advice for long hut to ut ride?

[fixedgeargirl]

Maxi pads !!! No, no, no! The chamois is all you'll need for padding and absorbancy. Wait, are you talking about wearing "street" shorts with a "liner"? I very highly recommend bike shorts with a chamois. If you're not comfortable in lycra, there are lots of cute baggies and skorts out there, many of which can be purchased from Team Estrogen!! Just don't rely on old packed-out shorts, make sure they're relatively new. I did 8 days with two pairs, rotating daily and things were just fine. Others on the trip didn't rotate/didn't air their shorts in the evening and had sores to show for it. Ick and ouch .

Chamois cream is not necessary, unless you find it so . It can't hurt to take some along, if you think you might want to use it.

Pueblo is _only_ 5,000 ft. elevation. While that's a heck of a lot higher than SLOtown, it's still a lot lower than T'ride. Any time you can spend in Durango (6500 ft.) or even higher before the tour will have you even better acclimated. I have a friend who lives in Boulder (5800 ft. or so) and every time she goes to her place at 9,000 feet it takes her 2 weeks to feel like she's riding at 100%