Another Year - 2008 Ride the Rockies

2008 brings another edition of Ride the Rockies!  Team Bizzo (or at least 2/3's of us - Coach & Hammer) will be doing this year's rendition which starts in Durango, CO on Sunday, Jun 15, 2008 and ends in Breckenridge, CO on Saturday, Jun 21, 2008.  It sets up as another year of serious challenges to both the mind and the legs.  We will be riding as a part of "Team Flying High" which will introduce a new set of characters, including Uncle Doug and Johnny Utah, that we met while riding RTR two years ago!

The current year set-up is 435 miles over 7 days (actually 6 riding days + 1 rest day).  I'm quite familiar with this route as I've ridden all of the roads at least 4 times with the single exception of the last day (Buena Vista to Breckenridge via Hoosier Pass). 

Here's a preview of the ride this year:

• Day 1 - Durango, CO to Cortez, CO:  This is a good starting day.  By RTR standards, it is relatively short (only 49 miles).  It starts with a big climb early in the ride and is mostly downhill thereafter, a good way to get the body set for the challenges that lie ahead.  Most of the riders will be done by noon and get ready for Day 2.

• Day 2 - Cortez, CO to Telluride, CO:  Simply put....a beast of day.  77 miles with the first ~65 miles straight uphill.  I've climbed this route three (3) times and have bonked twice.  For those of you that are non-cyclists, bonking occurs when your body can no longer produce energy from fat stores and glycogen (sugar stored in your body primarily muscles and liver) and quite simply shuts itself down.  Symptoms include among other things dizziness, hallucinations, muscle cramping, fatigue, inability to walk or let alone peddle a bicycle.  Rest is not the problem.  Lack of food is!  The only remedy is to consume enough food/calories to alleviate the condition.  Needless to say, I'd like to get my batting average back to .500.  Here's the day's profile:
  

• Day 3 - Telluride, CO to Montrose, CO:  As brutal as Day 2 is, Day 3 is as pretty, probably one of the pretty parts of Colorado.  The ride is rollicking downhill from Telluride to Placerville, CO followed by a steady climb up to the Dallas Divide.  At the top of the Dallas Divide, you start a beautiful downhill which follows almost 10 miles of the beautiful white fenced RL Ranch....Ralph Lauren Ranch, that is!  I've never seen so much white fence.  You wouldn't want to be the one responsible for painting it!

• Day 4 - Montrose, CO to Crested Butte, CO:  By climbing standards this is not hard climbing day, but at 92 miles it is the longest day of the ride.  It's mostly uphill with the first 25 miles generally into a brutal (i.e., 25 mph) headwind.  After a series of small climbs, it flattens out into Gunnison River valley as you head into Gunnison.  When you get to Gunnison @ 65 miles, you make a left hand turn and go 27 miles uphill to Crested Butte.  Tired will become the operative word for most when they finally get to their camp/lodgings in Crested Butte!

• Day 5 - Off Day in Crested Butte, CO:  Hurray!  Food and rest - very cool options. Actually, almost starts to sound like a vacation!

• Day 6 - Crested Butte, CO to Buena Vista, CO:  This is a serious climbing day.  Patience is a virtue best suited for today.  You start with about a 15 mile downhill run until a left hand turn takes you up to Taylor Reservoir and finally up the road to Cottonwood Pass, 12,126 ft. elevation.  There isn't much air up there!  Check out this profile:

• Day 7 - Buena Vista, CO to Breckenridge, CO:  It's time for the fun to end!  I've driven this route in a car many times, but have never ridden it on a bicycle.  Two passes are on the agenda, Trout Creek Pass and Hoosier Pass.  I'll be excited to ride Hoosier Pass because it is the normal route from our cabin in Woodland Park, CO to the Breckenridge Ski Resort. The climb up to Hoosier is a steady 4 miles @ 7% almost straight up the side of the mountain.  The descent is a twisty, twitchy switch-back filled road which will test the most daring of descenders (of which, I'm not one of them!). 

Hammer and I look forward to providing you with the blow by blow descriptions of each day's events.  The rumor is that "Princess" may be checking in during the trip to provide her RTR au feminine observations.  Also, I've procured a helmet cam which can be affixed to my handlebar to give you a "bikes-eye" video view of the route.  Let's see how that works?!

This year, I've provided an RSS update connection which will let you know when I've updated the site.  Simply click on the RSS button on the top right column (below where it says click here for site updates).  It will open up a web page which gives you all of the entries that you have not yet seen when visiting this blog.  On this newly opened web page, you can also select the "Subscribe in Mail" option (on the right hand margin) which will actually load the site into your e-mail viewer on a Mac.  For Windows users that want this functionality, download the RSS Reader Plug-in from http://rsspopper.blogspot.com/2004/10/home.html  and it will make Outlook or Outlook Express work the same as I've described on the Mac with your Windows machine.  Your e-mail viewer will check for updates and give you an e-mail version of the updates (including pics and videos) generally within 30 minutes of being posted!  No more pulling up the blog only to find....no updates! - :(

Hopefully, you'll find some entertainment value in the voyage and it will encourage you to visit this heaven that I call Colorado.  Tune in and enjoy - 

Chuck "The Coach" Taylor