BTC 2009
A great account of our trip to the Bicycle Tour of Colorado by Jay Goldstein.
Next time we need to bring our own peleton.
Hey there riders,
Last Saturday I completed the 2009 Bicycle Tour of Colorado. This is my fourth year in a row riding across Colorado, the prior three with Ride the Rockies. BTC advertises no easy days and they pretty much delivered on that. We rode this year’s route of 520 miles, 30,000+ feet of climbing in six days with at least one serious climb a day, including the last two days crossing the Continental Divide twice at over 12,000 feet. More so than RTR, BTC is designed for the cycling enthusiasts and most of the 1600 participants you would recognize as a kindred serious club-type rider. The best of us would be hard pressed to keep up with many of these folks who regularly ride at altitude and whose club rides may practice on these types of climbs. We also estimated there were about 25% women (that we were able to determine with a reasonable degree of certainty, were female). My Grupo de Café’ consisted of two others: VCR and Colavita member Bill Hatch and Alberto’s member Harvey Hoffman. We only ran into a few other area riders, “WGaS” member Andre (on) the Giant and some of his Wilmette/Plaza compatriots, and one newer Alberto’s member I don’t recall the name of.
If you have not done a hard multi-day tour and experienced the wear and tear that only comes with at least five or six consecutive days of centuries or Colorado’s horribly high hills, you gotta do it at least once in a lifetime. Up every day by 5AM, on the road until mid-afternoon, contending with wind, altitude, rain/hail storms, temps that could be from 30-90 degrees, trying to keep up with the 7000+ daily calorie depletion, getting enough rest even while sleeping on the ground, mechanical problems, staying alert for traffic, the other riders and 50mph descents--to name a few of the challenges. Sure this is not a race, but if you are too proud to use the sag (which in four years I have so far avoided using) you still gotta get from point-a to point-b every day by pedaling. Choose any speed you will and it can wear you down, and wear you down a lot if you are not careful. As examples, just among us three we experienced open saddle sores, swollen knees, swollen Achilles tendons, upset stomachs or headaches. And we consider this a success in that we had a safe, healthy and enjoyable time!
There is little time to get in daily ride reports, and even so there is often intermittent computer or cell coverage in many of the small towns when all the riders arrive and overwhelm the systems. So here all together, are my day-to-day synopses:
Friday June 18 day minus-one. We arrived about 2:00pm in Glenwood Springs by mini-van having driven straight through in about 17 hours. Since the BTC ride did not start until Sunday this would give us some time acclimating and a chance to do a pre-ride on Saturday to shake out the legs and bikes. RTR happened to be ending their 2009 week tour in Glenwood Springs this same day and we met up with two Deerfield riders that rode RTR last year with us and got a ride report over dinner of their rather relaxing 320 mile week. (One of the main reasons we choose BTC this year was that after 25 years RTR is under new management and decided to shorten their tours over 100 miles.)
Saturday day zero was a pleasant day in the mid-50’s to start. Hatch, I and another rider we met at the hotel did a 48 mile jaunt which was mostly on the scenic bike trail system that runs in the valley between Glenwood and Aspen. After a stop for brunch mid-ride we decided to take a loop we had identified ahead of time from MapMyRide up into the hills and discovered just how not-acclimated we were and I was threatened with loosing my lunch. But a chance for a hard climb and fast descend gave us a taste of what was ahead for the week (and digesting while at altitude riding). The 112th annual “Strawberry Festival” was also in town so later we enjoyed the artisans, food vendors and band.
Sunday day one started the week out ominous with thunderstorms in the early dawn and at ride time it was still raining. We had fortunately decided to NOT camp that night but remained two nights at the hotel so we had the luxury of not having to pack up wet camping gear. We also still had access to detailed weather reports and could see from the radar map that the rain would soon be ending so we delayed our start time about an hour. After driving our bags over to the BTC official start, we returned to the hotel where they said we could park for the week and we headed out on our bikes. As with many of the days, this day was like three day’s rides in one: A scenic valley, an alpine climb, a decent into a high-desert town. This day the first part was on one of the nicest roads I have been on in four years which wound along a river canyon for about 20 miles. Then a 3’000 climb up McClure pass to 8’755 followed by a fast descent, then a hot ride into the little western high-desert Colorado town of Hotchkiss. We finished the 80+ miles by about 3PM and felt it was a tough enough start for the week. This was night-one of camping where once again I slept out under the stars and in four years now I have done so every night and have not been rained on yet (though I reserve space in someone’s tent in case of a rain emergency during the night). Hotchkiss is so small the best option for dinner turned out to be a tent-side picnic out of the Safeway deli, not much luxury at the end of this day.
Monday day two was the first big climb of the week, over the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway with 98 miles and about 6,500 feet of climbing. The climb started after 15 miles and 1500 vertical up and down breezy farm roads. But the weather could not be better for the two-plus hour climb up the Mesa with a small up-hill breeze and perfect temps. For those of you familiar with Mt. Lemmon, the Mesa climb is a lot like Mt. Lemmon at about a constant 5% grade that just keeps going up. I met a rider from Tucson who already has fifteen Mt. Lemmon rides in this year and asked him before and after about the climb. Though he thought it would be similar he later said it turned out steeper than Lemmon. My guess maybe a bit steeper but also it may have felt so since it was at a higher altitude. The Mesa tops off at 10’839 and the road up Lemmon at about 8’000. All I know is I am really glad I had a compact crank for the first time in four years and also wished I had a 27 instead of 25 in back. The bag of cherries I hung on my handle bars and munched every mile or so were also a boost. We topped off about noon which tuned out to be the usual time. After the twenty mile fast part of the descent we had another 25 miles along a scenic but hot-windy river canyon with many sandstone canyon features. There are a lot more riders on BTC I felt safe being in a pace line with and for this portion I worked with three guys from Vail (I should say, mostly hid behind) for the rest of the 40 miles into town where I arrived about 4PM. At least in Grand Junction we found a nearby sit-down restaurant where we were glad to be served up a little Mexican.
I should also mention how BTC does aid stations. They only have three a day, while RTR may have five or more. There are no independent food vendors; in fact your money is worthless since there is no one to buy from at the aid stations. However they put on a selection of fresh fruit and snacks that are great. Every day they seemed to add some more and when you are having difficulty tolerating any food, but have to eat, their selection really helped. Besides the requisite bananas and oranges, they were busy fresh-cutting or washing up watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, grapes, cherries, apricots and strawberries; plus putting out chips, pretzels, wheat-thins, animal crackers, trail-mix and pp&j, all set up in bins you could just grab and go.
Tuesday day three was a fairly flat 63 miles with a 40 mile additional option in the Colorado Monument that would be a steeper more jagged version of the previous day’s Grand Mesa. As much as we wanted to see the Monument, we did not have it in us, and the 63 mostly up-hill and up-wind miles to Montrose proved to be plenty tough enough, especially with having two flat tire problems to start the day off. However we saw many a rider take the Monument option and turn in another tough century ride. Montrose gave us time to hit the laundry mat. Along with other riders we partook in BTC’s evening plans consisting of a beer garden, a bbq picnic dinner and listening to a decent cover band.
Wednesday day four was identical to an RTR day last year, Montrose to Crested Butte and it turned out similar in every way except I knew what to expect and so felt better by the end. The ride out of Montrose is known for constant head-winds on the ten mile uphill approach to the base of the first climb. The false flat and the headwind combine to humiliate you, often down to 10mph. And this is the beginning of a century you ask? Last year I thought at this rate it would be a really-really long day but this year I knew the winds did not continue after the first summit. The climb to Cerro Summit begins still in the wind until the switchbacks, and ends 15 miles and about 2500 feet up from town. Then 1000 foot decent down a verdant valley then 2000 feet up another climb and you top off just under the final altitude of the day at Crested Butte of 9000 feet, however Crested Butte is another 60+ miles and in between you and there is the scenic Blue Mesa reservoir and canyons, and of course more climbing and descending. For the second year in a row Hatch and I were able to have a fun, hard push for the 25 or so miles along the reservoir since these are rollers more like we are used to. Plus we knew we had a rest day following so we could risk taking a bit more out of the tank. The last 27 miles were a steady but low grade (2%-3%) uphill from Gunnison to Crested Butte and we got in another ad-hoc pace line. This time with a couple of guys that brought us up several times right to our edge but we hung on and the results were we got into our nice condo even after schlepping the luggage, taking a shuttle, etc, at about 3PM with 93 miles. A shower without a line, a dinner in the quaint old town for some great pizza and beer dinning outdoors, followed by tequila shots at an historic bar where I then found out Hatch was a pool shark (the things you don’t know about people until you travel with them), all started out 48 hours of glorious recovery and vacation time.
Thursday day five, a rest day. Slept in, ate a great brunch. I rented a townie cruiser bike in the afternoon, took the shuttle with the townie up to the ski town and rode the bike down a scenic trail, now in the rain. Visited the library for the internet and found they had a used book sale going on. Shopped for souvenirs for my wife; read most of placards on the historic buildings; went to the Fat Tire Festival events also taking place; viewed a police bike auction; had some afternoon rest back at the condo; then out for a steak at the nearby “Avalanche” ski-lift base restaurant.
Friday day six, another carbon copy of last year’s RTR ride over Cottonwood pass except with some new twists. This ride starts out with a 45 minute, 27mph average downhill out of Crusty Butte while keeping your heart rate still at resting; followed by about another 15 miles of an incredibly scenic river canyon with steep rock walls light up against the clear morning air. Harvey and I took our time in the canyon even enjoying a brunch stop we had discovered last year at a perfect dude ranch along the Taylor River (Hormel’s). This year we met a couple from Lake Forest on their way to moving to Southern California and played the ‘who-do-you-know’ game quite successfully but the brunch delay later turned out to be rather costly. A ride along another reservoir for 15 miles and then the start of the Cottonwood pass climb on the unpaved 6% to 10% grade road. A previous days’ rain had taken any chance of dust away and the road surface was well compacted with only some minor washboard. It was also forecasted to storm later in the day so Hatch had skipped brunch and rushed up Cottonwood to beat the rain. He was putting up his tent all the way down in Buena Vista when the storm hit while Harvey and I were just approaching the summit. The sideways rain with fog and clouds continued when we summated about noon. It was now 42 degrees and the rain appeared to not be letting up. We had both hauled up cold and rain gear and put it on when the storm hit. I had on full gloves, a heavy rain riding jacket, leg and arm warmers, helmet cover, balaclava, rain pants and shoe covers, besides the bike shorts and jersey. After the requisite picture at the Continental Divide 12’126 foot sign I started the decent into Buena Vista hoping for a quick warm up watching on my odometer for the air temperature more than the speed. The wet decent made for a radical reduction in speed and pretty much wasted the downhill but that proved to be the least of my problems. Even with what I was wearing I was still way underdressed and halfway down it had only warmed up a bit. There have only been a couple of times in my life where I entered the first stage of hypothermia which are uncontrollable body shivers, and this set in for the first time ever for me on a bike. The bike makes a strange kind of wobble when you are body shivering and I knew I had to find some shelter soon but its all wilderness until you get further down. The first place I went no other riders had come in and the proprietor was quite unfriendly so after a candy bar did nothing to warm me up I moved on. The next place I found had hot tea water and after four cups of the hottest water I could stand, I was still no better off. There were many other riders worse off than me only in shorts and jerseys and they had also found the same stop. However this place just happened to be the Cottonwood Hot Springs and a few minutes later I had a rented swim suit and towel, and was in 100 degree water! The sun came out and man-o-man, life was good! I stayed submerged to my neck for about a half hour before even feeling hot. Another hour and I was healed and ready to head the last six miles downhill into town. I found my fellow campers who figured I had gone off the edge of a switchback (no cell coverage at the Hot Springs); set up camp, had a late lunch, some rest time and a fine last-night celebratory dinner. All was quite good and it was nice to have such a story with a happy ending.
Saturday day seven, our last and sixth day of riding. Time to cross the Continental Divide into Aspen and roll back to our starting point. We had our usual 4:45 wake up accompanied by Harvey’s French-press jet-boil whose fresh ground coffee would for the last time start off our day (hey we are Grupo de’ Café’). There were many campers leaving early, some tents went down at 4:00AM; we got out about 6:30. The winds for 26 miles up the Arkansas River valley were noticeable, especially combined with the 1000 foot rise but you can’t beat the picture painted by the 15 nearby “Collegiate Peaks” each over 14,000 foot set off against the azure blue morning sky. We reached the first Aid Station at the base of the Independence Pass east approach at about 9:00AM and hoped to reach the summit again by noon. I knew a bit what to expect from prior years except I was climbing up east-west instead of west to east. There are a lot of 8% sections near the beginning of the climb, then a long snake winding up a perfect green valley with mountain flowers and a meandering stream, and then the switchbacks begin, which is actually a relief. Though the switchbacks seem steep when you see the cyclists nearly overhead, the grade is actually only about 3-5%. Even so, at over 10,000 feet this feels plenty steep. But by now on our last day we have acclimated as best we would and with good weather, a bit of get-home-itis and the nostalgia knowing that when you reach the summit it is the unofficial end of your trip; the adrenaline gets going. Whatever aches, pains or sores you carry it no longer matters because you have a year to heal so you just push through it and enjoy the view and even enjoy the pain. At times like these I think my pain and pleasure centers are cross-wired like I suspect they are permanently cross-wired in Brian Leverenz’s head. It just hurts so good. The day stayed clear and warm and at the top at 11:30 it was 52 degrees and sunny. I dressed warm for the downhill (just in case I had carried one more layer than I had on Cottonwood). Coming down the steeper west side I could not believe I had ever climbed it two years ago and pitied the poor cyclists I saw riding up that way. It was 68 degrees 40 minutes later down at Aid Station #2; in another 30 minutes we passed through Aspen. Then there were only 40 miles to go of one last gradual, windy, hot decent in varying pace lines. Hatch took some strong pulls and blew people off the back. He and I ended up at the car in Glenwood Springs at about 3PM while we sent Harvey straight to the official ride’s end for us to bring the car around to get our luggage.
We showered, packed, ate and hit the road at 7:00pm. With three drivers, we were able to take turns sleeping and arrived non-stop into Deerfield at about 2:00PM Sunday. I am not sure about next year, but would be willing to consider helping facilitate a group. During the ride there were a few clubs and groups that worked together on personal sags and camp setup, apparently also staffed by some non-riders who came along. This might be a good model if there is wider interest from us Chicago area club riders. I know some of you have done that kind of thing before too.
Hope you get a chance to do a BTC--you will not regret it!
-Jay G
Next time we need to bring our own peleton.
Hey there riders,
Last Saturday I completed the 2009 Bicycle Tour of Colorado. This is my fourth year in a row riding across Colorado, the prior three with Ride the Rockies. BTC advertises no easy days and they pretty much delivered on that. We rode this year’s route of 520 miles, 30,000+ feet of climbing in six days with at least one serious climb a day, including the last two days crossing the Continental Divide twice at over 12,000 feet. More so than RTR, BTC is designed for the cycling enthusiasts and most of the 1600 participants you would recognize as a kindred serious club-type rider. The best of us would be hard pressed to keep up with many of these folks who regularly ride at altitude and whose club rides may practice on these types of climbs. We also estimated there were about 25% women (that we were able to determine with a reasonable degree of certainty, were female). My Grupo de Café’ consisted of two others: VCR and Colavita member Bill Hatch and Alberto’s member Harvey Hoffman. We only ran into a few other area riders, “WGaS” member Andre (on) the Giant and some of his Wilmette/Plaza compatriots, and one newer Alberto’s member I don’t recall the name of.
If you have not done a hard multi-day tour and experienced the wear and tear that only comes with at least five or six consecutive days of centuries or Colorado’s horribly high hills, you gotta do it at least once in a lifetime. Up every day by 5AM, on the road until mid-afternoon, contending with wind, altitude, rain/hail storms, temps that could be from 30-90 degrees, trying to keep up with the 7000+ daily calorie depletion, getting enough rest even while sleeping on the ground, mechanical problems, staying alert for traffic, the other riders and 50mph descents--to name a few of the challenges. Sure this is not a race, but if you are too proud to use the sag (which in four years I have so far avoided using) you still gotta get from point-a to point-b every day by pedaling. Choose any speed you will and it can wear you down, and wear you down a lot if you are not careful. As examples, just among us three we experienced open saddle sores, swollen knees, swollen Achilles tendons, upset stomachs or headaches. And we consider this a success in that we had a safe, healthy and enjoyable time!
There is little time to get in daily ride reports, and even so there is often intermittent computer or cell coverage in many of the small towns when all the riders arrive and overwhelm the systems. So here all together, are my day-to-day synopses:
Friday June 18 day minus-one. We arrived about 2:00pm in Glenwood Springs by mini-van having driven straight through in about 17 hours. Since the BTC ride did not start until Sunday this would give us some time acclimating and a chance to do a pre-ride on Saturday to shake out the legs and bikes. RTR happened to be ending their 2009 week tour in Glenwood Springs this same day and we met up with two Deerfield riders that rode RTR last year with us and got a ride report over dinner of their rather relaxing 320 mile week. (One of the main reasons we choose BTC this year was that after 25 years RTR is under new management and decided to shorten their tours over 100 miles.)
Saturday day zero was a pleasant day in the mid-50’s to start. Hatch, I and another rider we met at the hotel did a 48 mile jaunt which was mostly on the scenic bike trail system that runs in the valley between Glenwood and Aspen. After a stop for brunch mid-ride we decided to take a loop we had identified ahead of time from MapMyRide up into the hills and discovered just how not-acclimated we were and I was threatened with loosing my lunch. But a chance for a hard climb and fast descend gave us a taste of what was ahead for the week (and digesting while at altitude riding). The 112th annual “Strawberry Festival” was also in town so later we enjoyed the artisans, food vendors and band.
Sunday day one started the week out ominous with thunderstorms in the early dawn and at ride time it was still raining. We had fortunately decided to NOT camp that night but remained two nights at the hotel so we had the luxury of not having to pack up wet camping gear. We also still had access to detailed weather reports and could see from the radar map that the rain would soon be ending so we delayed our start time about an hour. After driving our bags over to the BTC official start, we returned to the hotel where they said we could park for the week and we headed out on our bikes. As with many of the days, this day was like three day’s rides in one: A scenic valley, an alpine climb, a decent into a high-desert town. This day the first part was on one of the nicest roads I have been on in four years which wound along a river canyon for about 20 miles. Then a 3’000 climb up McClure pass to 8’755 followed by a fast descent, then a hot ride into the little western high-desert Colorado town of Hotchkiss. We finished the 80+ miles by about 3PM and felt it was a tough enough start for the week. This was night-one of camping where once again I slept out under the stars and in four years now I have done so every night and have not been rained on yet (though I reserve space in someone’s tent in case of a rain emergency during the night). Hotchkiss is so small the best option for dinner turned out to be a tent-side picnic out of the Safeway deli, not much luxury at the end of this day.
Monday day two was the first big climb of the week, over the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway with 98 miles and about 6,500 feet of climbing. The climb started after 15 miles and 1500 vertical up and down breezy farm roads. But the weather could not be better for the two-plus hour climb up the Mesa with a small up-hill breeze and perfect temps. For those of you familiar with Mt. Lemmon, the Mesa climb is a lot like Mt. Lemmon at about a constant 5% grade that just keeps going up. I met a rider from Tucson who already has fifteen Mt. Lemmon rides in this year and asked him before and after about the climb. Though he thought it would be similar he later said it turned out steeper than Lemmon. My guess maybe a bit steeper but also it may have felt so since it was at a higher altitude. The Mesa tops off at 10’839 and the road up Lemmon at about 8’000. All I know is I am really glad I had a compact crank for the first time in four years and also wished I had a 27 instead of 25 in back. The bag of cherries I hung on my handle bars and munched every mile or so were also a boost. We topped off about noon which tuned out to be the usual time. After the twenty mile fast part of the descent we had another 25 miles along a scenic but hot-windy river canyon with many sandstone canyon features. There are a lot more riders on BTC I felt safe being in a pace line with and for this portion I worked with three guys from Vail (I should say, mostly hid behind) for the rest of the 40 miles into town where I arrived about 4PM. At least in Grand Junction we found a nearby sit-down restaurant where we were glad to be served up a little Mexican.
I should also mention how BTC does aid stations. They only have three a day, while RTR may have five or more. There are no independent food vendors; in fact your money is worthless since there is no one to buy from at the aid stations. However they put on a selection of fresh fruit and snacks that are great. Every day they seemed to add some more and when you are having difficulty tolerating any food, but have to eat, their selection really helped. Besides the requisite bananas and oranges, they were busy fresh-cutting or washing up watermelon, pineapple, kiwi, grapes, cherries, apricots and strawberries; plus putting out chips, pretzels, wheat-thins, animal crackers, trail-mix and pp&j, all set up in bins you could just grab and go.
Tuesday day three was a fairly flat 63 miles with a 40 mile additional option in the Colorado Monument that would be a steeper more jagged version of the previous day’s Grand Mesa. As much as we wanted to see the Monument, we did not have it in us, and the 63 mostly up-hill and up-wind miles to Montrose proved to be plenty tough enough, especially with having two flat tire problems to start the day off. However we saw many a rider take the Monument option and turn in another tough century ride. Montrose gave us time to hit the laundry mat. Along with other riders we partook in BTC’s evening plans consisting of a beer garden, a bbq picnic dinner and listening to a decent cover band.
Wednesday day four was identical to an RTR day last year, Montrose to Crested Butte and it turned out similar in every way except I knew what to expect and so felt better by the end. The ride out of Montrose is known for constant head-winds on the ten mile uphill approach to the base of the first climb. The false flat and the headwind combine to humiliate you, often down to 10mph. And this is the beginning of a century you ask? Last year I thought at this rate it would be a really-really long day but this year I knew the winds did not continue after the first summit. The climb to Cerro Summit begins still in the wind until the switchbacks, and ends 15 miles and about 2500 feet up from town. Then 1000 foot decent down a verdant valley then 2000 feet up another climb and you top off just under the final altitude of the day at Crested Butte of 9000 feet, however Crested Butte is another 60+ miles and in between you and there is the scenic Blue Mesa reservoir and canyons, and of course more climbing and descending. For the second year in a row Hatch and I were able to have a fun, hard push for the 25 or so miles along the reservoir since these are rollers more like we are used to. Plus we knew we had a rest day following so we could risk taking a bit more out of the tank. The last 27 miles were a steady but low grade (2%-3%) uphill from Gunnison to Crested Butte and we got in another ad-hoc pace line. This time with a couple of guys that brought us up several times right to our edge but we hung on and the results were we got into our nice condo even after schlepping the luggage, taking a shuttle, etc, at about 3PM with 93 miles. A shower without a line, a dinner in the quaint old town for some great pizza and beer dinning outdoors, followed by tequila shots at an historic bar where I then found out Hatch was a pool shark (the things you don’t know about people until you travel with them), all started out 48 hours of glorious recovery and vacation time.
Thursday day five, a rest day. Slept in, ate a great brunch. I rented a townie cruiser bike in the afternoon, took the shuttle with the townie up to the ski town and rode the bike down a scenic trail, now in the rain. Visited the library for the internet and found they had a used book sale going on. Shopped for souvenirs for my wife; read most of placards on the historic buildings; went to the Fat Tire Festival events also taking place; viewed a police bike auction; had some afternoon rest back at the condo; then out for a steak at the nearby “Avalanche” ski-lift base restaurant.
Friday day six, another carbon copy of last year’s RTR ride over Cottonwood pass except with some new twists. This ride starts out with a 45 minute, 27mph average downhill out of Crusty Butte while keeping your heart rate still at resting; followed by about another 15 miles of an incredibly scenic river canyon with steep rock walls light up against the clear morning air. Harvey and I took our time in the canyon even enjoying a brunch stop we had discovered last year at a perfect dude ranch along the Taylor River (Hormel’s). This year we met a couple from Lake Forest on their way to moving to Southern California and played the ‘who-do-you-know’ game quite successfully but the brunch delay later turned out to be rather costly. A ride along another reservoir for 15 miles and then the start of the Cottonwood pass climb on the unpaved 6% to 10% grade road. A previous days’ rain had taken any chance of dust away and the road surface was well compacted with only some minor washboard. It was also forecasted to storm later in the day so Hatch had skipped brunch and rushed up Cottonwood to beat the rain. He was putting up his tent all the way down in Buena Vista when the storm hit while Harvey and I were just approaching the summit. The sideways rain with fog and clouds continued when we summated about noon. It was now 42 degrees and the rain appeared to not be letting up. We had both hauled up cold and rain gear and put it on when the storm hit. I had on full gloves, a heavy rain riding jacket, leg and arm warmers, helmet cover, balaclava, rain pants and shoe covers, besides the bike shorts and jersey. After the requisite picture at the Continental Divide 12’126 foot sign I started the decent into Buena Vista hoping for a quick warm up watching on my odometer for the air temperature more than the speed. The wet decent made for a radical reduction in speed and pretty much wasted the downhill but that proved to be the least of my problems. Even with what I was wearing I was still way underdressed and halfway down it had only warmed up a bit. There have only been a couple of times in my life where I entered the first stage of hypothermia which are uncontrollable body shivers, and this set in for the first time ever for me on a bike. The bike makes a strange kind of wobble when you are body shivering and I knew I had to find some shelter soon but its all wilderness until you get further down. The first place I went no other riders had come in and the proprietor was quite unfriendly so after a candy bar did nothing to warm me up I moved on. The next place I found had hot tea water and after four cups of the hottest water I could stand, I was still no better off. There were many other riders worse off than me only in shorts and jerseys and they had also found the same stop. However this place just happened to be the Cottonwood Hot Springs and a few minutes later I had a rented swim suit and towel, and was in 100 degree water! The sun came out and man-o-man, life was good! I stayed submerged to my neck for about a half hour before even feeling hot. Another hour and I was healed and ready to head the last six miles downhill into town. I found my fellow campers who figured I had gone off the edge of a switchback (no cell coverage at the Hot Springs); set up camp, had a late lunch, some rest time and a fine last-night celebratory dinner. All was quite good and it was nice to have such a story with a happy ending.
Saturday day seven, our last and sixth day of riding. Time to cross the Continental Divide into Aspen and roll back to our starting point. We had our usual 4:45 wake up accompanied by Harvey’s French-press jet-boil whose fresh ground coffee would for the last time start off our day (hey we are Grupo de’ Café’). There were many campers leaving early, some tents went down at 4:00AM; we got out about 6:30. The winds for 26 miles up the Arkansas River valley were noticeable, especially combined with the 1000 foot rise but you can’t beat the picture painted by the 15 nearby “Collegiate Peaks” each over 14,000 foot set off against the azure blue morning sky. We reached the first Aid Station at the base of the Independence Pass east approach at about 9:00AM and hoped to reach the summit again by noon. I knew a bit what to expect from prior years except I was climbing up east-west instead of west to east. There are a lot of 8% sections near the beginning of the climb, then a long snake winding up a perfect green valley with mountain flowers and a meandering stream, and then the switchbacks begin, which is actually a relief. Though the switchbacks seem steep when you see the cyclists nearly overhead, the grade is actually only about 3-5%. Even so, at over 10,000 feet this feels plenty steep. But by now on our last day we have acclimated as best we would and with good weather, a bit of get-home-itis and the nostalgia knowing that when you reach the summit it is the unofficial end of your trip; the adrenaline gets going. Whatever aches, pains or sores you carry it no longer matters because you have a year to heal so you just push through it and enjoy the view and even enjoy the pain. At times like these I think my pain and pleasure centers are cross-wired like I suspect they are permanently cross-wired in Brian Leverenz’s head. It just hurts so good. The day stayed clear and warm and at the top at 11:30 it was 52 degrees and sunny. I dressed warm for the downhill (just in case I had carried one more layer than I had on Cottonwood). Coming down the steeper west side I could not believe I had ever climbed it two years ago and pitied the poor cyclists I saw riding up that way. It was 68 degrees 40 minutes later down at Aid Station #2; in another 30 minutes we passed through Aspen. Then there were only 40 miles to go of one last gradual, windy, hot decent in varying pace lines. Hatch took some strong pulls and blew people off the back. He and I ended up at the car in Glenwood Springs at about 3PM while we sent Harvey straight to the official ride’s end for us to bring the car around to get our luggage.
We showered, packed, ate and hit the road at 7:00pm. With three drivers, we were able to take turns sleeping and arrived non-stop into Deerfield at about 2:00PM Sunday. I am not sure about next year, but would be willing to consider helping facilitate a group. During the ride there were a few clubs and groups that worked together on personal sags and camp setup, apparently also staffed by some non-riders who came along. This might be a good model if there is wider interest from us Chicago area club riders. I know some of you have done that kind of thing before too.
Hope you get a chance to do a BTC--you will not regret it!
-Jay G
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