When I reached Alamosa yesterday, I picked up my second demo bike of the week, a $12,000 SRAM. This bike weighs 15 lbs including wheels, has deep dish wheels and every time I stood up on the pedals, the darn thing wanted to take off from under me. A sweet ride and I was very interested to see how it rode. The demo bike also had more of a racing stance, which concerned me as my shoulders were already sore and this stance puts more weight on them, but here goes.
First, I had the best night's sleep on the trip so far! But Alamosa was frigid this morning, full gear on to start. The demo bike didn't have the bags to store my gear, so when I shed the gear, it all went into my rear jersey pockets....does this jersey make my butt look big?
I was a little worried today since the ride was a steady uphill, all the way to the top of Poncha Pass, 71 miles away. Worry for nothing as I jumped on the SRAM demo and it seemed to pedal itself. The grade from Alamosa was uphill on the map, but I was tooling along at 16 mph with no effort, it wasn't as steep as it looked...or it had to be the bike. Warren, Peter and Cindy caught up at rest stop one and we rode together a 19 mph pace line the 20 miles to rest stop #2. I was able to keep up and pulled a couple of times, dropping back about 2 miles away from then rest stop. Warren dropped back to pull me in.
The Sangre De Cristos mountains were keeping us company on the right all the way and it was a cool and pretty morning. If you have been this way, the long straight stretch can seem long in a car, but it was easy to get into a rhythm and I made 71 miles to the top of Poncha pass in about 5 hours. It was sunny, but fairly cool until the last 14 miles up Poncha Pass. Considering it took about 5 hours to reach the top of Wolf Creek (24 miles), I was feeling pretty good.
A wild fire appeared to be just starting and it was growing as I rode past so if you hear of something in the news...you can barely see it in the left hand side.
I spent my free time in the afternoon in the bike tech village. WD-40 provided free bike washes all week and it was yellow wristband day, so my bike is now clean and lubed. Sports Garage out of Boulder are great and Chris the owner didn't like the way my seat was adjusted, so he fitted me on the spot and adjusted the seat - we'll see if there is a difference tomorrow - he believes my sore tail end days are over! I do recommend Sports Garage - they are great!
FIBArk, Salida's annual whitewater festival, starts today and is combined with the RTR festival. The park is next to the river, so a quick leg soak, gyro's and rice and settled into the band. The Arkansas is really high right now and saw a lot of rafters and kayakers. The band had a good lead singer and when she left the stage to sing in the crowd...I realized she was REALLY young. I asked the guy next to me how old she was and he replied "12, can you believe it!" Blew my mind! It was hard to believe this stage rocker, lead guitarist and lead singer was 12. She could belt it, but her riffs were amazing. I couldn't get a clear shot...but here she is!
On the walk back to the school, the thunder was grumbling away. It had been spitting a bit, and the heavy clouds finally cut loose and we had a little torrential downpour for about an hour or so. I was soaked, but I didn't melt - its only water. Luckily we had put all of our stuff inside the tent - all was high and dry. But some people were not so fortunate, tents in low spots were flooded or luggage left outside. I was laughing as I looked at my bike and those around it...it seems like it rained dirt. Perhaps ash from the fires?
Wolf Creek pass was a really tough yesterday for me, but many riders also shared what a challenging ride they had. I really enjoyed the ride today as well as my body didn't protest like yesterday, it just went out and got the job done. I am still surprised and how far you can push yourself and still recover and have a good next day. I am actually feeling pretty good tonight, staying up a little later to catch up on Day 4, which I am having trouble posting (internet in Salida wasn't cooperating and the guest network at the school blocks Facebook and Twitter).
-Steve
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