Part VI – Telluride to Naturita

This is the sixth part of a series of posts on my 2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado experience.

Today was another relatively easy day. Mostly flat or downhill. We decented down from Telluride back the way we came. There was one climb on the day, the climb out of Nor wood Canyon. This was a transition day of sorts. We went from the mountain landscapes of Telluride to the desert landscapes of Naturita. Naturita was by far the smallest town to host the BTC this go round. It literally seem to be bursting at the seems with all the bikers. Tent city overwhelmed the school, and some riders decided to stay at a near by camp ground. Those who reserved hotel rooms were shuttled back to Tailored. After lunch and a shower, we sprung for a massage. One of the perks of a supported tour like the BTC is a massage table at each camp. My IT bands (IlioTibial band – they are right in the middle of your upper thigh) were killing me. The massage made a world of difference and I wished I had reserved one back in Ouray. After our massage, we headed over to the city park for a concert. The band wasn’t all that great, but their sound guy wasn’t half bad when he was doing karaoke between sets.

Massage Tent

BTC 2008 – Part V – Telluride

This is the fifth part of a series of posts on my 2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado experience.

Today was the scheduled rest day and we took the oppurtunity to do just that. We slept in late, wondered around town, took the gondola to Mountain Village and cleaned up our bikes. I have to admit I was a little nervous walking around own. Besides the BTC, Ride the Rockies had a stop in Telluride the week before, so it was a little disconcerting to see flyers up advertising a bike auction the week after we left.

We checked out ‘La Marmotte’, a restraunt in Telluride. Which is french for The Marmot. Marcie and I have always had a thing for marmots ever since our honeymoon when we lost two water bottles to the furry little creatures. They were very brazen, even crawled into the tent with us. Dinner at “La Marmotte’ was equally costly, $120 for dinner for two.

La Marmotte

After dinner, we took the gondola back to Mountain Village and enjoyed a free concert and called it a night early so we could be ready for tomorrow.

The Gondola to Mountain Village

Dads and Donuts Ride

Went for my longest ride of the year so far last Friday. I took the day off so I could take the girls to “Dads and Donuts”.  After I dropped them off at school, I went back home, suited up and headed off downtown. It was pretty cold, the high for the day was only suppose to be 58.  All in all it was a good ride. I did get two flats.  I think  the second one was my own fault. In my haste to get going, I forgot to check the tire for thorns, although when I did get around to checking, I didn’t find anything.  I did 46 miles round trip – my house to REI downtown and back.  I stopped at Starbuck’s at REI and had a medium green tea and a piece of caramel swirl coffee cake which I shared with a pigeon who befriended me. From his size, he looks like he befriends a lot of people.  I took it pretty easy on the way back and while I was tired nothing hurt (foot – back) or was sore.

BTC 2008 – Part IV – Montrose To Telluride

This is the fourth part of a series of posts on my 2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado experience.

We started today by heading South, retracing our route from yesterday minus the out and back to the Black Canyon. We headed back to Ridgeway, which was the first town we hit after leaving Ouray. From there we headed West toward Telluride (“To Hell You Ride”).

The today’s major hurdle was the Dallas Divide.  The day was sunny and it was starting to get hot.  There was a rest area at the top, and just as we were getting ready to head down the other side, it started to rain. By the time we had finished our coast down, the rain had stopped.  Where was the rain on the way up?

The top of Dallas Divide

The day finished with a climb up the canyon into Telluride.   Telluride is one town in my home state, that I can’t ever actually remember visiting  before.  I had no idea what the lay of the land was.  The law firm I work for had a case involving  a land use issue in Telluride.  At issue in the case was what was going to happen to the valley floor.  The valley floor was a large tract of undeleveloped land leading into Telluride.  I spent a lot of time working with a video showing this route into Telluride. In my head anyway, Telluride lay in this flat valley. In reality, it lay in a flat valley, at the end of a very long and windy climb out of the canyon. As each mile passed, I would replay that video in my head and wonder where the flat part was.

Telluride, one of Colorado’s premire ski resorts, boasts many fine and expensive accomodations, we stayed on the athlectic field next to the community center.

After dinner we wondered around town some and stopped for a beer.  Now I am not exactly a heavy drinker, but I do enjoy the occasional beer. Combine 9500 feet in altitude, a long day in the saddle, a little dehydration, and you get a very cheap date.