Day 1 - Frisco to Steamboat Springs, Jun 17 2007

Talk about just getting down to business....today's ride was 98.86 miles /or/ 101.3 depending on whom you believe. There is tremendous discussion and dissension within Team Bizzo about whether the ride qualifies as a Century. Cubby is firmly on the side of Century and Hammer is firmly on the side No-Century.

Suffice it to say that we were in that neighborhood. Nothing gets your attention like a 100-mile ride. Here are today's stats:

• ~ 100 Miles
• 4,700 ft. Elevation Gain, Maximum Gradient - 9%
• Ride Time: 6:29:42, yes, 6 hours, 29 minutes and 42 seconds for Coach.
• Cubby and Hammer finished about 2 minutes earlier. So much for no man left behind.
• Total Calories Consumed - 6,032

The ride started out with an "in your face" climb up Swan Mountain Road, 600 feet. There was about a 1000' of warmup flats and then straight up hill. The grades were at 8 - 9% most of the way. Welcome to RTR.

This is a part of Colorado that I've never visited. The scenery from Frisco to Rabbit Ears Pass was mostly high desert, i.e., not a lot of trees and lots of sage. What few trees were Cottonwoods located around the Blue River. Here's a picture of yours truly on the approach to Rabbit Ears:

See if you can find the Rabbit Ears. Also, note the state of the local vegetation.

BTW - Would your rather kiss a frog between the legs or a rabbit between the ears? Post a response. If you're not sure how to answer, ask me about this the next time that you see me.

Here's more close-up view of Rabbit Ears Pass. Notice the increase in trees, flora and fauna. I learned these big hort words from our local hort knerd, Princess. Also, there were some wonder streams and lakes on top as well.

The downhill ride to Steamboat was beautiful. It was a broad valley surrounded by mountains with lots of trees, horse ranches, and streams. This is what a typical person thinks about when they think Colorado. This is absolutely God's country.

Today we're going to start a new feature, called quote of the day. Today's nugget is:

"The longest day is the hardest day. - the Coach".

For some reason, my compadres enjoy the simple overstatement contained within. For this ride, I'm not sure that this will hold true. Tuesday's ride promises to be a humdinger. Go the the RTR web site and look at the profile and description for Day 3 - Craig to Rifle. The ride for today is a short (44 mile) downhill ride to Craig. More mountains, more scenery. Weather forecast is for sunny and 75 to 80 degrees.

More to come this evening.....the Coach.