This was a serious mental challenge for me. Felt good over Juniper Pass and up to Bakerville. The climb up to Loveland Basin absolutely sucked (being on I70, climbing forever into a headwind) even tho I drafted as much as possible. Mtn Dew, pb&j and checking in with everyone else helped me get started on Loveland Pass, altho I was ready to throw my bike in the sag wagon at the Basin. Almost to the top of Loveland Pass I decided to take pics and it took me 5 minutes to figure out the camera I've had for years -- lack of O2 or lack of consistent calories, don't know. I froze on each descent altho I thought I was dressed as warm as possible -- maybe wear the rain jacket next time to block all wind. Interesting descending at high speeds and trying not to shiver. It started raining again at Copper Mtn (this time it was a downpour) but I wanted to get to the top of Vail Pass before putting on rain gear -- figured I'd be soaked with rain or soaked with sweat, so I went with rain. At the top I was tempted to call the sag wagon again (lots of riders that looked a lot more experienced than me were calling it quits), but knew I'd never be able to wear the ride jersey w/o getting grief from Ellen so kept going. I put on surgical gloves, rubber jacket (total of 4 layers on top!) & nylon pants over my leg warmers for the descent -- still froze and my feet were numb (even tho they had baggies on). Luckily it stopped raining shortly after leaving the aid station. Sun was out in Vail and everyone who saw me pointed and commented on my rain gear overkill since they were in tank tops and shorts and it hadn't rained there. Finally thawed out by the end of the bike trail well past Vail. It was a long but fast flat ride to the finish in beautiful sunshine.

Draft more (headwind the entire day), eat at every aid station, wear rain jacket on descents (or htfu), lose weight already!

Eat, lay in the grass in the sun, have a beer.


Apparently every 7# of (extra) weight is equivalent to 1% grade, so this ride was much steeper for me than it should have been! Also, this was my longest ride to date by 40 miles and 3000' of climbing.


The sheriff's departments and volunteers did a fantastic job on traffic control. There were crowds all along the route cheering -- felt like I was in the Tour de France!

At the end of the ride, I asked our group if registration was right now for next year, would you register? They all said yes! After a beer I was ready to register again too -- we ARE crazy.