I knocked off a few bucket list rides this week while Meg and Bennett were off exploring the Tetons and Yellowstone with the Schaub’s. My goal was to climb Trail Ridge Road, Pikes, and repeat Evans from Idaho Springs. I added a few more climbs in for good measure and according to TrainingPeaks I accumulated about 34,000’ of climbing in the week and a half I was home alone. Not too shabby…
Disc brakes not required… The ‘08 Cervelo R3 is still going strong…
The week started with a (long) trip up to Brainard Lake. I’ve ridden up to Ward dozens of times, but never went the extra couple miles up Brainard Lake road. It made for a long day, but well worth it.
On Father’s Day I had a failed attempt at Mt Evans due to too late of a start. I still made a nice Echo Lake - Bergen Park loop and was reminded how steep Floyd Hill really is.
Work interrupted my cycling calendar on Monday, but Tuesday was a vacay day and Trail Ridge Road was it. At the Alpine Visitor Center some tourists asked me if I really rode my bike up there or just drove up and brought the bike with me. I just starred back at them while eating snacks out of a feed back on my top tube and eventually they moved on. I highly recommend Trail Ridge Road… it’s been over a decade since I’ve been up there and I’ve forgotten how beautiful it really is.
I had to work back on Wednesday, but Thursday I was headed down to Colorado Springs with my neighbor, Charlie, to climb Pikes. I hate to say it, but Pikes Peak really isn’t that scenic in my opinion. There are so many better places to see in this state, but I guess it’s the only 14er summit with a restaurant (and donuts). The tourist crowds and construction was unreal up there. We didn’t spend more than a few minutes before getting the heck outta there. The road surface is immaculate; about 1000x better than Evans and it makes the descent that much more enjoyable (as it should be - you’re going downhill, right?
Work beckoned again on Friday, but it was rematch time with Mt Evans on Saturday morning. No sleeping in today. I climbed Evans from Echo Lake back in 2017, but this time I did the full climb from Idaho Springs. Mt Evans auto road is closed due to COVID19 and it was AWESOME. The climb is easier that the descent still, but it wasn’t as bad as the thunder hail storm in 2017. I hear CDOT is doing some repairs to the road in light of the closure and it sure needs it, but I didn’t see any signs of progress. It’s still a pot hole jungle. No rims were damaged in the filming of this video:
Against my better judgement I joined Charlie and Joe for a “recovery” ride up Flagstaff in Boulder on Sunday. Joe and I took it really easy while Charlie was on a KOM hunting mission.
Overall it was a great extended week of riding, but by the end of it I was so happy to see my lovely bride and son. I think I took the next few days off to truly recover!