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.
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I like how riding 245 miles through mountain passes is down time for you. Looks like beautiful riding.