Today we have upslope conditions like I was hoping we had last Friday when I headed out at 5:15 AM and ended up riding for over an hour in wet snow. Down here it is foggy with drizzle and 15 miles away and 8,000 feet higher, it is sunny on top of Pikes Peak. The top picture is from the Pikes Peak Cam and shows what I’m seeing. The bottom picture is from the camera on top Pikes Peak looking to the northeast and you can see the sea of clouds below.
The Ride of Silence will be held on May 17. Cyclists will take to the roads in a silent procession to honor cyclists who have been killed or injured while cycling on public roadways. Although cyclists have a legal right to share the road with motorists, the motoring public often isn’t aware of these rights, and sometimes not aware of the cyclists themselves. It is being held at over 120 locations and the local Colorado Springs ride will start from Old Town Bike Shop.
It’s a dangerous world out there for cyclist in a car crazed country. It’s a concern for me with all the miles I’ve been putting in on the road training for RAAM. That’s why I wear a medical/ID bracelet when I ride although I hope I never need it. I got mine from RoadID.
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RoadBikeRider.com did a good review of Hammer Nutrition’s Hammer Bar. It looks like it will get moved to their premium site in the next week or two. I pretty much agree with what they have to say about it. I use them some on long rides for something different but they aren’t my main training fuel. See my post from a couple weeks ago for what I normally use for training and racing.
Danny Chew has posted a long article on his website about several riders opinions about the RAAM rule changes this year. He says the article is long but it’s not as long as RAAM.
Sunday I set my alarm for 6:00 but fell back to sleep and woke back up at 6:15. My plan was to ride the 191 miles from the condo in Avon to home. Even if I hadn’t fallen back to sleep I would have gotten home around dark or a little after but I had my lights so didn’t see the need to get up too early.
On Saturday I had a runny nose but convinced myself it was just allergies. Sunday morning I was pretty stuffed up and pretty sure I was fighting a cold but decided to ride and see how I felt. I didn’t feel too bad climbing up Battle Mountain and over Tennessee Pass. It was chilly although not as bad as I thought it might be. It was in the upper 30s and the sun was peaking through the clouds although there were a few flakes of snow in the air from a storm hanging over the mountains to the west. In Leadville there was still fresh snow on the ground from Friday’s storm. Julie said it was snowing in Leadville when she came through about 3.5 hours later.
As I kept riding toward Buena Vista, I could tell my head was pretty stuffed up and it felt like I had pressure around my eyes. Once I got to Buena Vista, I decided that doing the whole ride was probably a bad idea so decided I’d get a ride with Julie when she caught up with me. I made it over Trout Creek Pass and almost to Hartsel before she caught up to me. I was just over half way but the 2nd half is easier since Hartsel is about 2,700 feet above my house and about 1,500 feet higher than Avon. I got in 96.8 miles averaging 15.9 mph with 5817 feet of climbing and 4367 feet of descending. After being pumped up to ride nearly 500 miles in 3 days, I felt like I hardly did any riding but I still got in 245 miles.
Saturday I had one of the those moments where bad things happen from not paying attention or just being stupid. Like in college when a guy I knew that had won national level road races was messing around on his bike on campus and fell over going 5 mph and broke his collar bone. Or when I was in college hiking with a group of friends by moonlight on the Mt. Cutler trail which is an easy, local trail. I slipped and fell. My foot got caught in deep gravel and I couldn’t slide it out from under me. I stretched my foot all the way back as I fell. When my knees hit the ground, I sat back onto my heel of the foot that was stretched back and heard a snap. I had managed to break my tibia.
Saturday’s moment was when I needed to go to the bathroom during my ride. I saw a port-a-pottie at a construction site and decided that was a good place to stop. There was a chain link fence across the entrance but there was a gap between it and the rail fence around the site. Right at the end of the chain link fence was a sandbag and then about 2 inches of pavement before it dropped off a few inches.
I’m a mountain biker and I can put my tires exactly where I want them so I didn’t see any reason I couldn’t ride on the 2 inches of pavement. I had to make a quick maneuver to make it and leaned my bike toward the chain link fence to keep my balance. I managed to nail the metal fence post with my knee cap. I was probably only going 3 mph but it really hurt. I spent a couple minutes hoping around in pain. I was thinking what a stupid way to not be able to start RAAM.
Fortunately I was able to ride another 100 miles with only a little soreness and stiffness. Sunday morning it felt fine when I started riding but was a little sore but not bad after 3 hours into the ride. Now it feels a bit irritated and is bruised but seems like it shouldn’t be a problem.
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