Last Weekend’s Rides

| UltraRob | Thursday, April 27th, 2006 at 5:19 pm

Last weekend was warmer than normal just like most of the rest of this month. I wish that would be the case this weekend since I’m taking tomorrow off work to ride to Avon. Unfortunately the forecast is for snow tonight. I’m most worried about going through Leadville and over Tennessee Pass. It’s pretty much never warm there this time of year and if the weather’s bad it can be ugly. In fact in can be cold there the middle of the summer. If the weather cooperates I should get in about 500 miles in the next 3 days.

Last Saturday I went up in to the mountains and did a fair amount of climbing. I felt good although I tried not to ride too hard since I was supposed to go hard on Sunday. The temperature was comfortable up at 9,000 feet and it felt hot when I dropped back down into town. I got in 108 miles with 6280 feet of climbing and averaged 15.7 mph.

Sunday I joined up with the 10:00 Acacia Park group ride. The fastest guys where apparently in Boulder doing a training race but we still had a good, strong group. When the pace got a bit harder, my legs felt tired and I was worried I would get dropped. It didn’t take long for my legs to clear out and I ended up helping drive the lead group. At the bomber sprint, I easily jumped clear of the group. On the climb I stayed at the front but new the top a few riders that weighed a lot less than me surged and I couldn’t quite hold on. As soon as we got over the top, I was able to get back on and hammer the flat section before the climb to where we regroup to go through the guard shack. I was able to drop all but one rider going up the hill and then dropped him near the top. Once the group headed back into town, I headed up to Palmer Lake and went across the Palmer Divide out on to the prairies. Coming back into town I got good practice working into a strong headwind. I got in 114 miles with 4705 feet of climbing and averaged 16 mph.