Big Thompson = Big Hurtin'

My neighbor, and good friend, David Walker had a good idea yesterday. Walker, or Dubbya as we like to call him, coordinated a group ride up Big Thompson Canyon. The success of a group ride is largely dependant on the riders and their personalities and how the ride route suits each riders' strengths and weaknesses. Dubbya found a good group of guys including a crew from VeloNews magazine including; Matt Pacocha, Ben Delaney, Mat Steinmatz and me.

We got an early start, meeting up at Amante Coffee, and rolling out at 6:45am. We kept an easy cruise pace up to Carter Lake and then Pacocha, aka Paco, aboard his squeaky clean Scott Addict (complete with SRM power meter) unleashed a powerful attack on the steepest part of the Carter climb. Luckily, he's been spending some time off the bike as he's been busy writing up on all the latest tech innovations released by manufacturers in conjunction with the Tour, so he didn't prolong our time in the pain cooler! Paco backed off the gas at the top of the climb and regrouped with Delaney, aka Boonen, and myself.

We gave Boonen the next opportunity to shine with a lead out so he could unleash his powerful sprint down the long straightaway leading to the Carter Lake Marina.

A quick stop at the Carter Lake store allowed Paco the chance to fix my derailleur cable. I won't go into the intricate process involved, but I would suggest going to Paco with any and all tech problems you might encounter on your future rides!!!

Those first 40 miles of any Big Thompson ride are merely considered a warm-up to the upcoming oodles of miles of climbing. We said good-bye to Paco, who had to ride back into town to complete some house projects before he becomes a dad sometime this next month. With our resident pro rider out of the mix, we kept the pace tranquillo and chatted as we climbed up towards Estes Park.

Eventhough we started before 7am, in no time at all the temps soared into the 90's. With everyone but Steinmatz out of water (Steinmatz had three full bottles!), we stopped in Glenhaven, in the shadows of the steepest pitch of the Big Thompson climb. While we were waiting for Boonen and Dubbya to wolf down their monster-sized cinnamon roll, my beautiful wife cruised up to us and proceeded to mock us for taking such long breaks! That got us motivated to get going again and once we got to the steep 1.5 mile section of the climb, I could have sworn I heard Dubbya and Boonen scream expletives for having just scarfed down that roll!

I left the group and suffered my way to the top part of the canyon and we regrouped again for the remaining 6 miles into Estes Park. This small mountain town is always busy with tourists during the summer, and we might still be sitting at a STOP sign in town if it wasn't for a kind Japanese couple who saw our frustration and slammed on their brakes to allow us an opening in the gridlocked traffic. At that point, the group was left with two options:

1) Stay left on Hwy 36 for a 34 mile ride back to Boulder
2) Turn right on Hwy 7 for a 50 mile ride through Ward to Boulder

The smart ones including; Emily, Dubbya, Steinmatz and Boonen all proceed up Hwy 36 and I took the detour route for some additional climbing up Hwy 7.

After four hours of riding, it's nice to have an uneventful finish to the day. My ride stayed pretty mellow with the only snafu happening after 4 miles on the Peak to Peak when I ran out of water. Before starting the gradual climb up to Ward - the most popular riding stop for rehydration - I took a pitstop at the Peaceful Valley after seeing a sign for "Free Ice Water and Coffee." At this point in the day, only the water captured my attention. I was once again a happy camper after filling up my two previously empty water bottles.

Once I hit the left hand turn, it was all downhill from Ward, and after another H20 bottle fill, it was 15 miles down. The wind was rushing up Lefthand Canyon which forced me to continue pedaling the whole way down. At one point passing through a cluster of houses in the canyon, a fellow rider dropped into my draft which is also extremely annoying at the end of a long ride. Unfortunately for him, I heard a loud POP, and realized he had blown a flat. Slowing just enough to yell back if he needed a spare tube, he gave me the thumbs-up meaning he was OK, so I continued down the rest of the way.

I capped off another great ride with a footlong Subway and am currently sitting down with Emily glued to Shark Week on TV! It's nice having Cable, especially to watch the Tour (which is now over!) and the upcoming Olympics - sorry, no boycott here - in hopes that we'll see our old housemate Fred wearing a face mask.

Ride hard,
Lars

Note: Fred, if you read this, Em wants to see you interviewing cyclists wearing a "rice hat" while you're in China.