Quote Originally Posted by yellow View Post
sulis, if you do Desperado this year, you'll have completed a ride equally as hard (confirmed by more than one acquaintance that has completed both in the same year)! The difference is that LOTOJA is a race, so there's more pressure to ride hard & fast; that can make it feel harder. They have similar climbing totals and I think LOTOJA is only 2-3 miles farther. The thing that Desperado has that LOTOJA doesn't have, apparently, is the wind!

So I think that you'll be doing LOTOJA sooner rather than later!
Thanks for the words of encouragement. Desperado will definitely be a testing ground. Sadly, I have had some major set backs in my training which has again put me where I was last year - hoping to do a century but in serious doubts that it will be a possibility. Sigh - one of these years hopefully my body won't break down so I can actually achieve some of my goals. I do remain hopeful though.