April 18, 2004

  • It’s the Sunday after Tax day and life is good. I arrive in the
    FCHS parking lot to find that Glenn H., Geoff and Dave chatting. 
    Looks like the rest of the passe are busy and it will just be the 4 of
    us.  We’ve got a pretty good stiff wind out of the west. 
    Glenn needs to get back early and there is race at Carter Lake so we
    decide to head that direction.

    Heading down Horsetooth the wind is stiff with mild gusts.  It’s
    coming directly at us so we have to work pretty hard early
    on.   Dave (I found out later) already had 10 miles in his
    legs so he was good to go.  Apparently Glenn had also been out
    early too.   Dave is taking a monster pull into wind and
    Glenn is doing like wise.  My legs are complaining early since
    they really hate pushing into the wind and this is especially true
    during the warm-up.  At some point I dropped the Garage door opener and
    Glenn picked it up. I put it back in a more secure place and we
    continue.

    Dave is pulling strong to the base of the foothills and does not
    relinquish the lead as we make the ascent.  I am hurting just
    sitting in and I can tell this will not be a good day to claim any KOM
    points.  I check my HR on the way up the 1st Hogback and it’s
    pretty low or at least lower than usual for that climb.  This
    tells me that my legs are tired, probably from either that pittiful
    warm-up or the suffering last Thursday at the TTH hammerfest.
      In either case I am just along for the ride on this
    one.   So Dave is unchallenged on the 1st one with myself in
    tow.   Geoff and Glenn were back a few feet.   No
    doubt that since Geoff had done Rist Canyon the day before he was a bit
    fatigued.  

    A quick regroup and we are off again.   Dave is once again
    doing more than his share of the work.   Normally I might
    protest, but since I am in no shape for that, I am happy to be on the
    receiving end.  As we come to the base of the next hogback 
    Dave or should I say “Super Dave” is leading the charge.  
    Glenn is now in 2nd and I am third.  At some point Glenn made a
    coupe of little accelerations to close a small gap that had opened.
    This meant that I had to do the same to keep the wheel.  If I were
    feeling stronger I probably wouldn’t have notice this but in my
    fatigued state it was something that I could have done without. 
    On this climb a gust of wind hit us from the west and just about blew
    us off the road.   Geoff was blown over a small curb and was
    back a bit when we summited due to this.

    At this point Glenn needs to head back and Geoff decides to join
    him.  Hmmmm, I would like to have gone back too but I am hoping to
    get out of this slump and it Dave and I to continue.   As we
    make the descent, the winds are strong but bearable.   At the
    base of the last hogback Dave has the lead and we press on.  At
    some point Dave misses a shift or something and I find my self half
    wheeling him.  Well I might as well keep going and so I set the
    pace to this summit.

    We pass up the stop at Horsetooth park since we don’t have a whipping
    boy!  Hmmm I really miss those days.  The rides are much
    different when we don’t stop as often, which is sometimes good and
    sometimes bad.

    We descent into Masonville with a good headwind.  The normally
    joyous descent is now OK but 20- 25 mph is not what I was looking
    for.   We make the turn at the general store and down the
    road.  As we get closer to Eden’s Valley we decide to see if that
    Road Closed sign really means road closed.  Dave had never gone
    this way and it was a good day for an adventure.   As we get
    closer to the Construction area we are not sure if the road goes
    through and we take the detour around the new Dam.  It’s a hard
    road that has been packed tight by the construction
    vehicles.   We make our way to the end, only to be confronted
    by a fence. Hmmmmm,  we find a way around over some cement road
    barriers and continue.  I really miss this route and will be glad
    when all the work is done, but from the looks of it, this won’t happen
    for quite a while.

    We cross 34 and the winds a gusting still.  The winds get
    channeled by the surrounding foothills and valleys so it’s hard to
    predict where it will come from.  As we approach the Left turn to
    Carter Lake we see the road marshals. Life is good and looks like we
    will get to see a bit of racing.  Argggh, that left is miserable
    and I am suffering in the head winds.   Good thing that
    “Super Dave” is more than willing to take monster pulls. 
    At one point we started to drop me but waited up and we continued at a
    slower pace.   The winds were fierce in gusts and at one
    point we got sand blasted pretty good.

    We stopped at the bottom of the  Cater Lake North Side and there
    were plenty of racers in the lot down there.   We chatted
    with one of the guys and he wished us luck in our race. 
    Well,  I am pleased that he mistook us for potential racers, a
    sign that we are not too far out of shape. 

    Up the brutal climb but we had a tail wind which make life
    easier.  When we got to the top past the biker in etc.  There
    were bike teams all about.  Like a sea full of Racer Boyz and
    Girlz all looking to gain some glory.   By this time the wind
    was getting worse and we made our way to the Western climb to watch
    some of the suffering.   We hung out there for a bit having a
    nice chat with a racer who had abandoned, but I don’t remember why.

    A bit later we went to find the start of the later races and decided
    the best view would be to just go the reverse direction of the
    course.  By this time the winds were gusting and IMHO the course
    was dangerous, especially the descent.   As we made our way
    around the course there were waves or races being run simultaneously
    which made for a good show.  I felt for the boys who had been
    dispatched so early and I had memories of when that  would have
    been me out there suffering.

    After a bit I realize that I am out of Cytomax and  we decide to
    go to that parking lot where we could get some water.  Arrgh... I
    forgot how long this little grade was! When we reach the Parking lot at the base of the real (tm) climb the
    building is closed and the closest spot for water is at the top of the
    Carter Lake  climb.  One more time up the hill, but with the
    tail wind things aren’t so bad, except for the gustst.   We
    reach to top and stop at the shop and I get some water and Gatorade.

    We are off again back down the hill.  The winds seemed to have
    picked up even more and I would say these gusts where well upwards of
    50mph!.  I was being blown all over the road and Dave was faring
    a bit better than myself. Looks like he is a bit less susseptable to
    the wind or is just a better rider!  I had to unclip on the
    descent and stop
    a few times to keep from being blown off the road!   Perhaps
    I was being a nervous Nelly, but I was assured that this was OK when
    one of the racers came past  me with his foot unclipped also.

    At the bottom of this hill there was an ambulance and we must have just
    missed a crash where a rider was evidently blown off the
    course.   I  saw his bike off the road a good bit from
    the pavement.

    Dave and I wanted nothing more than to get home. If I had some of those
    ruby slippers I would have used them then.   The winds were
    bad we stopped several times to keep from being blown off the
    road.  It's hard to really describe how bad these winds were and
    all I can really say here is that I feared for my safety! .... Anyway,
    At this point I had no qualms about taking my share of the
    road.  I like to anyway but this demanded more since we were being
    blown 3 feet to the side during some of the gusts!

    When we reach route 34 I am concerned about the traffic combined with the winds  so we decide to break the law
    again and take Eden’s  valley.  I really wanted to stay alee
    for as long as I could and I thought that this would be worth the risk,
    besides if we did get arrested it would justify my “Bad Boy” Image. We
    make it through without “The Man”  catching us so it’ all
    good. 

    Lots of suffering on the way back to the hogbacks and I was grateful
    that Dave was doing the work.   On the last Hogback I could
    feel my legs as if they were ready to cramp but I pushed on. I really
    wished I would have packed a few power gel's cause I could have really
    used one or two of them. At this poirnt the
    thought of stopping was the only thing on my mind, besides food. 
    I had to reach down deep, as Dave was setting a good tempo and I said
    to myself that I would suffer until I cramp.  Well, I was quite
    surprised that I didn’t cramp! And was able to hold the wheel. 
    Not sure how much longer I could have done that but I am pleased to
    have survived.

    We took a short break in the Horsetooth parking lot and had a short
    chat with a few MTBr’s.  We are off to that middle hogback and I
    was certain that I was gonna crack there.  We make the descent to
    the base of our next challenge and Dave is setting the pace.  For
    some reason I wanted to go a bit faster so I went around Dave.  I
    looked back a few moments later and we wasn’t there.   I
    turned around and it turns out that Dave’s chain had come off. 
    Well here we go again. Just then some Yahoo in a truck comes by to buzz
    us!  Idiot! ( Good thing I didn't have a shouder mounted missile
    with me cause one of us would have had the last laugh although I don't
    think the jail time would have been worth it but for one brief moment I
    would have felt pretty good!) Anyway,.. My legs were feeling
    surprisingly good and
    I  was able to make it up this on without suffering!

    Now onto the final grade.  It’s an easy one with a tail
    wind;  without too much effort we are doing 29-30 uphill. 
    Now it’s just about “Miller Time as we make the final descent onto
    Harmony.    With a strong tailwind we were coasting at
    24+.  This is one of the few times, as Dave points out that our
    Cool Down will raise our Avg MPH, which by the way was 13.0 (NO that’s
    not a typo). 6 hours of saddle time!    I got 78 miles for the day and I am one
    whipped puppy.  A good time was had by all.  Can’t wait till
    next week when we do multiple ascents up Rist.  Can you say
    sufferfest!
     
    Dave adds in an email...

    Steve's report of our epic ride yesterday is spot-on from my point of
    view, except that I feel the need to put in my two cents about how
    horrible the wind was. As we went toward the North end of Carter Lake
    for the second time, we were going directly into the wind. At one point
    I looked down at my speedo to see that I was doing 8 mph. The really
    scary thing is that was as fast as I could go given the wind at that
    point.

    I didn't have as much trouble descending from Carter Lake as Steve did.
    Perhaps I had a smaller wind profile since I wasn't wearing a camelbak,
    and perhaps I just got lucky and avoided the worst wind gusts because I
    was a little ahead of Steve. But later, as we were going north in a
    stiff cross wind from the west, I remember getting damn near blown
    over, and I definitely got blown off the road at least once. The
    tailwind legs we had were really cool, but they were over way too
    quickly!

    One thing I thought was really cool was the fox nursing her kits by the
    side of Harmony road near the Outback Steakhouse restaurant. This was
    at about 4pm, and there was heavy traffic, but the fox was completely
    undaunted. She stood there while her kits nursed as if she was
    completely alone out in the woods. I saw a den dug into the grass
    nearby, so evidently she's been denned up there all winter! How strange
    to see the most interesting wildlife so close to home.

    >>Dave