Ride The Rockies Day 7 & 8 Update - posted Thursday June 12th approx 9:30 pm local time: Report on Wednesday, June 11th and Thursday June 12th: As I write this, Reverend Paul is getting philosophical on me. He just said that in the space of one short week, our moods have gone from vulnerable, helpless and besotten by the Rapture and suffering from altitude sickness, to the comfort of a beautiful home in Breckenridge, guests of Jim Links sister Trish, to gratefulness, to a sense of accomplishment and pride, in that we have survived a great adventure. We just had a fine meal of lasagna, salad and bread, followed by cookies and fine sunset views of the range of mountains a few miles outside of town, relating more hilarious stories to one another. Wednesdays ride leaving Steamboat Springs was a shallow climb / level ride for the first 35 miles, followed by two KILLER climbs in the final 45 miles, crossing the Colorado River at State Bridge. As usual, our group of Jim Link, son Patrick, Paul, Johnny and me started out together, but soon they left me and Johnny behind. I guess they were a quarter mile ahead of me, when a half-pint school bus modified for parties rode by, double door open, and a young man urging the riders on clanging a cow bell. Now that bell did something to me, and I surged in behind the bus, ignored the exhaust and began drafting, off to the right side of the open doors near the driver as the guy clanged the bell. Those open bus doors made a perfect pocket of calm air, practically a tailwind for me while all other riders were struggling with a 10 mph headwind. Well, I got into a groove like being 24th in line in a DCBC Tuesday Paceline. Paul estimated that they were making about 15 mph into a headwind when I came by at about 25 - 30 mph. After he recognized me, he did give me a single-finger salute as I blew by. He said he thought for a second about trying to catch me, but it was like the old Loony Tunes Road Runner cartoon where old Wiley E. Coyote just looked frozen as the Beep-Beep happened to him, and there was nothing he could do. Gasper never had so much pleasure as I flew past perhaps 200 riders in that span, when all the rest of the ride days Id passed maybe 20 riders total. So I stayed with the bus. Being wide open spaces, Paul said he watched me for 10 minutes getting smaller and smaller across the plains, drafting behind that bus. At the rest stop, the driver and bell-clanger invited me aboard. DUDE! NO ONE has ever hung with us for more than 30 seconds! You were there 10 minutes. You are an Iron Man! Come have a PBR! Well, you can see the photos for yourself. So much for my moment of glory. The rest of the ride KICKED MY TAIL, but I did make it the 80 miles, almost 2 hours behind Paul, Jim & Patrick. We ended the evening in Avon at the Beer Garden listening to the Sweet Lillies, four rocking ladies playing a fiddle, guitar, washboard and backed by a bass player and a drummer. I heard them warming up so I knew that my request of the harmonic Ill Fly Away would bring angelic sounds, and we were not disappointed. Todays ride was awesome for me, as Ive done it before. So given Wednesdays exhaustion, I chose to ride the SAG wagon for half the distance. I made one big climb, then rode the wagon to the top of the second. Well have to wait for the GoPro film of my decent, reaching speeds of 60 mph. So back to lodging - after the Blizzard Night we had two restful days in Jims brother Marks condo in Steamboat, a pleasant tent night in Avon, and now a night in the luxurious home of Jims sister Trish in Breckenridge. Ill let the photos speak for themselves. One more ride on Friday, then its dinner & rest at the home of Sally Brown/Max Kiefer in Golden, with a return flight on Saturday.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 04:08:57 +0000
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