The first ~25 miles was nice flat and rolling terrain, north out of Boulder and through Niwot; first aid station in Hygeine had an awesome spread, as they all did; the aid station staff was great too, they kept everyone fed, cared for and moving along. On up to Lyons, and from there into the canyon, following the little yellow event road-signs. Aid station 2 repeated the routine of topping off the bottles, grabbing some fruit bites, cream cheese cracker, oreo, whatever; pulling out, there's a little white sign, "Serious Climb Ahead" - no kidding! The pull from Aid 2 to the Peak-to-Peak Highway turn was huge, I was glad I had no clue how slow I was going. Aid Station three after that had fresh cold watermelon, along with the rest of the fare. Onward to the MillStop and Aid4 in Ward, where the route splits and the segment map offered a dire warning, to paraphrase 'if you ride to Nederland, you're insane and have to ride back here to finish', which was accurate. After some pineapple, watermelon, shade and live music it was back on the bike and down to Nederland, all the while thinking "I have to ride back up this?" Yep.
When I left Aid5 in Nederland to climb the 1500ft back to Ward, I was thinking I might be the last fool to ride the 100 mile course, but there were loads of people still descending, even after the CU Research turn. Made it back to Aid4 around 12:30, thinking that now the climbing was done the rest would be enjoyable...well, not exactly.
At 9200 feet it was fairly warm, but tolerable. Rolling down Left Hand Canyon felt good, though the breeze wasn't cool and shade was lacking, but lightly spinning the legs out felt great. But the temps went up the further downhill I got, and at James Canyon it got bad. Not only was it already near 100 degrees, but from James Canyon down to 36, the road is freshly surfaced with blacktop...it was like riding across a frying pan. So the 15 mile descent and final 10 'easy' miles back to the finish was more like a hydration challenge; I thought I'd been drinking plenty but was still a bit worried my skin would dry out and I would have to just stop under a random tree like a lot of other people I had seen throughout the day. Never happened though, eventually made it back to the Diagonal highway and finally the church lawn, and the 'finish tent'.
100 miles, 7,000ft of climbing, 100 degrees at the finish. This is definitely a new way to define a good biking day.

Lots more off-season hill work. But then, that's why I signed up for this in Feb.

stood under the mister, looked at the crunchy-boulder vendors offerings, and had an orange soda.
Packed the car and drove through Good Times for a BaconCheeseBurger and Chocolate shake, that hit the spot!
Got home and stood in a cold shower, trying to get my temp down. Swimming at Grant Ranch Sunday finally seemed to do the trick, it was that hot.


My hill climbing sucks. But it sucks a bit less, now that I've done this


This was a huge challenge, and I'm happy with the result