Zion Country Century

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I rode the Zion Country Century along with AuntieK and CyclaSutra yesterday. This C is in southern Utah, starting in St George, going up to the entrance to Zion National Park in Springdale, and then back down again. You can see AutieK's report here.

Now we've been freezing in northern UT (AuntieK and Yellow) and WY (CyclaSutra) for several months so we were all looking forward to riding without Michelin Man outfits. We were not disappointed with the weather!

CyclaSutra drove to my place in Salt Lake Thursday night from Jackson Hole, WY (5 hour drive! Oy!). After a power breakfast and dog walk, we hit the road. It took us about 5 hours to get to St George and when we got there...70 degrees! Woo hoo! We were both very happy to be warm. We went for a little 6-ish mile spin around town, had dinner, and retired to our respective accommodations (me: Crystal Inn; CS: funky B&B run by a crazy lady).

The ride has a mass start the next am and even though it was late-ish (8:30) it was still only about 35 degrees. Luckily they SAG-ged clothes for the riders so we were able to shed as it warmed up.

After the little town of Hurricane, pronounced "Her-kin", the route climbed up and over a ridge and then followed the Virgin River to the Park. That's where it really got purty. I managed to hook up with a couple of really nice guys from Idaho and we rode together pretty much the whole time. Lucky for me they pulled me along on the flatter stretches that had some (but not alot of) wind. Here I am at the turnaround point at the park. According to one of my new friends, the temp here was 72 degrees F!



The lunch stop was after the turnaround and I ran into CyclaSutra (we had split up earlier). Here she is (sorry about the "busy" background). She wanted to make sure I took this picture so she could recall and prove her exposure to the sun!



On the return we ran into a gal that had flatted and didn't have a tube, so one of my new friends helped her out and gave her his tube. 10 minutes later he acquired an industrial-strength staple in his tire, so I ended up giving him my tube. We still had one tube between the 3 of us (I also had patches) but luckily we didn't need it. Whew!

Final picture, me with my new friends (I told them to come looking for this picture here!). It was a good ride. I felt better than I thought I would, but I think that's because I did a lot of wheel sucking.