For me Ride the Rockies (RTR) is more than riding my bike
and having the time of my life. It’s about riding my bike for my dad. My dad
has Parkinson’s disease and sadly there is no cure for it. There is medication
though, and when the medication works he can live a pretty normal life, but
when the medication wears off life is a struggle for him. He keeps fighting
though, no matter what. My dad is always present at my bike races or should I
say “our” bike races, always snapping pictures. Now that I’ve hit my college years
he does not get to be to at all of my bike races. I’m surprised to hear myself
say I’m disappointed. It is definitely something I am going to miss as I get
older
Day 6 – Breckenridge
to Golden
Finally,
it was the last day of RTR. The sun was shining and the sky was clear. You
could say it was a perfect day to end Ride the Rockies. Unlike the last day of
the Tour De France, the RTR organizers decided to give us some serious
climbing. The most notable would be the climb up Loveland Pass to a whooping
12,000 feet in elevation.
Since
Wayne, Tom, and I were staying at the same hotel, it was pretty easy for us to
meet up in the morning. We decided to head out early on this, the final day,
7:45 am. Understand, that is not very early compared to most RTR riders. The
day started with a bike path out of town, simple enough right? About a mile into
the ride I was on Wayne’s wheel and Tom started yelling for us to stop. While I
was looking back the road curved and I went flying into the woods. I unclipped
one foot and was surfing over rocks before tumbling over the bars into pine
needles. I pulled myself out of the woods smiling to Wayne saying, “What the
hell happened?” The two smiled back. The reason Tom had wanted to slow down in
the first place was that his speed sensor was hitting his spokes. I had a small
cut on my knee, but I think my pride was hurt more. Once we got going again Tom
and I joked for the next couple of miles about my adventure into the woods. He
exclaimed with a smile on his face, how I disappeared into a cloud of dust.
Ride the Rockies Day 6 Profile |
What Goes Up Must
Come Down
Finally
we got off of the bike trail and the road began to pitch up. The first climb of
the day was Swan Mountain. On the way up, Wayne reminisced about a USA Pro
Cycling Challenge. During that race, the crowds were so bad that when the racers
came over the climb from the opposite side nobody attacked. He exclaimed,
“Everyone must have thought they were in Europe!”
After Swan Mountain the giant of
the ride was upon us, Loveland Pass. The three of us blew past the aid station
at the bottom of the climb and started the climb right away. I attacked the
climb hard and with a vengeance. I was going to hold nothing back since it was
the last day and I was due for a few days off of the bike after this solid week
of training. As I put myself into the red, Wayne and Tom found a comfortable
pace to the top. As I set a hard tempo up the climb I kept reminding myself not
to go too hard, the altitude was bound to catch up to me. I hammered through
the water station about halfway up the climb. The nitty gritty about Loveland
Pass is that it is not that difficult of a climb. The average gradient is not
that steep and the few switchbacks it has are very wide. The challenge is the altitude.
Finally, as I neared the top of the climb I opened up the tank and left
everything on the road. I crested
the climb and pulled over to catch my breath, a tough feat at 12,000 feet.
Absolutely Flying
Once Wayne and Tom crested the
climb we all descended to the second aid station. I love descending with these
guys. We flew down the switchbacks and met Jenna and Laura, who were
representing the Davis Phinney Foundation Sag crew, at aid two. Upon leaving, we
continued to drop feet in the thousands to the next climb of the day, the
short, but steep Floyd Hill. We causally suffered together up the climb, if you
can be causal at all when suffering, then flew down the other side of Floyd
Hill and hit a “long roller,” as Wayne would call it, toward Lookout Mountain.
A “Race” to the
Finish
With a 50x12 as my biggest gear I
have to be able to do short high cadence bursts (130 RPM) in order to keep up
on the descents. As it was the last day I was unable to do these bursts and
therefore, got dropped heading into Lookout Mountain. The course continued up
the easy side of Lookout, rollers and big ring all the way. As I chased Wayne
and Tom up the climb, I felt as if I was unable to close the gap, even though I
was going 100% and knew I had a fast descent into Golden. The only solution I
could think of was that Wayne was driving the pace on the front (that would be typical
Wayne). I descended Lookout Mountain like a maniac trying to catch up to the
duo. The switchbacks offered me a clear view of oncoming cars, allowing me to
use the entire road to maintain my speed through the corners. Finally, I caught
up to Tom as we hit the bottom of the descent. At a stoplight Tom smiled and
said, “I think Wayne has done that descent before.” Wayne is a terrific
descender, he claims he has become a bit more timid in his later years in life,
but I beg to differ.
Rolling into Golden Courtesy: Bob Better |
Tom and I rolled under the famous
welcome arch in Golden (finish line for RTR) smiling and to the cheers of all
of the DPF staff, who had driven down from Boulder. Wayne was waiting for us. RTR
was finally over and I had left everything out on the road. I saw Wayne and
talked about how sweet it was to ride with him again this year. He smiled and
simply responded “until next year.”
My dad and I hung out for a couple
of hours at the entertainment place before heading back to Boulder for the
night. Packing my bike into the bike box that night signified the end to an
epic journey through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
#Livin’theDream
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