Day 4 - Rifle to Glenwood Springs

Today was supposed to be an easy day. Well…..for the most part it was at . However, they put a roughly 1,000 ft. climb at the beginning. The route map shows the climb, but I just didn’t expect it to bite like it did. There were some grades that approached 12%. Today’s elevation gain was 2,200 ft. Taking a look at the route book, this looks like a precursor of things to come. Tomorrow’s ride is “only” 43 miles, but we’ll go from about 5,700 ft. of elevation to almost 8,000 ft. in Aspen with an elevation gain of 2,800. The day after is the “queen’s stage” – Aspen to Leadville, which is 61 miles, an elevation gain of 5,700 and tops Independence Pass @ 12,095 ft. In fact, there is a stretch of about 15 miles @ 5-1/2% “average grade”. These are not as long as the first couple of days, but their elevation gain and steepness will exact a serious toll on the legs.

Despite the climb on the front-end, Team Bizzo had a comfortable day in the saddle. Cubby was able to rehab his knee last night to the point of being able to ride. It turns out that Mr. Cubby had his bicycle maintained at a local shop in San Antonio. As part of their maintenance, they cleaned and lubed the seatpost. However….they set the seatpost about +1” too low. Guess what happens? Answer – your knees hurt. Cubby adjusted his seat back up and voila…the knee pain was severely reduced. He’s still tender from the first three days of damage, but a little ice and ibuprofen will solve this in time for Independence Pass.

Lecture Time - Even for you novice cyclists out there, once you get your bicycle seat adjusted properly, measure the distance from the top of the pedal (on the downstroke – along the seat tube) to the top of the seat. Write this number down or commit it to memory. Always check this measurement when you have the bike serviced. Mechanics are notoriously slack at this detail. You’ll avoid the knee pain and the time off the bike rehab’ing your injury. BTW – you can get knee pain from the seat being too high or too low. Get properly fitted for the bike. There should be a slight bend to your knee at the bottom of the downstroke. End of lecture.

The ride was very beautiful. We climbed into Harvey Gap State Park. There is a reservoir in the park that was a stunning emerald green. Because of logistical issues with Hammer’s camera, we’ll have those and a number of pictures from today’s ride. After the climb, we had a moderate descent (22 – 28 mph) into the value that heads towards Glenwood Springs. It was quite a bucolic setting with farms, barns and lots of grazing horses and cows along with shimmering hayfields.

As we headed out towards Glenwood Springs, Team Bizzo came face to face with the forest fire that Lisa had written about. The fire was started by a lightning strike. As we headed down US Highway 6, the sky was filled with billowing smoke and firefighting choppers and airplanes. The fire had gotten within almost ¼ mile of the highway. I’ve attached a video clip that I took with my cell phone. After we got past the fire, we spent about 5 miles on lovely Interstate 70. The pucker factor was unbelievably high with 18-wheelers passing you at 75 mph. We’ll have more photos, stats and stuff with tomorrow’s post.



Quote of the Day - "We'll be done when we're done" - the Hammer.

The Coach