Tour de Northern Colorado

Earlier this year Shelby started researching bikes that go by the names of Long Haul Trucker, Kona Sutra, and Marrakesh. These bikes are not known for being quick and agile despite looking like road bikes. They're designed for carrying a lot of junk long distances comfortably. Yep, she was getting the touring itch. With the school year coming to a close and no promising job prospects for me, we decided to go on a week long adventure, biking somewhere in Colorado. After throwing out a few ideas, we settled on a 290 mile tour around Northern Colorado. The route would go from Fort Collins to Estes Park, climbing over the infamous Trail Ridge Road to Grand Lake, up to the thriving metropolis of Walden, then back down Poudre Canyon to Fort Collins. Despite living in Colorado for 5 and 11 years, we had never been on 95% of the roads we'd be travelling on. No new bike for Shelby, this time, but her trusty Trek Madone was up for the challenge.

An easy 26 hours according to Google

We parked our car at James and Dallas' house in Fort Collins and made our way to Loveland. Our elevation chart showed a nice flat ride down to Loveland, followed by some ups and downs and then a pretty serious climb for our first day. I asked Shelby how it felt to be on a bike tour while riding through Fort Collins and she said that it would feel more real once we set up camp. It didn't quite feel real yet, but when we turned right in Loveland to head up Big Thompson Canyon, the hills sure felt real! We admittedly didn't train as hard as we should have for this ride, but we set it up so that we had relatively short days, so it seemed manageable. 

Soon we fell into a rhythm and remembered what it was like to ride slow. The canyon was quite beautiful and the climb wasn't too steep, so our slow pace allowed us to stop often for pictures and enjoy the canyon. Eventually, it got to be pretty tough and I was relieved to pull into the small town of Drake, where we'd be camping for the night. A 26 mile day that sounded pretty easy on paper ended up being pretty tough and I was exhausted. We set up our tent at the Drake Campground, then grabbed a beer in the local bar to get away from the standard afternoon showers. That night we met Lori and Jeff, our campground hosts who have apparently been running the Drake Campground for a long long time. They had a really awesome cabin that they lived in and I assume built back in the day.

Showing off her sweet farmer's tan

Tired

Day two was a nice 10 mile ride up to Estes Park. After how hard day one ended up being, we needed a good short day to recover before what would be a brutal day three. The ride up the rest of Big Thompson Canyon was nice. It was less steep than yesterday and the scenery was quite nice. The rock shifted from some kind of chossy black stuff to nice granite and the river grew slightly more clear as we rode upstream. We brought our fly rods, but the river looked too murky to stop to fish.

An excellent little free library find in Estes Park

Once we got to Estes Park, we setup our tent at the KOA. The spot was perched up on the hill with a great view of Long's Peak, so we were pretty happy with that ... and the ability to shower. We spent the day in Estes Park grocery shopping, checking out she shops, eating a cookie, throwing some flies in Lake Estes, and sampling the local beer at Lumpy Ridge Brewing, which was excellent. We met a really friendly older couple at the brewery and chatted with them for a while while we sipped on our Dirty Face IPAs. We also spent some time with our neighbor at the KOA around his campfire before heading to bed early.

Our okay view from the campsite

Day 3: The day I had been worrying about for over a week. The plan was to climb for over 18 miles to the top of trail ridge road in Rocky Mountain National Park up to 12,300ft, then to cruise downhill for over 26 miles to Winding River Resort in Grand Lake. The whole day would have 6,000 feet of elevation gain and I wasn't sure my legs could do it fast enough to sneak over the summit before the 40% chance of afternoon showers. We opted for the alpine-ish start of 5:00 for the wake-up call, getting us out of the campground by 6:15. We had about 6 hours to get back down to tree line on the other side. Here we go!

The ride started out with a nice and very gradual climb through town and up Fall River Rd to get into the park. We rode next to a wide meadow on our left for a ways and saw some tourists out of their cars, taking pictures. There was a bear just across the river! We were really excited to see it and enjoyed a couple minutes watching it walk around.

Soon, the real climbing started. The road curved to the left and got steep. Riding at 4mph is really very slow, but that was the speed that I could ride at on this grade without hating life too much, so I just churned along as Shelby pulled ahead and out of sight. She waited for me at the intersection with highway 36 and then we were officially on Trail Ridge Road. The next half mile was downhill, which is the worst thing ever when you know you're just going to have to climb back up that lost elevation. Oh well. 

I could describe every detail of the climb, but the gist of it would be that after a little while we started to get quite tired and then it was just a long slog. The scenery was very nice, especially above treeline. We got passed by a handful of cyclists and lots of cars. At one point, we ran out of water and had to filter the snow-melt water on the side of the road while onlookers gawked at us, wondering why the heck I was holding a bag of water over my head. After what felt like forever we made it to the top of the road, an unmarked spot in the road where we and a few other cyclists took victory photos.

 The long road

We stopped at the the cafe at the top for a sprite and some lunch and then made our way down the backside. The descent was really fun and long and we got up to 45mph at one time! Those miles really tick by at that speed. The miles continued to tick by pretty quickly for the rest of the afternoon. The day finished with a long and gradual downhill to Grand Lake where we learned an important lesson. Don't camp 3 miles before town and then ride down the steep 3 mile long hill to town to get groceries and then come back after the hardest day on your tour. Just stay in a hotel in town. We were dead at the end of the day and spent our evening eating two dinners and playing games in our tent while we waited out a 30 minute storm.

Day 4:

Today we rode from Grand Lake to Denver Creek Campground. It was probably the most pleasant day of the tour. It started out with a gradual downhill all the way to Granby, followed by a 6 mile round trip detour to the grocery store (Ugh). But the rest of the day entailed an easy climb followed by some pretty flat and scenic riding with little to no traffic. It was so nice not to have cars passing us constantly. We could actually ride next to each other instead of single file!

Shelby, mastering the art of no-handed riding with a bunch of weight on your bike 

 Quiet and pleasant road

This evening we waited out yet another storm in the tent and played more mancala and Connect 4. After the storm we met a couple other touring cyclists. John was an older man doing the second half of the TransAmerica tour, going east to west after having to stop in Pueblo on his attempt last year. We also met Barb, an older Canadian woman who had a friend driving in an RV with her, so she was riding 70-100 mile days and didn't have to carry any gear! Sounded pretty plush. The cool thing about meeting other touring cyclists is that you become instant friends. It was great to chat with them for a while and get to know them some.

 Barb. Check out her highly entertaining blog here

Day 5: Today we rode to Walden, the self-proclaimed moose viewing capitol of Colorado. The first half of the day was a continuation of the pleasantness of yesterday's ride. We rode through evergreen covered hills with large meadows in between with barely any traffic for the first third of the day. This part of the day concluded with our second Continental Divide crossing over Willow Creek Pass. The second half of the ride seemed to draw on and on as we passed through flat ranch country with a head wind on a really rough road. The elevation chart for the day seemed easy, but it ended up being one of our harder days due to the head wind and roughness of the road. We saw a couple riders with very little gear who were part of the Trans America race across the country. They had left from Astoria, OR only 7 days prior... Ridiculous. After a mentally draining day riding we got to Walden, picked up some groceries, stopped in a cafe for a beer, did some laundry, and then called it a night in a cheap hotel. I had been sleeping poorly on my sleeping pad so it was really nice to sleep on a real mattress.

 At least we're not in Kansas

Day 6: Today was another hard day, but one of the most scenic days of the tour. We rode up Cameron Pass and then down the backside to a campground in Poudre Canyon. We rode through the town of Gould, which seemed like a pretty dead place. Next, we rode through State Forest State Park for a long time, through beautiful scenery at a pretty slow pace because it was a gradual climb for a really long time. We made it up to Cameron Pass and bundled up for the descent. It had been a pretty chilly day, but pedaling uphill kept us warm enough. 

 Shelby putting on her pants in the middle of the road

We started the descent, but it wasn't more than a couple miles before WHAM! I had ridden over a bad pothole and could hear air leaking out of my tire. I had been wondering when we'd get a flat tire! We stopped and after a comedy of errors, we finally fixed my tire. First try, I put a new tube in without checking for thorns or holes in the tire. Of course, after pumping up to 80psi with a hand pump, which is quite hard and takes a long time, I broke the valve somehow, rendering the tube useless. Bummer. Next up, I put a new tube in and remembered that we had CO2 cartridges to pump up our tires, so I used one. This was my first time using a CO2 cartridge, so I failed epicly and managed to hold the cartridge on so long that the air went in and then completely out of the tube. Doh! Next try I used my pump again since we only had one more CO2 cartridge. This time the tube got punctured because of a hole in the tire. Ugh. I've heard that you can use a dollar bill to cover over holes in a tire, so I asked Shelby for a buck and slid it over the hole. The tube I just broke a hole in was our last tube, so I patched it up and put it in the tire one more time. This time, I'd try the CO2 again and be careful not to mess it up again. It pumped right up and actually held! Whew! We were on our way again and it wasn't long till we arrived at our campground and enjoyed a relaxed evening playing games.

Going crazy after 4 attempts to fix a flat tire

Day 7: We had planned on making this an eight day tour, but due to extreme cravings for burgers with bbq on top and poor fishing conditions on the Poudre River, we decided to head back to Fort Collins today. It would make for a 60 mile day, but it was all downhill and ended up being pretty easy. The day had some nice scenery, but we rode so fast, I didn't stop a whole lot to take pictures. Our usual average up to this point had been 10-11mph, but today we averaged 15mph, so we were moving! We made it back to Fort Collins by early afternoon and had a second lunch at some burger joint and enjoyed some celebration burgers.

Poudre Falls

 Scouting Poudre Falls for next time, err I mean never

We had a really good time and we'll be doing more tours together in the future for sure. 

How Pro Road Cycling Works

With all the excitement among my friends about the Tour de France lately, I thought I would dedicate this post to Le Tour. When I say "excitement," I mean a whopping 2 friends have spoken to me about it. Every time I bring up the tour to any of my other friends I hear a soft chuckle and remember that nobody cares about pro cycling. But I think you should and here is where I explain how the sport works in hopes that you might become a bit interested in it. I do think it's a pretty interesting sport, although not as exciting as some of the more popular sports. It is still a good story to follow for the 3 weeks it lasts every summer, not to mention the other grand tours.

The Teams
Not everyone realizes that cycling is a team sport, but it is because there are some pretty big advantages to working together, due to aerodynamics and race logistics. There are several teams in the tour and each has a couple main sponsors which comprise their team name (Team BMC, Team Sky, Team Nissan Radio Shack, etc.) The first advantage to having a team is aerodynamics. Aerodynamics are not as important at speeds that you and I ride at, but when you average 25-30mph over 120 miles, aerodynamics make a world of a difference. When you have a team, you can all line up behind each other and shift off who the leader in the line is so that people get a break from the wind. The second reason for a team is to take care of the logistics of helping out the main men on the team. For instance, the top rider on the team will stay toward the front of the pack of riders while the lower riders move back and forth between the team car and the lead rider to bring them water and food throughout the stage. On a team there is usually only one or two riders who are going for any of the big prizes. Everyone else is there to help the team leaders win, and they may have the privilege to go for a stage win or two, which is a prestigious thing to win, but probably not the team's main priority.

The Jerseys
In the tour, there are 3 main prizes that are to be won. They are the yellow jersey which goes to the person with the overall best time over the tour, the green jersey which basically goes to the best sprinter in the tour, and the polka dot jersey that goes to the best climber in the tour. The yellow jersey is the most coveted prize as it will go to the rider who is the best all-around rider. They must be able to climb and ride a fast time trial (an individual race against the clock). Along many stages there are sprint points and, of course a finish line. There are points available at the sprint points and finish lines for the sprinters who want the green jersey. The man at the end of the tour with the most points wins the jersey. Along the stages there are climbs and the first few men to get to the summit get points towards the polka dot jersey (The king of the mountain).

The Stages
Each stage is unique. The first several days of the tour have flat stages which favor sprinters, but later in the tour you start to get mountain stages, which make for a much more interesting race. Some stages have flat finish lines, which means a sprinter will win the stage, and others have summit finishes, which means a climber will win the stage. During the race, the majority of the riders will all ride in a pack which is called the Peloton. The peloton is a somewhat easy location to ride because there are so many riders around to block the wind. Because of this, the peloton has the ability to ride very fast together. The downside to the peloton is that the crashes typically happen there and cause huge pile ups. To avoid the pile ups, the top riders will stay towards the front of the group with a few of their teammates to block the wind for them.

The Sprint
During flat stages, the race is all for the sprinters. They will usually stay in the peloton until the sprint points and finish line and then go for the sprint. A good sprinting team will work together to get the sprint for their best sprinter. They do this by creating a Lead-out. Last year, Mark Cavendish's team HTC Colombia was amazing at this. They always had about 3 riders plus Cavendish at the front of the pack. They would pick up the pace all riding in a line. The guy in the front would ride as hard as he could, breaking the wind for his teammates, and then drop out once he couldn't push anymore. The next guy in line would do the same thing, and it would repeat until it was just Cavendish and he would sprint to the finish after getting a head start from the great lead-out. That is how a sprint usually works. Typically at the finish line sprints, everyone who is in the group with a km (or so) to go will get the same time. This prevents and unnecessary dangerous fighting for position in the tight runway.

The Breakaway
In many races there will be a few riders that break away from the peloton to either win climb or sprint points or to go for the stage win. This is called a Breakaway. Breakaways are not always successful. If the peloton picks up the pace, they can sometimes catch up to the riders in the breakaway, spoiling all the fun. If the riders in the breakaway are not very important to the riders in the peloton, they will usually be allowed to ride out in front for a while, picking up points at the sprint points and climbs. However, if there is a contender for the yellow jersey (General Contender-GC), somebody in the peloton will probably respond as that is the most important prize. One very interesting breakaway happened the other day when the best sprinter in the tour (read, not a good climber), Peter Sagan, broke away with a group of climbers. The climbers were going for climbing points, but Sagan wanted some sprint points that were to come later in the race and for the possible stage win. He is not a great climber, but he was able to keep up with the climbers for the climb and then easily won the sprint points at the sprint point since he was by far the best sprinter in the small group. The breakaway was successful, in that it made it to the finish line without the peloton catching them, but Sagan could not win the stage as all of us watching were hoping. The climbers knew they had to wear him out before getting within 1km of the finish otherwise he would easily sprint past them for the stage win. It would have been incredibly impressive for a sprinter to be a part of a breakaway that went over a challenging climb and then get the win.

The Time Trial
And finally, there is the time trial. There is a team time trial where each team rides alone and work together to get the best overall team time. In this race, you will see the team working together, pulling each other via aerodynamics. Since this is the most efficient way to ride, this stage has a very high average speed and thus makes the time differences between teams quite small and have little impact on the leader's jersey. The individual time trial is when each individual cyclist rides on their own on a shortish course. The time differences in this stage are also pretty low, but they can still cost you the victory. Last year Cadel Evans went into the time trial on the last day with a pretty bad time deficit, but came back to beat out Andy Schleck for the yellow jersey.

That gives you a decent summary of the sport. It is one of the more interesting forms of racing and once you see that there is more going on than meets the eye and once you start to recognize the riders for their strengths and weaknesses, you can start to appreciate the sport.

Why You Should Consider Commuting by Bike

There are a lot of good reasons to ride a bike. There are also a lot of good reasons to drive. But I think everybody already knows the good reasons for driving, so I'm going to give you lots of good reasons to start biking more.

Commuting by bike is a particularly good way to ride a bike more. You have to go to work everyday anyway, so riding a bike instead of driving a car isn't that ridiculous of an idea. It's still being productive, in that you're getting from one place to another. Work can also be the most stressful time of the day, so a nice bike ride home can be a great stress reliever. Commuting is also a convenient time because you can figure out one bike route that works for you and stick with it every time you ride. Finding bike routes can be difficult if you bike all around town. But if you're always going between two places, it's very manageable.

If you know me, then it's obvious that one of my top reasons for biking so much is that I don't have a car. However, if I had a car, I would still commute by bike regularly. The main reasons I'd keep it up are because it's good exercise, it's refreshing, and it's cheap. And yes I'm saving the environment in the same way that an ocean can be filled one drop at a time. Well la-dee-fricken-da!

Cycling isn't a particularly exhausting exercise, but it raises your heart rate and burns calories. How many calories? About 11.2 calories per minute according to healthstatus.com. If you weigh 170lbs and ride between 12 and 14mph, then your calorie graph would look like this:

So if the distance between your house and work was 6 miles, then you'd burn about 600 calories per day, assuming you rode down and back at 13mph the whole way. That's pretty good. If you're like me and have trouble scheduling time to work out, then riding a bike to work is a good way to force yourself to get some exercise into your day. And we all know what that means...you get to eat more food!

Riding your bike to work can also save you some money. Fuel costs are much lower since you probably won't be burning gasoline while riding a bike. Your food costs might go up slightly, but not by much. If you get 27mpg and gas is $3.50/gallon, then your fuel cost looks like this:

So if you did a 12 mile commute 3 days a week, that would save you enough for an extra Chipotle burrito with guacamole and a drink every week! Just think about how much happier you would be if you could afford to add another burrito to your week. You would also save a bit on wear and tear, but I am way too lazy to figure that out for you.

I wouldn't be so bold as to say that bike commuting is bundles of fun, but it's definitely at least a handful of fun. It's a very refreshing way to start the day and a relaxing way to end the work day. You'll feel good after the ride and will have had some good time to just let your mind relax.

Commuting by bike is a great thing to do and I think you should consider trying it out. There are obvious limitations like 50 mile commutes and evening commitments that can make it difficult. But if your commute is short enough, you should consider riding a few times a week on your days where you have a some extra time.

Plus, I get really giddy when I see people riding bikes, so you'd at least put a smile on my face.