Day 1 - Rain, rain...

Go away, try and get me another day! A close call, but avoided a super, soaker by about 15 minutes. Day 1 started partly cloudy skies and slightly cool. All forms of bike knerds assembled for the opening ceremony and national anthem. There was no flag flying so they called a guy with an American Flag Jersey out of the crowd as a stand-in. Americans.....masters of improvisation.



This was a great way to start the steep climb up to Colorado National Monument. Here's looking up from the base of the climb:



From the top, looking back down:




The CO National Monument National Park is full of magnificent vistas and scenery, Chimney Rock:




Here's some of the local fauna, a flowering yucca, for our resident horticulturist!




Back to our headline, story... Rain. Check out the Chimney Rock pic. Notice the clouds building? Yeah, so did I. There was one more piece of climbing. As I was coming up on the rest stop, a clap of thunder sounded so loud that it almost knocked about a hundred of us off our bikes! Talk about puckered up?! I almost pinched my saddle off at the seatpost with my bottom! It was time to shift into overdrive. I had plenty of water and chose to take it back to #60 Sherpaville double-time.

For the most part, I avoided the rain. Got a little damp from the edge of a shower on the way down, but managed to avoid a soaking. Stats for the day:

45 miles; 2,486 feet of elevation climbed; 2,990 calories burned; 3:05 ride time.

Tomorrow's ride is a monster, 94 miles and 6,000 feet of climbing! Time to get some food and rest! Talk to you tomorrow after the beating. Thanks for reading,

Chuck "Coach" Taylor

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Location:Grand Juction, CO