Ride the Rockies Roundup

[sarahkonamojo]

Any reports/comments about the ride?

We had a great time. Ride, eat, and sleep. Such a simple existence for a week. Met some really nice people. Saw some beautiful places. And rode some miles! The heat slowed me down a little, but the headwinds on the downhills... what? The worst being on the first day on Rabbit Ears. I seriously thought I'd blow off the road at times.

No flats amazingly enough, but my back was complaining about 3 miles from Independence Pass and would not shut up! Arggh.

Favorite part was the ride into Aspen. Such a beautiful valley. Independence Pass was also a treat, of course.

Hope all you riders had a nice week, too. Love that shower truck! (And love watching the men suffer as they wait their turn. Snicker.)

sarah

[Pedal Wench]

Had a blast too! Apparently, it is completely possible to have a headwind, every day, no matter what direction we were riding. We're heading north - that's where the wind was from. West. Yup - the wind shifts west. South - sure enough -- the wind shifts again!
The Turquoise Lake loop was my favorite part. Gorgeous views, great road - and no traffic! In and out of Aspen was gorgeous too. I liked the climb up Independence Pass - it was the descent that had me a bit scared - that one stretch without a guardrail - yikes!
We had a great ride - my BF had one flat, and that was it. He witnessed a horrible crash down from Rabbit's Ear Pass, but we went to the hospital to check on the rider who was hit and he was going to be fine. I can't wait for 2008!

[cosc]

Wow, sounds like you gals had a wonderful time on a challenging ride. Any great pics to show us?

[Pedal Wench]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6209512

We're not the couple that got engaged - I guess we made a cuter picture!

[Kathi]

We started the ride from our condo above Silverthorne so we didn't do Swan Mtn road. About an hour into the ride I had an asthma attack. That was a premonition for things to come.

Climbing Rabbit Ears pass I had a flat, the only one the whole week. I suspected my rear tire was low but I was to stubborn to get off the bike to check. When I got to the Contintential Divide sign I stopped and yes, the rear tire was flatter than a pancake. I changed the tire and made it to the sag stop. Before we got to the sag stop I got blown off the road and got very strange cramps in the knee that I had surgery on. My podiatrist friend thought I was dehydrated so at the sag stop I drank a 12 oz of Accelerade and a bottle of water. I was commiserating with a guy who was resting, then he took off before me.

After the sag stop we had another short climb and my knee started acting up again. Finally, I got rid of the pain and started again on what I thought was to be an uneventful ride into Steamboat.

I'm riding down an easy hill enjoying the view, with 2 cyclists in front of me. The next thing I see is the rider on the left crossing in front of the rider on the right and his front wheel jerks sideways then he is slidding on the pavement.

I stopped to help him and after it was all over I was still shaking so I sagged in with him. Ironically, the guy who crashed was the guy I had been talking with at the sag stop. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt, just road rash. He did stay off the bike for a couple of days.

Monday was my birthday and pretty uneventful. Tuesday was a 90 mile day and we had to start out early. Again, about an hour into the ride my asthma started acting up. Once it warmed up I was ok but I felt slow, couldn't get my heart rate very high and had to maintain a slower pace than normal. Because we were told to get off the road by 4:30 due to very heavy traffic going into Rifle I decided to sag between sag stop 5 and 6. Then I rode downhill into Rifle. The downhill was windy with occasional hot gusts.

That evening I overheard one of the guys with us talking to his wife on the phone about how Kathi is such a strong rider but she keeps sagging in. And that I have "me issues, that it's all about me". There was more to the discussion but I couldn't hear, nevertheless, I was very hurt.

The ride to Glenwood Springs was my favorite. I loved the climb over Harvey Gap and it was so beautiful there. We did ride past the forest fires and had to ride on I-70 but the beauty of the Colorado River took the harshness away from the interstate traffic. That night I slept In the hallway of St. Stevens church. We were camping on the street and I had another asthma attack when I went to bed so I went inside.

In Aspen we camped behind the high school with a view of the ski runs at Aspen Highlands. There was some kind of music camp going on and we listened to opera all evening. The school was quite an impressive building. You could tell that school system has money!

Because I was having trouble breathing in the cold air I took a bus to Leadville instead of trying to ride Independence Pass. I kept getting mixed messages about how to get the bus and who would take my bike, so I had a pretty stressful beginning to that morning.

When I got to Leadville I quickly staked out a campsite for the 6 of us but realized that I couldn't leave because as the camping area filled up riders kept trying to take my spot.

The next morning I went to the bathroom and went back to the tent to dress and I had another asthma attack. My rescue inhaler quickly took care of it. But about 45 min later my throat closed up, I couldn't breath. Fortunately, the fire dept was serving breakfast so I got help quickly. I wound up in the ER and they wouldn't let me leave until I got stabilized. I ended up coming home with an oxygen tank. By the time I got released everyone was gone and my friends had their cell phones off. I was able to reach a friend in Silverthorne who came and got me. This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me. I suspect it was building all week.

I got to ride 270 miles total.

I thought the organization of the ride was very good, the police support was awesome, help was there when we needed it and there's no more perfect place to be riding a bike than in Colorado.

My only complaint was is that I saw riders who were riding in an unsafe manner, passing cyclist with cars passing, riding 2-3 abreast and not riding single file, even though the organizers had signs everywhere telling them to do so, pulling out onto the road in front of traffic without looking, not warning when passing and the last rider of the pace line not looking to make sure that they had cleared the rider being passed before coming back over.

I talked to one of the state patrolmen and he said that the motorists of these communities don't want us there, in fact, one motorists was complaining about us around Glenwood Springs and said we "should have been on the bike trail" I don't think the bike trail went anywhere. The patrolman said they give out warnings and the riders don't pay any attention.

In a construction zone I had a rider pass me while a tractor trailer truck was passing. There was no shoulder and the rider did not warn me that he was passing. I was so startled when the rider was passing that I screamed. I wonder what the truck driver was thinking!

On Sat. coming down Fremont pass we had 3 guys who kept cutting in front of us to pass other riders. We couldn't pass them because they were so unpredicatible. I got one riders number and reported him to RTR.

After talking to the state patrolmen I felt very sad because I realized how much we are our "own worst enemy". The communities see this kind of behavior all of the time because many of the major Colorado rides go through their towns. It's very scary and frustrating to be a motorist with tons of people on the road with no regard for the safety of themselves, other riders and motorists.

[emily_in_nc]

Kathi,

Wow, that sounds like an intense experience in so many ways. I hope that you are feeling better from your asthma attacks.

I hate to hear about cyclists riding and behaving in the unsafe ways you witnessed -- it does us all a huge disservice. Behaviors like this have influenced me away from large club rides and events into just riding with DH. We tend to get treated better by motorists because we are respectful, ride single-file when there is a car back, and wave cars around when we can see the way is clear.

It must have stung to hear that other rider talking about you on the phone with his wife, too. That would have bugged the crap out of me to think that another rider felt he had to comment about my behavior or whatever his perception of it was. You can't please everyone, so hopefully his words didn't sting for too long. You couldn't help being sick and certainly weren't trying to make anything "all about you", I'm sure.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and hope you don't have repeats of your asthma problems going forward!

Emily

[Pedal Wench]

Kathi,

I'm so sorry your experience wasn't all that great. Funny how the people you're with can have such an influence. I have very bad asthma too, and on the last few days, it was really acting up. I also crashed a few weeks ago and either broke or bruised a rib or two. So, my riding abilities were severely affected. (Coughing hurts like heck, and when the asthma acts up, it makes me cough, which hurts the ribs... bad cycle...) However, my BF and riding friends were so encouraging and supportive that it never became an issue. I'm working on my day-by-day report, and will post as soon as it's done.

[Kathi]

Here's some pics, me at the Continental Divide on Rabbit Ears pass, me changing my flat, bike security and my favorite spot, the lake at Harvey's Gap.

[emily_in_nc]

Great photos! You look fantastic, and so does your beautiful Serotta.

Thanks for the PM.

Emily

[Kathi]

Thanks Emily,

The day we rode from Steamboat to Craig I celebrated my 59th birthday.

Can you believe all the bike in bike security? The only time I've seen so many bikes in one spot was in school yard in New Zealand.