10 Mile Range

Today I was supposed to do a longer ride with a lot of climbing and some hiking and pushing. I headed over to Breckenridge and the plan was to start at the Gold Hill Trailhead for the Colorado Trail and head up and over 10 Mile and then drop down into Copper Mountain and see what kind of time I was running. I swear in the 2009 CTR when I last rode this stretch of trail it took me 4 hours to make it over. Sometimes I am not great with numbers but I was riding with a guy named Rob from North Carolina who had come out early for the race that year and he pre-road that section and he was the guy that said 4 hours and we were dead on with that time. This section is only 12 miles but it's a lot of vertical and the downhill into Copper is really rough right now but that might have been the rigid fork talking to me.

I think I'm in pretty good shape as I was down in Copper having delicious Combos, a Slim Jim and a Coke in 2.5 hours and I candy assed that downhill because I was getting beat up. I was not riding all that hard either and could have held a conversation on all but a few steep pitches.

After my snacky cakes, I jumped back on the CT and started to climb a bit up the next 12,000 foot pass that comes right away (Kokomo). I did not go all the way up because I would have had to just come right back down. I tooled around Copper Mountain for a bit and then jumped on the bike path that leads to Frisco and, eventually, back to Breck. At 5.5 hours I was feeling a bit of the climbing but wanted to go a bit more so I started up Boreas Pass. Again, I did not go that far up but I just wanted to get some more climbing in. I ended with about 6 hours of riding and right at 45 miles.

I continue to struggle with whether or not I should try and ride the singlespeed in this year's race. I do think I have to put a suspension fork on since I'm not a young buck anymore and my disc and arthritis issues tend to flare up a bit after the nastier stuff. I worry that going single will open the door for an issue but I really feel like that setup keeps me from being an idiot. I don't know why. In Salida's race it was so easy for me to spin and let the others go up the trail. CTR is totally different because we're talking days where racers can come back after rockin it on day one. It seems to be easier for me to ride my gig and that has been the issue every time I throw a leg over a bike because I'm too damned competitive. I could always hang tough for a 2 hour XC race but not for 500 miles.

Enjoy the pics. It was a gorgeous day although a bit hazy from all of the wildfires going on right now throughout the state. Thanks for checking in .