2008 Bicycle Tour of Colorado

[Tri Girl]

Wow- I'm in awe of you!!!! I can't imagine what it takes to conquer that amount of climbing. DH and I have contemplated this ride, but we're flatlanders, and the climbing would just kill us (and it's not like training on our weenie 500 ft climbs would do us any good).
I'm amazed that you did so well with such little nutritional options available. Way to go, sista! Loved the report, as well as the pictures. Just beautiful!!!! Colorado is one of my favorite places- we just got back from there last week.

[aka_kim]

Nah, be in awe of Pedal Wench - the Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour sounds seriously intense.

[Beane]

aka-kim: you should totally not feel like a slacker! i sagged from coal bank pass into ouray (though I seriously considered getting off the sag at the top of molas. The sag wagon from coal bank to ouray (40 miles or so) was the unlit back of a u-haul. I'm not kidding. Imagine 30 wet cyclists and their bikes in a uhaul, descending a mountain pass . That was my first sag experience and I can't say it was fun. The main reason was that there were so many people who didn't feel like climbing and descending in rain/hail/lightning. My DH continued on and somewhere between the 3rd rest stop and Ouray almost got frostbite on his hands. After that day 1, I figured there was no way I'd make it.

en route to Ouray:



in Ouray:


Day 2: The people I was traveling with thought it would be fun to go for a long hike before the bike ride. Needless to say I passed on that and hung out in Ouray. We then rode to Montrose in a (for me) super-fast paceline. I went with one of the guys to dairy queen for milkshakes and then hung out at camp while the others road to the Black Canyon park. (The other guy was tired cuz he had just done RTR the week before...lol).

Day 3: I really liked the ride from Montrose to Telluride. The beginning on chip seal was awful awful, but once the road smoothed out I liked it. I started out riding alone (or attaching myself to other people who didn't mind..) and then my traveling mates caught up with me at the top of Dallas Divide. That climb was long and low grade, which is what I'd been expecting (unlike the horrible awful not fun climb up to coal bank pass on day 1). I was very slow, but steady, and felt good. The end of the ride into Telluride was not as fun because (a) I was really exhausted and (b) there were tons and tons of trucks spewing smoke flying by.

Day 4: Yay! No biking! Just a tiny spin around Telluride to loosen up.

Day 5: This ride I did entirely with my DH. I drafted the whole time and it really felt like we flew. Naturita was REALLY small and the dinner options were very limited. Nonetheless, a good time was had by all (thanks to the beer truck).

My view of DH for most of this ride:


This hill didn't even have a name:


En route to Naturita:


Wow, all of a sudden we're in the desert:


Day 6: My first english century. Fun until mile 50 or so. My DH and I met up about half or 2/3 of the way through and he made me finish. My knees were killing me, but I was proud. And my traveling mates went to the local grocery and bought me a brownie cake and put a "100" candle in it. That was very sweet of them and tasted great. My butt was soooo sore at the end of this day.

Morning:


Afternoon (you know I'm tired b/c DH had time to get to top of hill and get out camera, etc):

p.s. does my bike fit?

Day 7: Got on the bike with all intentions of riding back to durango. I rode around the block, realized that between my knee and seat pain that I would be miserable, and sagged the whole way. I regret not getting to do the descent into Durango, but no one else on the van wanted to get out, so I just rode on. That was by far the earliest I ever got to the destination town.

We drove from Durango to Boulder before heading home, so I got to see the descent into Ouray.. here's a pic from that day (driving, not biking)


All in all, it was a good time. My major complaints surround the BTC-provided food-- OK but just barely and the camping. I'm not a huge camping fan and by the end I was really looking forward to a real bed and blackout curtains. And I was REALLY tired of porta-potties. It was lots of fun (when I wasn't hurting--I'm not one of those crazy athletes who seems to enjoy pain) and certainly humbling! Will I do it again? Probably.. I think having good people to go with and hang out with is quite important.

Some crazy dude rides the whole thing every year on his 39lb schwinn fastback from the 60s:

[aka_kim]

Hi Beane! Too bad I didn't know another TE'er was doing BTC - we could have met up.

Great pictures! And thanks - I took very few (so I've been stealing others').

I remember seeing at least one U-haul pass on day 1 with a bunch of cyclists inside - they all looked so forlorn .

I saw Schwinn Guy most days. Does he really ride the whole route??

You should check out the BTC thread on Bike Journal. The members of Club Hypoxia have some great pictures and stories.

Congrats on the century!

[Pedal Wench]

Nah, be in awe of Pedal Wench - the Colorado Rocky Mountain Bike Tour sounds seriously intense.

Slow and steady... And I STILL don't have my pics up yet.

[jehocu03]

You asked if your bike fit...I think it's a bit too small for you and the seat needs to be raised. The frame itself may need to be a larger size OR your seat may need to be brought back a bit. Just a suggestion Nice work! I'll be in CO this coming week. Any advice on altitude adjustment???

[Pedal Wench]

I'm heading out tomorrow too. I'm drinking alot, and slightly upping my carbs. Lay off the caffeine and alcohol, and take it easy the first few days, if possible. That's my plan, but for RTR, I was a little queazy the first few days.

Will my acclimating from that trip (about 5 weeks ago) have any residual effect for this one?

[Mr. Bloom]

We've just been invited to join some friends on this ride next year...

Can some lowlanders like us do such a strenuous ride in the thin air? We live 398 feet above sea level...

[aka_kim]

I live at about 100-200 feet above sea level, so it is possible for us flat landers to do BTC.

I took (some of) the advice from another thread here on dealing with altitude sickness - mostly in drinking a lot of water and avoiding caffeine and alcohol for a few days before the ride. I flew to Durango the day before the ride started, maybe not ideal for acclimatization, but we did do an easy 5 mile ride around town which I think helped.

Riding hills for several months in advance was the best preparation, though . Oh, and having a broken computer mount so I never had to see just how slow I was going. That was important too.