Just a few thoughts as a final post.
First, thanks to my wife Caroline for her support, understanding, and encouragement. I know I got tired and grumpy (ier) while I was racking up lots of miles getting ready for this. She understood and kept encouraging me to make sure I was ready.
And a thanks to Lukas for riding with me. When I saw the announcement, I sent it to him asking if he wanted to to ride it with me. I actually didn't think he would say yes. When he did, I uttered an "Oh bleep" because I could hardly back out at that point. Lukas was a great riding partner and camping partner. We figured out after a couple of days how to set up camp and break camp down. Our riding styles are similar and neither of us like to stop for long periods of time at rest stops. He was happy being my wind break for long stretches of road and was gentle on me on the long climbs. I couldn't have asked for a better riding partner, and given he is related, that made it even better.
People ask me if I will do it again. I would certainly consider it, and given the right set of people would say yes quickly. While it took a lot of time to train to be ready to ride, and it was stressful during the ride it was great fun and left me with a huge sense of accomplishment. So, any takers for RtR in 2011?
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Alamosa to Salida
The last day of Ride the Rockies was a bit bittersweet. For sure, I was ready for it to end. I was tired after Wolf Creek Pass the day before compounded with 450+ miles we had ridden in 6 days. But, in a way, I didn't want it to end either. The day was not terribly difficult, but it promised to be hot and breezy. The route map, the elevation, and a commentary on the route follow.
"81 miles and approximately 1600 feet of climbing. You will have 50 miles of virtually flat roads as you head north out of Alamosa. The San Luis Valley is a wide expanse of ranch and agricultural land at 7500 feet. It is flat. It is typically dry. It has fairly cool mornings. It can have searing hot days. Towns are few and far between so be sure to carry water. If it weren’t for the fact that the valley is surrounded by beautiful mountains, I’d say we were in eastern North Dakota or southern Texas. It doesn’t get flatter than this. Hope the wind is not coming from the north.
After mile 50, you have about a 20 mile climb up to Poncha Pass. The grades on this pass don’t exceed 7% and spend most of their time in the 4% to 5% range. In other words, this is a good pass to complete after six days or riding. It will provide nice scenery, good views of the valley, enough of a climb to keep the climbers happy, and shallow enough climbs to keep the tired moving forward without super human efforts. It’s a great way to end a long trip and should not prove to be too difficult. Enjoy Salida… it’s a cute little town with good food. Congrats. You made it." Source: http://www.mybicycleroutes.com/rtr2010.html
As you can see from the map and the elevation profile, we had 35 miles of flat, straight roads. The road is called the gun barrel road, for obvious reasons. As we left Alamosa, LUke and I got in a group of about 6 riders, 3 of whom were sharing the wind breaking duties. I was sitting in the back enjoying the tow. We averaged 20 mph + for the first hour or more. It was great.
At one point, I noticed the shadows and told Luke to drop back and get a picture. He is way more risky with his iPhone than I am. He dropped back, drug his phone out his jersey pocket and the bag it was in, and took this picture.
I realized that Luke had stopped and taken lots of pictures of me. I told him to slow down and I rode ahead and took a couple of pictures of him to prove that he was actually there.
As we rode up the valley, we could see the smoke from the fire that was still burning.
The terrain was pretty flat, not very interesting. But, we had a tailwind and had a high average speed as we headed north toward Poncha Pass. The climb up the pass was not too hard, and the rest stop at the top was a welcome sight. We knew that from there it was essentially downhill to Salida and the finish line.
We enjoyed another speedy descent and cycled into Salida. Caroline and Jynelle arrived just about the same time we finished. Here is a picture of us just after we finished.
We had a beer, wandered around the area seeing if there was anything tempting to eat. Finding nothing, Luke and I decided it was time to shower one last time in the shower trucks. We went to get our bikes to ride over to the trucks, and lo and behold, Luke had a flat tire. We had ridden 540+ miles and had just finished a high speed descent. When we are done, with only a 4 block ride to the showers left, we had a flat. Ironic, and a bit lucky.
I'll write one more post with some final thoughts.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Day 6: Pagosa Springs to Alamosa
Like all the other even days, day 6 was a tough one. The map, elevation guide, and the route description are below.
Almost 90 miles and 4000 feet of climbing. The good news! Except for 22 miles, this is a really flat or downhill day. In fact, after mile 22, you can put your bike on cruise control and watch the scenery fly by. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your level of sanity), the first 22 miles will be challenging. You will have 13-14 miles of shallow 2% to 3% climbing through mist shrouded green valleys at the start. As you head toward the pass, you really develop an impending sense of foreboding. As you head north, all you see is this massive rock face in front of you with no apparent way around it or over it. By mile 14 you are starting to feel the forces of nature turn against you, and the transition from 2% to 7%+ is all too quick and you start piling on the elevation gains. The hardest part of this side is at the base. Before you is a double switchback and a climb exceeding 8%. The view to the south is spectacular… but don’t stop on the road to look… too much traffic. There is a scenic overlook off the edge of the road that you’ll want to stop at for the view. After the switchbacks, then grade moderates to a steady 6% to 7 %. It’s unrelenting and there are precious few points that back off or level out. Around mid-mountain you get your one small break as the grade backs down into the 5.5% range. It’s strange how 5% feels like a slice of heaven after a prolonged stint at 7%+. It can rival what you saw in the San Juan’s. Once at the top, it’s almost 70 miles downhill to Alamosa. Note, however, the ride into the San Luis Valley can be hot and windy. If you are graced by a headwind, with will more than negate the advantage of the shallow 1% downhill. May the appropriate sacrifices to the wind gods so the trip to Alamosa does not become a windblown nightmare.
The author of the description got it exactly right. As we approached the pass I started to wonder if there was a way over that seeming wall of mountains. On the switchbacks near the bottom, where the road is as steep as it gets, we saw this semi that overturned. The driver should find the inventor of Jersey barriers because they probably saved his life (you can see how the truck knocked them over). You can see the driver (I think at least) sitting behind the truck with his head in his hands.
The road kept going up and up. There wasn't much relief from the climb. Some of the locals said that there were sections of the road that had a grade of greater than 10%. I can believe it for sure.
The views were wonderful although I didn't get to see them much. Luke stopped to take some pictures looking backwards. You can see the road way down in valley.
We made it to the top (death before sag).
The aid station at the top was a welcome site. There was a line to take pictures win the Continental Divide sign, so we just stood back and took this picture to prove we were really there.
You can see from the way Luke is dressed, once we stopped pedaling, it was pretty cool at nearly 11,000 feet. We also knew that once we started going down hill it would get chilly for the first bit so we got on some wind breaking material. On the way down, we need to stop to shed clothes so we found this pull out and took off our wind breaking clothes and took this picture. It wasn't a great hair day for either of us.
While we were stopped there we were joined by another cyclist who was clearly shaken. She describing seeing a cyclist in the middle of the road who was seriously injured. In fact, the way she described it, the injuries might have been fatal. We found later that a cyclist had been using a car to draft on and on one of the curves a cross wind made him lose control and he went down at high speed. We had been pretty cautious on the way down, because of the cross winds, and we were doing 35+ mph. If you were using a car to draft, 50 mph is not out of the question. He was airlifted to Denver where he had serious injuries, but not life threatening.
From here on, it was a long gradual downhill in Alamosa. In Monte Vista, the local potato growers association provided baked potatoes with green chile. It was a little slice of heaven and provided a wonderful break with 20+ miles to go. The potato I had was a purple majesty. It was wonderful. They are commonly available, but if you see them in the store, try them.
On the roads into Alamosa, we noticed a forest fire. At first, it was just a plume of smoke. As we rode on, the first went up the ridge and getting bigger. A few days later, it was still not completely out.
Part of the fire was in the Sand Dunes National Park. The linked web site says that part of the Park is still closed due to the fire.
Alamosa rolled out the red carpet for us. Luke and I set up camp and then rode back into town looking for food. We ended up at a brew pub where we had a sausage appetizer (three full sausages with kraut and mustards)--we split that. Then we both had huge hamburgers and fries and didn't leave anything on our plates. That was the first time we had really pigged out. In fact, we had eaten lasagna three nights in a row and one thing we were not going to eat in Alamosa was Italian food. Our diet might have been a mistake, because it didn't sit all that well with me or with Luke.
It was a gorgeous night in Alamosa.
Almost 90 miles and 4000 feet of climbing. The good news! Except for 22 miles, this is a really flat or downhill day. In fact, after mile 22, you can put your bike on cruise control and watch the scenery fly by. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your level of sanity), the first 22 miles will be challenging. You will have 13-14 miles of shallow 2% to 3% climbing through mist shrouded green valleys at the start. As you head toward the pass, you really develop an impending sense of foreboding. As you head north, all you see is this massive rock face in front of you with no apparent way around it or over it. By mile 14 you are starting to feel the forces of nature turn against you, and the transition from 2% to 7%+ is all too quick and you start piling on the elevation gains. The hardest part of this side is at the base. Before you is a double switchback and a climb exceeding 8%. The view to the south is spectacular… but don’t stop on the road to look… too much traffic. There is a scenic overlook off the edge of the road that you’ll want to stop at for the view. After the switchbacks, then grade moderates to a steady 6% to 7 %. It’s unrelenting and there are precious few points that back off or level out. Around mid-mountain you get your one small break as the grade backs down into the 5.5% range. It’s strange how 5% feels like a slice of heaven after a prolonged stint at 7%+. It can rival what you saw in the San Juan’s. Once at the top, it’s almost 70 miles downhill to Alamosa. Note, however, the ride into the San Luis Valley can be hot and windy. If you are graced by a headwind, with will more than negate the advantage of the shallow 1% downhill. May the appropriate sacrifices to the wind gods so the trip to Alamosa does not become a windblown nightmare.
The author of the description got it exactly right. As we approached the pass I started to wonder if there was a way over that seeming wall of mountains. On the switchbacks near the bottom, where the road is as steep as it gets, we saw this semi that overturned. The driver should find the inventor of Jersey barriers because they probably saved his life (you can see how the truck knocked them over). You can see the driver (I think at least) sitting behind the truck with his head in his hands.
The road kept going up and up. There wasn't much relief from the climb. Some of the locals said that there were sections of the road that had a grade of greater than 10%. I can believe it for sure.
The views were wonderful although I didn't get to see them much. Luke stopped to take some pictures looking backwards. You can see the road way down in valley.
We made it to the top (death before sag).
The aid station at the top was a welcome site. There was a line to take pictures win the Continental Divide sign, so we just stood back and took this picture to prove we were really there.
You can see from the way Luke is dressed, once we stopped pedaling, it was pretty cool at nearly 11,000 feet. We also knew that once we started going down hill it would get chilly for the first bit so we got on some wind breaking material. On the way down, we need to stop to shed clothes so we found this pull out and took off our wind breaking clothes and took this picture. It wasn't a great hair day for either of us.
While we were stopped there we were joined by another cyclist who was clearly shaken. She describing seeing a cyclist in the middle of the road who was seriously injured. In fact, the way she described it, the injuries might have been fatal. We found later that a cyclist had been using a car to draft on and on one of the curves a cross wind made him lose control and he went down at high speed. We had been pretty cautious on the way down, because of the cross winds, and we were doing 35+ mph. If you were using a car to draft, 50 mph is not out of the question. He was airlifted to Denver where he had serious injuries, but not life threatening.
From here on, it was a long gradual downhill in Alamosa. In Monte Vista, the local potato growers association provided baked potatoes with green chile. It was a little slice of heaven and provided a wonderful break with 20+ miles to go. The potato I had was a purple majesty. It was wonderful. They are commonly available, but if you see them in the store, try them.
On the roads into Alamosa, we noticed a forest fire. At first, it was just a plume of smoke. As we rode on, the first went up the ridge and getting bigger. A few days later, it was still not completely out.
Part of the fire was in the Sand Dunes National Park. The linked web site says that part of the Park is still closed due to the fire.
Alamosa rolled out the red carpet for us. Luke and I set up camp and then rode back into town looking for food. We ended up at a brew pub where we had a sausage appetizer (three full sausages with kraut and mustards)--we split that. Then we both had huge hamburgers and fries and didn't leave anything on our plates. That was the first time we had really pigged out. In fact, we had eaten lasagna three nights in a row and one thing we were not going to eat in Alamosa was Italian food. Our diet might have been a mistake, because it didn't sit all that well with me or with Luke.
It was a gorgeous night in Alamosa.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Durango to Pagosa Springs
Day 5 was a transition day between mountain passes. Below are the route, the elevation map, and some comments about the rout.
As you can see from the route, we rode south so we were nearly in New Mexico. Apparently, many people chose to ride 160 cutting off many miles on the day. They only cheated themselves of the full experience.
The last 30 miles or so were a gradual climb that never got too bad, but was a climb nevertheless. Luckily, the wind had picked up as the day went on and was mostly at our backs, making it easier than it could have been. Plus, I had my super domestique (luke) to break the wind for me. It also got pretty warm so it was important to drink, eat, and use LOTS of sunscreen.
It was nice to ride into Pagosa Springs and set up camp. Pagosa is a very nice town. It would be a fun place to spend a few days. At the food tent, the local bike club was selling T-shirts that read something like, "I rode Wolf Creek Pass". They should have been in Alamosa after the next day. I probably would have bought one after the fact. More about Wolf Creek Pass in the next post.
"86 miles and approximately 3200 feet of climbing. Kudos to RTR for keeping people off of 160 for much of the day. Hwy 160 is a major east west road with heavy traffic and minimal scenery (especially near Durango). The route choosen is safer, more scenic, and just plain a lot of fun. No passes today, but you will go through the burn area from a few years back. It will be interesting to see how the plants and trees are taking hold again. You will still have a nice healthy climb out of Durango as you head east, and in fact, it will be the steepest climb of the day and will last a few miles as you summit the ridge surrounding Durango. Expect a 15 mile climb from the start and, once you peak, it will be a 3 mile descent to Columbus (nice and steep for some speed). From Columbus to Arboles you will have a more or less 40 mile downhill run to the Navajo State Park and Navajo Resv. The rest of the day will be climbing at a fairly easy pace (1% to 3%) with a few steeper rollers built in, but the scenery is fine and you realy won't mind the climb much at all. A nice descent will great you as you approach Pagosa Springs.
Take it easy today. Use the day as a recovery ride. You have the most daunting days behind you, but you still have two passes to go. Eat well and drink (water or sport drinks) frequently." For the original, click Route description.
The morning started out cool and pretty. Early on in the ride (before the first rest stop), there were lots of riders strung out on the road, riding single file except when passing. The Colorado Highway Patrol were doing there usual great job of monitoring the roads. Most of the cars were courteous and gave us a wide berth as they passed. There was one car--a Saab convertible that came around us going WAY TOO fast (probably too fast with no bicycles). When we got the first rest stop, he was pulled over and having a conversation with several troopers. Apparently he had been buzzing riders, some of whom called the CHP and said they would sign witness statements about the driver. I hope he got the book thrown at him. His (sexist assumption) driving was very dangerous.
The ride out of the Durango was through beautiful farm country in a Colorado mountain valley.
We gained 1,000 feet in the first 15 miles, and then had a long (40 mile) mostly downhill into Arboles.The road was long, mostly straight, and while pretty, was not spectacular. So, not a lot of pictures were taken.
As you can see from the route, we rode south so we were nearly in New Mexico. Apparently, many people chose to ride 160 cutting off many miles on the day. They only cheated themselves of the full experience.
The last 30 miles or so were a gradual climb that never got too bad, but was a climb nevertheless. Luckily, the wind had picked up as the day went on and was mostly at our backs, making it easier than it could have been. Plus, I had my super domestique (luke) to break the wind for me. It also got pretty warm so it was important to drink, eat, and use LOTS of sunscreen.
It was nice to ride into Pagosa Springs and set up camp. Pagosa is a very nice town. It would be a fun place to spend a few days. At the food tent, the local bike club was selling T-shirts that read something like, "I rode Wolf Creek Pass". They should have been in Alamosa after the next day. I probably would have bought one after the fact. More about Wolf Creek Pass in the next post.
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