Loved this race. I was a bit anxious because this summer has been so busy with weddings that I've only been able to get 3 mountain rides in before the race. It didn't help that people were telling me that this was basically two extra long Deer Creek/Turkey Creek rides, followed by a much worse Vail Pass. My only goal was to finish.

That said, I started out very conservatively because I had no idea what this course was going to be like. I reached the summit of the first pass surprisingly quickly (It was so much easier than I thought it would be) so I started going out a little bit harder after the scary downhill full of potholes:)

Tennessee pass was my favorite climb by far. It was so beautiful, you could almost forget that you were hurting. The descent terrified me though. I'm a terrible descender, especially after my crash, and I could feel my legs trembling in fear the entire way down.

I was thwarted a bit by Vail pass. I was fine until we hit that very short section of 15% hill just after the overpass. One of the tandem cyclists leading a line of us came to almost a complete stop at the bottom of the hill. Going up that with no momentum nearly killed me and I never really recovered from that. Luckily, it wasn't too much further until the summit at that point. :)

Do more training rides in the mountains next time. I'd love to be able to do this under 5:30.

Ate some food (They actually had vegetarian fare!), then went back to the condo and showered.


Lack of training.


It was really a beautiful course through the Rockies. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would, did much better than I ever hoped, and hope to do it again one day.