From June 13th through 19th I rode in the 25th anniversary edition of the Ride the Rockies bike tour. I had planned on doing either this ride or the Bicycle Tour of Colorado again, but since I made it past the lottery for Ride the Rockies I picked that one for a slightly different experience. I had briefly flirted with the idea of doing both rides back-to-back, but was talked out of that after realizing how difficult it would be to enjoy both weeks with such high fatigue levels.

One immediate difference between the Ride the Rockies and what I did last year was the route. Last year, I rode a loop, which made the logistics of travel a little bit easier. This year, it was a point-to-point ride from Grand Junction to Salida. Neither town is easy to get to, and while I had originally planned on driving, the logistics of getting both my bike and myself back to where my car would be parked would be annoying.

The ride organizers contracted a bus service that could be purchased from the various towns, but since for your bike to be transported you would have to disassemble and box it anyway, I decided to just save the time and effort and fly myself and ship my bike. I like driving, but the thought of driving through west Texas again just to get to Colorado is never fun.

This was the first time I had ever disassembled a bike and had it shipped. I first purchased one of the more popular hard-case luggage boxes for the bike but it didn’t fit my frame. I decided in the end to just use the cardboard box method and it worked out fine, although there’s a little bit of wear and tear on the bike from the experience.

Training

Unlike 2009, I knew coming into 2010 that I was going to ride either Ride the Rockies or the Bicycle Tour of Colorado again. I put in significantly more time and effort into training prior to this year’s event compared to last year. Instead of just under 1,000 miles of cycling from January through June in 2009, I managed to put in 2,500. Instead of just riding with no real plan in mind, I used a professional coach this year to correctly manage my workout, recovery and nutrition efforts before the ride. And last, but not least, I purchased a new bike with better gearing and a lighter frame to improve climbing potential.

My coach also talked me into buying a power meter for the bike early on in the training season. I had read about the benefits of training with a power meter for years, but the high price, and the knowledge that I only race occasionally, had kept me from buying one. In the end I gave in, and it really did help make my training time more efficient and beneficial.

One of the biggest changes with my training plan, versus the previous years when I had no real plan, was both the frequency of training rides and the intervals within them. In most years, I would only ride on the weekend and maybe one ride in the middle of a week. This season, it was pretty consistently 5 times a week.

Interval training is how you improve your performance, strength and speed in any endurance sport, and cycling is no different. With the power meter, my coach was able to tell where my weaknesses were and tailor my training program based upon that data and the goal of my season (the tour!).

For me, that meant a lot of tempo intervals – slower cadence rides at moderate power levels that help build slow-twitch muscle strength. Since I tended to ride at high cadences, I found myself relatively weak at these lower cadences for any long duration rides. The tempo intervals paid off big-time here.

The other big focus was on climbing repeat intervals where I would ride just under my lactate threshold at a moderate cadence to simulate a long, steady hill climb. These proved pretty difficult for me. When I would ride in Austin, TX, the hills were both too short and too steep for me to stay in the proper power range. In the Houston area, well, there are no hills, so your best approach is to just use a very large gear and ride into the wind to sort-of simulate the effort it would take to do a long climb. Frankly, it’s not anywhere close to what a real climb is like. Regardless, these climbs did do a lot to improve sustained strength on the longer climbs I had coming up.

The Ride

Day 1 – Colorado National Monument

Our first day was a short ride through the Colorado National Monument just outside Grand Junction. The monument is an amazing place to take in the canyons of the great southwest. I had never been to the monument before, so being able to see it for the first time on a bicycle was quite a joy.

We entered the monument from its south entrance and then stayed on Rim Rock Drive until leaving on the north side of the monument and returning to Mesa State College.

The steepness of the climb surprised me, since the elevation profile didn’t look bad at all from the ride book. Over 44 miles we climbed (and then descended) 4,200 ft. It took me just under 3.5 hours, including breaks and sight-seeing. Energy was 1,688 kJ & TSS was 184.

I left about an hour before most of the attendees did for this ride and it turned out to be a very good idea. When I got back to town there was a light rain storm, but up at the monument it was a heavy hail and lightning storm. There were lots of very wet and cold riders when the main group began to return to town.

I talked with some Grand Junction locals during the afternoon who said the monument was a weekly ride ritual for them. That would not get old.

Day 2 – Grand Junction to Delta via Grand Mesa

Day 2 was the hardest day of the tour on paper, and proved to be on the road, too. Oddly enough, during last year’s Bicycle Tour of Colorado, we also rode up Grand Mesa but that year we started from the south side of the mountain, whereas this year we started on the north side. I’ve heard locals say that riding from the south side is more difficult.

Now, ultimately, this is just one tough mountain to climb. From either side you’re looking at 6,000 ft of climbing over 20 solid miles. If you’re a flat-lander like me, you have the additional disadvantage of not yet having any acclimation to altitude to contend with.

Unlike my 2009 climb up Grand Mesa, 2010 was quite a bit easier. The training and gearing paid off, and we had cooler, cloudier weather to contend with. That weather actually turned out to be a disadvantage on the descent, where a rainstorm kicked up and I rode over 10 miles at high speed with heavy rain and sleet – ouch!

At the summit of the climb, the logistical skills of the Ride the Rockies crew really shined. There were plenty of supplies and food vendors ready for us, and no shortage of food and drinks. They even had a motor coach idling a the top with its heaters on, so riders could go inside and warm up nicely – it was about 38 degrees F at the top when I arrived.

Overall the ride took me a whopping 8 hours and 20 minutes, with just under 7 hours of actual riding time to cover 94 miles. I did 3,578 kJ and my TSS was 350.9 with right at 8,000 ft of total climbing. That’s a big ride!

Day 3 – Delta to Ouray

Day 3 was assumed to be a nice easy day for us to recover. At only 67 miles and with a nice gentle slope up to the town of Ouray, it didn’t look like a rough ride. We were in for a surprise, though, as the route we took from Delta to bypass the main highway to Montrose was some of the roughest roads I’ve ever ridden on. It was incredibly jarring and annoying, especially after being rather worn-out from day 2.

Luckily, the scenery made up for the road quality. While not very dramatic, the farms and ranches along the route were gorgeous and as we got closer to Ouray, we began to see the San Juan Mountains in the distance – our destination for day 4.

Day’s 3 ride took 6 hours 34 minutes, with just under 5 hours of actual riding time to cover 67 miles. I did 2,375 kJ of work and my TSS was 208 with just 4,000 ft of total climbing.

Arriving into Ouray was a real treat in itself. I had never been to this tiny mountain town, and it was amazing how gorgeous it really was. The local businesses did a bang up job hosting and it was a great place to have lots of beer and food.

Day 4 – Ouray to Durango via Red Mountain Pass, Molas Pass and Coal Bank Pass

I expected day 4 to be everyone’s favorite of the entire tour, and I was not disappointed. The day began with a climb up to Red Mountain Pass immediately upon leaving the town of Ouray – no warm-up here! Literally before we made it six blocks and to the end of town we were climbing on a steep grade.

The ride up Red Mountain Pass was, simply put, stunning. The road is narrow, winding, and steep. Halfway up the climb to Red Mountain Pass was the first aid station of the day. So far in the tour I hadn’t been stopping this early, but today I was tired enough after the initial climb to take an early break and have a big breakfast.

The break was worth it, as the rest of the climb to the summit of Red Mountain Pass was a tough, but incredibly gorgeous, climb. After the summit was a fast, winding descent into the town of Silverton.

After Silverton, the second big climb of the day started immediately – the climb up to Molas Pass. This was my favorite climb of the entire tour as the scenery of this part of the San Juan Mountains is hard to beat.

Molas Pass was a good spot for a rest, with a short climb to Coal Bank Pass to follow. The climb up Coal Bank pass continued to be incredibly scenic and afterwards everyone knew the climbs were done for the day and all we had was a 35 mile descent into Durango.

As soon as I started the descent off Coal Bank Pass I had my first safety incident of the tour. At about 40 mph a female elk darted out in front of me from the side of the road. I braked hard – too hard and the rear wheel locked up and started to skid. Luckily I let go of the brake immediately and my bike corrected. Even though I was only yards away from hitting the elk, she moved across fast enough that I could have avoided her even if I hadn’t braked. That said, the adrenaline rush from that little experience stuck with me for a while and I took the rest of the descent into the Purgatory area a little bit easier than I would have otherwise.

It turns out the descent into Durango wasn’t as easy as we had been expecting. We had a strong headwind to contend with and the increased heat of the afternoon as we exited the high mountains. I screwed up and wore a long sleeved jersey on the day, which was great until the last 20 miles. At that point, not only could I not remove my sleeves to keep cool, I also found my sunscreen had given up and I lost my spare tube somewhere during my descent. Luckily one of the riding medics loaned me some of her sunscreen so I covered up a bit, but regardless I was still rather toasty.

The last few miles in Durango proper were a bit of a surprise, at least if you haven’t ridden in the area before. Rather than being straight down into town, there was a very steep short climb to go up from the valley where Durango proper is to reach the top of the mesa were Fort Lewis College is. As minor as that climb was, by that time of day I was spent and was just looking forward to getting off the bike, finding some food and taking a cold shower.

The best part of being in Durango was that I knew some of the good restaurants in town and found one of my favorite sushi restaurants. What a treat after a long, hot day in the beautiful San Juans.

Day 4′s ride took me just under 9 hours elapsed time with 7 hours on the bike itself to cover just 75 miles. I did 3,068 kJ of work and had a TSS of 294 with 7,818 ft of elevation gain.

Day 5 – Durango to Pagosa Springs

But not for me! I decided to take a tactical rest day on day 5, despite the promise of an easy day. The route was a long 87 miles, but with only 2 short climbs. In retrospect I probably would have been fine to ride it, but I wanted to be fully rested for day 6.

I took one of the motor coaches to the next town and had the entire day for R&R in Pagosa Springs. The hot springs there were a great treat and the warm waters made my muscles feel better, even though it probably was not the best thing for recovery. Nor was all the beer probably the best idea either, but it hit the spot regardless.

Disaster almost struck today as my helmet was not attached to my bike when I went to go check on my bike before getting ready for bed. I foolishly had my helmet attached to the bike when I handed it off to the luggage truck folks before boarding the motor coach for my ride into town. And since I checked too late in the day, all of the local vendors that might have sold helmets were closed already, as was the information tent with the lost & found.

The next morning I was assuming I would likely have to take the bus again since I didn’t have a helmet, but one of the folks working the luggage trucks in the morning was kind enough to loan me his helmet for the day. Random kindness from strangers saved my bacon!

Day 6 – Pagosa Springs to Alamosa via Wolf Creek Pass

Day 6 started with a climb up Wolf Creek Pass on US160 – one of my favorite passes to drive over in a car, especially if you take the side road off the pass onto the mountain top once you reach the summit of the pass. The true climb was only 8 miles total, but we had a 16 mile warm-up climb that slowly took us up the 700 ft or so before the true climb begin. Since aid station 1 was right at the base of the climb, it was a perfect spot to take a rest and grab a nice breakfast.

Wolf Creek pass is a gorgeous climb and a moderately difficult 6.5% grade the whole way up. Halfway up there was a bit of a distraction as a tractor-trailer had rolled itself in a tight corner and almost plowed off the side of the pass. That slowed us down a bit as the road went down to one-lane and we had to intermix with road traffic a bit more than we otherwise would be.

The summit of Wolf Creek Pass is a bit anti-climatic as its rather flat and wide with no dramatic views. The side-road going up to the top of the mountain is gravel, so a no-go on a road bike. So, after a quick resupply, it was time for the very long descent off the pass and into Alamosa.

The descent off Wolf Creek Pass proved to be one of the more dangerous ones of the whole tour as there were several crashes reported later on in the press. I almost did myself in by swatting at a bee that landed on my knee rather than keeping both hands on my handlebars – moving your arms quickly at 45 mph is not the best way to keep your bike stable. Luckily I corrected myself just in time before entering one of the larger tunnels that you go through on the descent.

US160 turns from a northeasterly direction to a southeasterly direction between the towns of South Fork and Del Norte. For us, that meant exposing ourselves to a pretty rough crosswind about the same time the valley opened up for the trip into Alamosa. The ride from Del Norte into Alamosa was the toughest, or at least most uncomfortable, part of my entire tour as my body could just not get comfortable on the bike and my riding form wasn’t good as a result. Crosswinds take even more out of you than headwinds as they can be rather dangerous when gusty and make it harder to hold a steady tempo pace.

Day 6 took me a total of 7 hours 17 minutes with 6 hours 18 minutes on the bike to cover 92 miles. I did 2,909 kJ of work and my TSS was 270 with 5,000 ft of total elevation gain.

Day 7 – Alamosa to Pagosa Springs

The final day of the tour turned out to be one of the most fun, thanks largely to Mother Nature cooperating with favorable wind conditions. We road north from Alamosa up to the San Luis Valley to Pocha Pass before descending into Salida.

What is amazing about this route is just how incredibly flat the road is. For the first 40 miles we gained 30 ft – yes, 30. With a tailwind, this meant nice, fast speeds of over 20 mph even while soft pedaling, and over 25 mph with a little bit of effort.

Once the valley began to narrow and we began to ascend towards Pocha Pass, we added only 1,600 ft of elevation gain over the next 20 miles. The climb up Poncha Pass from the south is amazing in that you don’t really feel like you are going up a mountain pass at all. Once you begin your descent, however, it is a totally different story.

The descent off Poncha Pass into Salida was a nice, steep grade to keep the speeds up. I hit my top speed of any of the descents during the tour right at 50 mph, or 80 kph.

Day 7 took me 5 hours 27 minutes total time, with 4 hours 22 minutes on the bike. I did 2,171 kJ of work with a TSS of 178 and 1,753 ft of total elevation gain over 85 miles.

Once in Salida, it was time to disassemble and box up my bike, find a cold shower and hot food, and then wait for the bus that returned me to Denver for my plane ride home the next morning.

Reflections

On the tour: The Ride the Rockies organizers are very professional and the overall smoothness of the tour reflects it. Everything wasn’t perfect, but it was very well done. My only real complaint would be the over-reliance on third-party vendors at aid stations. That meant no key supplies like sunscreen, etc. at most of the aid stations. For the most part, this is a non-issue, until you’re That Guy that forgot to bring some that day and forgot to make a quick stop at a connivence store along the route to get one. Don’t be That Guy!

I do also wish the ride had organized ways to drop off some of your extra clothing at aid stations and have it returned to you at the next nightly camp. The Bicycle Tour of Colorado folks did this in 2009 and for some of the big mountain pass days it made perfect sense – you would need a lot of warm clothing for the first half of the day, but the second half you were hot and needed to get rid of some of that bulk.

On the route: It was awesome. They certainly made it difficult, and I thought they should have thrown in a rest day in the middle. But in hindsight, it was so easy to take your own rest day, and the majority of people did ride all 7 days, so clearly while the route was hard, it was not too hard. From having done two tours in Colorado now, somewhere between 450 and 550 miles does seem like the right amount for a week-long tour.

On the equipment: My new bike was awesome. The frame was lighter and more comfortable than my previous bike, and the compact gearing with the 11-28 cassette made climbing the big, steep hills a lot easier for a flatlander like me. I could have done the ride with standard gearing and an 11-25 cassette, but my knees would not be thanking me now.

And the power meter? For something that you totally don’t need, it’s totally worth having. But then I’m a data junkie so my perspective might be a bit skewed.

I also avoided carrying extra equipment with me this year – no camelback backpack for holding extra clothes, etc. – everything went into my jersey pockets. I just made sure I bought jerseys with big enough pockets and it worked out just fine. I even managed to carry my rain gear almost the entire tour except on days with no chance of rain.

On coaching: Totally worth the price. Yes, you can self-coach, and yes, once you know what coaching is all about,  it’s more likely that you could self-coach and be effective. But the information and insight I gained, along with the planning of my training season to match my priorities, was easily worth the price. If I had tried to do this myself again, I would have not ridden as much total volume, nor would I have utilized the build-up and recovery cycles effectively and would have not been in peak condition for the tour.

Ride Your Bike

If you haven’t done a long bike tour yet, especially somewhere in the mountains, put it on your list. If you like to ride, there is something really special about being out on the bike for a solid week of riding. The event itself will be amazing, and if you properly train for it that effort will be life-changing all on its own.

All of the pictures I took on the ride are on my flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26521676@N00/sets/72157624320722734/show/

The end of the year is always a good time for reflection. One of the things I always do is look at how much time and distance I’ve spent in a car or on a bicycle.

2009 was a record year for riding in a cars at just over 21,000 miles, just over my previous record driving year of 2008 which was around 19,000 miles.

On the bicycles, I only managed 2,000 miles, significantly less than my 2008 peak of 2,700 miles.

I recently purchased a Garmin Forerunner 310XT training device for use while running, cycling, and hopefully swimming. The Forerunner 310XT is a new device from Garmin, and their first multi-sport device that is waterproof and can be used for swimming, and thus triathlons.

For the past several years I have been using a Polar S725X multi-sport training device for both running and cycling. The rest of this review will compare and contrast to the Polar device since that is what I am most familiar. I have not used other GPS-based training devices before, so comparisons with those are left as an exercise for the readers.

The 310XT uses GPS to calculate your location and speed. You can then upload your data via your computer to Garmin’s Connect website, Garmin’s Training Center software, or other third-party options. After uploading you can view a map of your route, categorize and describe your activity. With the Connect website, you can easily share your activity via variety of methods, and even export the route into Google Earth.

Like most of Garmin’s training devices, you can pair the 310XT with a variety of other devices that communicate using the ANT+ Sport protocol. The 310XT will receive and record data from heart-rate monitors, bicycle speed & cadence sensors, foot-pods, and even power meters such as the Saris PowerTap. The collected data is then joined with your route data and transmitted along with it.

The bicycle sensor option from Garmin is a combination speed & cadence sensor that mounts on the rear chainstay. This design allows one sensor unit to have two separate magnets for both the crank and the rear wheel. Compared to the Polar solution, this is much cleaner and easier to mount than two separate sensor units. The Polar cadence sensor, especially, is difficult to mount on some of the modern carbon downtubes, so the Garmin solution is a welcome change.

The speed sensor augments the GPS data so that accurate speed is recorded even when GPS signal is not available or accurate.  Garmin also sells an optional foot pod sensor that accomplishes the same when running without GPS signal, such as inside on a treadmill. I haven’t used this sensor yet as where I have run has had great GPS reception thus far.

I used a foot pod sensor with my Polar to keep track of my speed and distance while running. The downside of this type of solution is the relative inaccuracy of the data. I’d often see 10 to 20% margin of error, even after calibrating the foot pod.

My concern with a GPS-based training device would be the accuracy of the signal, especially when running under under a lot of foliage. So far, the 310XT has proven itself more than capable in this regard, and much better than other GPS devices I have used in the past. Viewing the recorded route data I’ve found very little error in position so far, and only a little bit with elevation, even when running underneath trees and bridges.

Like all GPS devices, the 310XT must determine its position when it is powered on. If you start up the 310XT inside, or where there is poor GPS signal, it can take a very long time to determine initial position, if it all. This can be an annoyance when you’re ready to start your training and you don’t have a solid 3-dimensional fix yet. The 310XT lets you begin your timer and start your activity before it has GPS signal, but it can sometimes take surprisingly long to get that initial fix. Another disadvantage of not having a fix is you won’t have accurate local time until then, either.

The Garmin 310XT has a rechargeable battery, but battery life is only approximately 20 hours of usage. My Polar S725X, by comparison, has a watch-style battery that has lasted over 5 years. In practice, a rechargeable battery solution works great, but may present a problem on multi-day activities where there is no opportunity to recharge.

Transmitting the data from the training device to your computer is done via a USB dongle that uses the ANT protocol. Garmin provides drivers and software for both PCs running Windows and Macs running OS X. The Polar solution uses an infrared based receiver that is much more difficult to work with as it requires line of sight between the training device and the infrared receiver, and Polar does not provide a software option for Macs.

For most users, Garmin’s software solutions are stellar compared to Polar’s. The big win here is Garmin’s Connect website which allows you to easily view your data online, share it with friends, and upload your data from a variety of different computers. Sharing your data is trivial, and allows your friends to view your routes, as well as being able to search for routes from others near you. The Connect website represents a modern solution for the social Internet, a great solution for most users.

Where the Polar software shines is for advanced heart-rate based training, especially with coaching assistance. Polar’s software is designed to easily share your data with a coach and receive training programs with them. Additionally, both the software and the Polar device have much more advanced features for heart-rate based training. For example, with the Polar I can run several tests to determine if I am over-training, or even what an estimate of my current VO2max. The Garmin solution only has different heart rate zones, more than adequate for most users, but you do get the impression the Polar has more science behind it.

The 310XT supports multiple bike settings, each with its own odometer. I find this feature in particular compelling as I like to keep track of my mileage for each bike separately, and as far as I could tell the Polar S725X always combined bike mileage for all bikes it had configured, rather than a separate odometer for each one. With the GPS based tracking, you don’t even necessarily need a speed/cadence sensor and you can still keep track of your bike’s mileage. This is especially compelling for mountain biking, where the rough trails often render a traditional bike computer useless.

So far, the Garmin Forerunner 310XT has been a fantastic training tool and I haven’t missed using the Polar S725X yet.

During the week of June 21st I participated in the 2009 Bicycle Tour of Colorado. This was my first true bicycle tour, having previously only ridden in two-day events. We rode in a loop around the Gunnison National Forest in central Colorado and put in approximately 500 miles in 6 days of riding. The tour was brutal, difficult, treacherous and totally awesome.

The tour began in the town of Glenwood Springs. We checked in on Saturday, June 20th at Sopris Elementary School in town.

Training

I had not planned on doing this bicycle tour at the beginning of the year, it was always just in the back of my mind as something I’d like to do someday. I did spend my spring training for the April MS 150 ride between Houston and Austin, and between that training and rides since, managed to put in about 800 miles of riding before I decided to sign up for the tour.

After signing up, I began to ride more in the Austin area to get more time on hills. The Austin area has amazing hills to climb, and although they can be quite steep, none are very long. Would it be enough training to tackle the big mountains in Colorado?

One area of concern for me was the gearing situation on my bike and the ability to carry enough gear. My road bike has a standard double crankset with 53/39 gearing, and an 12-25 10-speed cassette. I was advised by a few folks in Austin that changing out the cassette to an 12-27 gearing would make climbing the hills a lot easier, so I went ahead and did that. I was still concerned about having a standard double crankset instead of a compact double, which would have given me 50/34 gearing choices.

Carrying enough gear was also a concern, as the tour organizers make a big point that you carry rain gear with you always. I normally ride with very little equipment, nor do I need much here in Texas. But a touring ride in the mountains is a different matter altogether, and I was pondering taking my touring bike so I could make use of its rear rack for extra carrying capacity. It also has a compact crankset which would give me more gearing choices for the steep climbs.

In the end, I decided to buy a small Camelback Lobo backpack so I could carry my rain gear in it, along with extra water and supplies. I had not used one before, and didn’t like the idea, but it actually fit comfortably and did not seem to impact my aerodynamics at all while wearing it.

The Ride

Day 1 – Glenwood Springs to Hotchkiss

We left Glenwood Springs on the Rio Grande Trail before getting on Colorado 82, heading south towards Aspen. At Carbondale, we turned onto Colorado 133 to follow the West Elk Loop up and over McClure Pass with a summit at 8,755 ft. While not a very high pass, the approach road is at a 8% grade for 3 miles, so it was a great first day introduction to serious hill climbing in Colorado.

I found during this climb that the gearing setup on my bike was not optimal for the Colorado mountains. It was neigh impossible to spin at a fast cadence when climbing this steeply, so instead I would up falling back to pushing hard up the hill. The end result was a climb of only about 5 to 6 MPH and a lot more wear & tear on my knees. I spent a lot of the rest of the trip taking ibuprofen and icing my left knee to keep swelling down.

Once we reached the top, it was time for a snack before we descended and focused on getting to the town of Hotchkiss. The descent road was wonderfully smooth with plenty of sight distance, so there was no problem reaching a good speed; I hit 44 MPH on this stretch.

After the steep part of the descent, Colorado 133 meanders past Paonia State Park which has a wonderful lake along the road for some great scenery. From here we continued on past several small towns before ending up in Hotchkiss for the evening.

The ride took me 5 hours, 25 minutes with 78.6 miles covered and 3,620 ft ascent. Thanks to a fast, long descent, my average speed on the day was 15.8 MPH. Afterward, I was naturally tired but felt good and enjoyed the great ride.

Day 2 – Hotchkiss to Grand Junction

We left Hotchkiss on Monday morning on what promised to be the most difficult ride of the tour. Not only did we have over 90 miles to cover, we had the long climb over Grand Mesa.

We climbed about 1,000 ft just to get from Hotchskiss to the first aid station and the real start of the climb. From there, we had 20 miles of steep, circuitous climbing on a relatively hot day. This was a difficult climb for me and took much, much longer than I expected.

Once on top, we found that the aid station was running out of food and just about to shutdown for the day, even though there were still a few hundred riders coming up the mountain. Luckily, a family took advantage of the captive audience and was selling snacks; I was quite happy to spend the $2 on a nice bagel loaded with cream cheese.

After leaving the summit of the climb, we meandered a bit past some of the beautiful lakes on top of the mesa. Then it was time for the descent. The descent road was wonderful: smooth, not too curvy, and very long. I reached a top speed of 51 MPH on this stretch.

After the descent, Colorado 65 meanders down and into the town of Mesa. From here, we followed the road into a small canyon carved out by Plateau Creek. The scenery here was incredible, but unfortunately came with the price of a harsh, hot and steady headwind the entire distance. Coming out of this canyon we emerge into De Beque Canyon, where Plateau Creek joins the Colorado River. Unfortunately this also meant we had to get onto Interstate 70 for 4 miles. Riding on the shoulder of  an Interstate Highway sucks about as much as you would imagine, if not more.

After leaving I-70 we only had 10 or so more miles before arriving into Grand Junction. This ride was without a doubt the hardest physical activity I have done in my life. I was utterly exhausted and depleted after such a brutal ride. I spent 8 hours, 35 minutes on the bike with 94 miles covered and a whopping 6,600 ft total ascent on the day. My average speed was a dismal 12.4 MPH.

I had a terrible headache once I reached town and was clearly dehydrated, despite drinking and eating everything in sight for the entire day. I decided that evening to not ride on day 3 and just SAG out, but my plans for that were somewhat thwarted the next day.

Day 3 – Grand Junction to Montrose

Our third day was considered an easy travel day, with a relatively flat and short ride ~60 mile ride from Grand Junction to Montrose. For those feeling up to it, there was an optional ~40-mile loop through the Colorado National Monument. I really wanted to ride through the monument but after day 2 I was too exhausted to try.

I decide to take the SAG truck to the finish as soon as I could, but it was difficult to actually find one. I wound up biking to aid station 3 and only skipping the last 15 miles or so of the ride. I felt absolutely terrible the entire time I was on the bike this day, so the short distance and extra rest time was something I needed.

Day 4 – Montrose to Crested Butte

I felt refreshed after a short day 3 and ready to tackle the long ride to Crested Butte. We climbed over two short mountains today, Cerro Summit and Blue Mesa Summit. There was a strong headwind coming out of Montrose that made the first 20 miles of the day rather difficult until reaching Cerro Summit. After that point, the rest of the day was calm, warm and quite a pleasant ride.

The scenery on the climb up Blue Mesa was amazing. The valleys surrounding the summit were gentle rolling hills covered with lush grasses and grazing animals. The vibrant colors were amazing to look at, and unfortunately the camera doesn’t quite capture the beauty.

After descending from Blue Mesa Summit we descending past Black Canyon National Park and Curecanti National Recreation Area. The lakes making up the recreation area were mirror smooth and amazing to look at, and made for a fun ride through the canyons.

After leaving the canyons we reached the town of Gunnison and turned off Colorado 50 onto Colorado 135 to start our climb to the town of Crested Butte. It wasn’t a steep climb, but the long day began to take its toll on me and it took quite a while to finish up this last section. The last 15 miles into town it began to cloud over and get much cooler as we approached the higher altitudes of the area.

Today I spent 8 hours 15 minutes on the bike over 90.7 miles with 6,120 ft total ascent. My average speed was a slow 12.4 MPH with a max of 39.3 MPH.

Day 5 – Crested Butte

This day was a rest day for us, and we had the day free to explore the town of Crested Butte. The Fat Tire Bike Week was underway while we there, and many folks took the chance to rent a mountain bike and explore the great trails of the area. I fully took advantage of the day off and did absolutely nothing, save walk around the town a bit and catch up on laundry and eating.

Crested Butte seemed fairly typical of a small Colorado mountain town. There were just a few shops, mostly either gifts, restaurants, or adventure shops. The town of Mt. Crested Butte just up the hill is home to the ski resort of the area, whereas the main town seems to be more of the mountain biking mecca.

The day off really made a difference to my mood and physical well-being. The few hours extra sleep seemed to do wonders for my overall stamina and I was ready to tackle the next couple of days to finish out the tour.

Day 6 – Crested Butte to Buena Vista

Day 6 promised to be one of the best days of the tour. We were climbing over Cottonwood Pass, the highest pass of our trip at 12,126 ft elevation. But first, we had to get out of rested Butte and travel through Taylor Canyon. This part of the ride was amazing. The 15 or so miles leaving Crested Butte made for a fast downhill sprint to the small town of Almont, where we turned off Colorado 135 and onto CR 742 that followed the Taylor River into the canyon.

Once reaching the Taylor Park Dam and climbing over it, we were presented with what was probably the most gorgeous view of the entire tour: the mountains reflecting off the Taylor Park Reservoir.

After resting at our second aid station of the day, it was time to begin the climb over Cottonwood Pass. This part of the ride promised to a fun one, if for no other reason than the road on this side of Cottonwood Pass was a 13 mile stretch of packed dirt. Everyone who hadn’t done it before was concerned that skinny road bike tires weren’t going to be the best choice but the experienced locals said not to worry about it. In fact, they were quite right as this road was much more enjoyable to ride on than the chip & seal asphalt we were greeted with most of the rest of the day.

Like all mountain pass roads, Cottonwood Pass was steep, but not quite as steep as I had expected. With my rest day and the smooth packed dirt, I made decent time up the pass. Mother nature had a sense of humor, however, and I was given a nice rainstorm to ride through as soon as I began the climb. I went ahead and put on all of my rain gear in case, and it turned out to be a good plan. As we climbed the mountain the storm took a turn for the worse and soon the weather was amazingly bad. As we neared the top of the pass we fully ascended into the clouds. At this point I couldn’t see very far in front of me from the heavy rain and the cloud cover, at a time when the switchbacks of the pass were steep and dangerous.

At this point the rain finally soaked through my shoe covers and through my gloves. With that and the temperature dropping into the 40s I finally began to get a bit cold. Luckily I had 5 layers of clothing on my core so overall I was quite comfortable. I had decided not to descend down the other side unless I could dry out, but the tour folks had their own ideas. As soon as I reached the top I was asked to put down my bike and climb into one of the luggage trucks with 50 or so other rides so they could bring us down the mountain. They were shutting down the aid station on top of the pass with the intent no one would ride down during the storm. I talked to a few folks who had begun the climb down right as the rainstorm started and they had a terrible ride down the mountain into town.

This was one of those days that can only be described as epic, despite the tendency for cyclists to overuse the term. It was truly an amazingly fun experience climbing up Cottonwood Pass in a storm like that. I think I had more fun doing that climb than anything else in the trip. But then, I was well clothed. I passed several people wearing only their summer clothes plus arm warmers and there was quite a bit of whimpering and some crying as they got wetter and colder.

By the time we arrived in Buena Vista the storm had moved on, but our camping area had received quite a bit of rain itself. Luckily the Shuttleguy folks were on it and made sure our luggage was covered before anything got too wet.

Today I spent 5 hours 39 minutes on the bike over 54.9 miles with 4,540 ft ascent. With no descent to pick it up, my average was only 11.4 MPH.

Day 7 – Buena Vista to Glenwood Springs

Our final day was also our longest, with over 100 miles on tap including a climb over Independence Pass. We had a quick 20 mile ride out of Buena Vista before aid station 1 and the start of the climb. The weather promised to stay clear until the afternoon so many rides left even earlier than they normally do. I made it out of camp at 0600 instead of my normal 0700 for that very reason. At aid station 1 I was somewhat surprised to see large numbers of rides queuing up for the SAG wagon to skip the ride up the pass.

The scenery along the road up to Independence Pass was amazing. The foliage was lush and vibrant and we were constantly surrounded by tall mountains on every side. As we neared the top of the pass, we ascending passed the tree line and into banks of leftover snow. The scenery would have been similar on Cottonwood Pass, if not for the torrential downpour.

The climb up Independence Pass was quite steep and difficult. The final mile especially was steep but knowing we were almost over the last climb of the tour made many of us pick up the tempo to make it to the top as fast as possible – okay in my case that meant a whopping 8 MPH instead of the 5 MPH I had been doing.

The top of Independence Pass is alpine tundra which is always amazing to see, especially this far south in the hemisphere. The weather stayed clear the entire climb, and finally started to warm, so we had plenty of time to queue up for pictures in front of the sign at the top of the pass. Afterward, it was time for our rapid descent into the town of Aspen.

Unfortunately, Colorado 82 heading towards Aspen is in horrible condition. The road is full of potholes and bumps, making for a dangerous descent. The tour folks did a good job with warning markers on the road, but instead of what promised to be a good 50+ MPH descent, I had to limit it to no more than 40 MPH. At one point on the road we reached a section called The Narrows, where two lanes became one, and road traffic on both sides queues up slowly. This is certainly not the idea scenario for a fast descent off a mountain.

For some odd reason, the tour put aid station 3 15 miles from aid station 2 on the descent, which was effectively useless. I used it to get out of my warm clothes, but we had 40 miles left before reaching Glenwood Springs and there were no aid stations lined up for us on that stretch. That said, the entire remaining route was downhill and made for some fairly fast average speeds, even though we were fighting a headwind the entire way.

On this final day I spent 7 hours 58 minutes on the bike over 101.9 miles with 4,900 ft total ascent. My average speed was 14.1 MPH with a maximum of 40.7 MPH.

Reflections

On gearing: while changing the rear cassette to an 12-27 was a great idea, having a standard double crankset was not such a great idea. I paid attention to riders as we went past each other to see what gearing they had on their bikes. Very few riders had a standard crankset and, of the ones I talked to, they were all Colorado locals. Almost everyone had either a triple or compact double crankset. In 2009, Shimano released a new Dura-Ace line with a 50/34 compact double crankset and an 11-28 10-speed cassette, which would be a wonderful choice for touring bikes. I know what my next component set will be.

On equipment: the Camelback backpack was a great choice, although I would still prefer not to have to carry one. The extra water capacity came in handy since the tour does not really have as many aid stations as they needed on the routes. I could have gotten by with shoving all of my gear into my jersey or jacket pockets, but I find that to be very uncomfortable as it puts odd pressure points in your clothing. I’m also rather cold-natured, so I needed a bit more layering than most people riding it seemed.

On altitude: I was surprised, but the altitude was not much of an issue for me. Yes, I had diminished performance capacity, but I wasn’t trying to race up the mountains so it didn’t impact me much. The gearing made it difficult to spin, so perhaps with better acclimation I could have used more aerobic capacity to push harder in the climbs, but I suspect this was more a muscle issue than an aerobic one.

On the tour: the tour itself was great fun, but overall I’d give it a B- for organization. Anything like this is a difficult logistical challenge, but the organizers made some clear mistakes. Some rides needed more aid stations, or at least aid stations in different locations. The choice of food service vendors was rather poor, and no one seemed really happy with the food availability. Even though I prepaid for all 3 meals a day, I wound up eating in town towards the end of the tour just to escape the poor quality food. And finally, there were some pretty major errors in the presented maps to us that caused a lot of people grief. Those kinds of mistakes happen, but they can be costly to the unprepared…

I heard many of the locals say that the Ride the Rockies ride was a much better organized, and fun ride than this tour. They have a lottery to get into the ride, so that’s probably a sign in itself. That ride is better funded and is more appealing to more casual riders. One big benefit is they have aid stations more frequently and the word is they are much better stocked. Many of the riders I met had just finished that ride a few days before starting this tour, quite a feat.

One thing I was surprised about was the number of people who seemed unclear on the concept that something like a week long bicycle tour is an adventure, rather than a pampered vacation. You need to have the right attitude for something like this: things will go wrong, mistakes will be made, amenities will be missing. It sucks when anything happens, but it inevitably will. There were way too many people whining about the smallest things, or things that clearly they needed to be prepared for. If you do something like this, and especially if you are camping, you need to be prepared and bring some extra food, toilet paper, etc.

And finally, one big thing to keep in mind on these kinds of rides is not to let the douchbags ruin your fun. In every walk of life there are people that are either intentionally douchbags or just occasionally make mistakes and turn into one for a while. This tour was no exception. Don’t let these people get to you or they will ruin your fun and your vacation; they are far and few between but they are there. You are the one that chooses how to react to their behavior, so choose wisely and you will have a much better time.

All of the pictures from my ride are available on my Flickr site here.

The weekend of April 18th & 19th, 2009, was the 25th annual MS 150 ride from Houston to Austin. This year’s ride promised to be a great one, but unfortuantely mother nature threw a kink in all of the plans.

On Friday, April 17th, a cold front rolled through central Texas and parked itself over La Grange, where the overnight camping grounds for the big ride are. During the day on Friday conditions got so bad the MS Society cancelled day one of the ride.

While everyone was bummed, we wound up having extremely heavy rain all day Saturday so the ride would have been a horrible mess and likely would have kept the majority of riders from actually participating.

The logistics of the day 2 ride were worked out during Friday and Saturday and we were to start from La Grange’s town square early Sunday morning. From there, the route would follow the normal day 2 route into Austin.

Getting to La Grange early Sunday morning wasn’t too bad, and parking was no problem at all. Not surprisingly, a stiff north wind followed the cold front so we had to ride into the wind almost the entire time. It seemed worse than the wind of 2008′s ride, but it’s hard to know for sure. The only real respite from the wind was the section of the course between Buescher and Bastop state parks.

The MS Society said 11,000 riders rode on day 2, out of the 13,000 registered; that is just amazing given the logistics of getting up to La Grange and the promise of a very windy day.

I set a new low in training miles leading up to the ride, only 594 miles since January. For comparison, I did just over 1,000 for last year’s ride. But, this year I added spin class to the training schedule so I probably had more total seat time than last year.