Tour de Colorado - Friday

To all intents and purposes, this is a rest day for us.  Sure we have a three our drive but we won’t be hauling a trailer, we’ll have a fraction of the stuff and best of all – air conditioning.  One of mankind’s greatest inventions.  (Second only to heated car seats for the other part of the year.)

The riders are racing the 10 miles up Vail Pass, against the clock.  We’re taking our time headed to Estes Park to meet our besties Pam and Dejo.
Life is good.

Tour de Colorado - Thursday II

So now we have a decision to make.  Tomorrow’s stage is a time trial in Vail and while we’d very much like to see that, there are some logistical challenges which are probably going to be insurmountable.  While the town of Vail is happy to have the tour run through, they’ve made it clear that spectators aren’t welcome to stay overnight unless they’re spending money on a hotel room.  No camping allowed. 

It would be possible, albeit unpleasant, to set up by the highway at the top of Vail Pass but then we’d still have the challenge of how to get to the course with the dogs.  This hill would be too much for us to cycle up with dogs in tow and leaving them in the truck just isn’t practical.

We also have an invitation to spend Friday night at the home of some friend’s in Estes Park.  This will set us up nicely for Saturday’s stage but it’s long drive from here and we’re still somewhat nervous about how the truck will behave.  So, after poring over the maps for a while, we decide to skip tomorrow’s stage altogether, drive towards home and break the journey around the halfway point, in Frisco or thereabouts.  We can then head home in the morning, have a quick shower and unpack a bit, then switch to the more reliable Subaru for the run up to Estes.

As it turns out, the closer we get to home, the more attractive a warm shower and big bed start to sound.  It isn’t even 5pm when we hit Silverthorne and home is only a couple of hours away.  Yeah, we’ve talked ourselves into it.

Let’s go home.

Tour de Colorado - Thursday I

“When was the last time a major international sporting event came though Oak Creek, Colorado?” yelled the guy over the PA system.

Nobody yelled back (none of us were outfitted with PA systems) so he answered for us.
“NEVER! That’s when.”
I suspect there hasn’t been a whole lot of stuff happened in Oak Creek, Colorado.  The town is a long way from anywhere, has only a couple of streets, maybe two hundred yards long and appears to have been locked in a time warp since the middle of the last century.  However, the people are welcoming, the general store is well stocked and the sandwiches we had for lunch were the best we’ve eaten in a long time.  I like this place.
It’s early on today’s ride and the cyclists will just be getting warmed up by the time they arrive.  The real meat of the stage comes after they leave town and start climbing.  Bachelor Creek is a long, grinding haul which could well decide the race winner.  We drove down it on Tuesday, when our truck was being bratty and I’ll admit; I was exhausted after doing that.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to ride a bike up.
They have a sprint to complete as they roll through town though so we’re all lined up with our cameras at the ready.  All except Dear Wife that is, who has had not one but two cameras crap out on her this week.  She’ll be using my cell phone while I man my trusty ol’ film camera.
By now we’re getting the hang of judging when the riders are due to arrive (you can tell by the order of the support vehicles and cop cars) so we’re prepared for when they get here.  Which is good because none of these guys seem to be getting and slower yet.
They come into sight, there’s a whirr of spinning cogs, a clanging of cowbells and on they go.  Then we spectators say thanks to our hosts for their hospitality, load chairs and other assorted crap back into our cars and away we go for the next leg.

And life in Oak Creek goes back to normal.

Tour de Colorado - Wednesday

We can tell from the beginning it’s going to be another hot day.  Fortunately, we aren’t planning on dragging the truck too far.  Just a few miles along the highway to the top of Rabbit Ears Pass (so called because of a local rock shaped like, you know.)

The riders are on their way up from Breckenridge and while we know it will take them a while to get here, we aren’t sure when the officials will be closing the road so to make sure we aren’t blocked out, we get an early-ish start and soon have our spot staked out by the highway.

It’s at the top of a 9,426 ft. high pass.  The type of hill I would need a fork-lift truck to get my bike up.  We’re looking down a long, straight stretch so will have plenty of advance notice when the riders are coming.  Even so, we know they’ll be passed us in a flash.  However, when you’re following a tour, the cyclist going by is only a small part of it.  It’s the carnival atmosphere amongst the waiting spectators which makes it all worthwhile.  The bikes are just the icing on the cake.

Beer gets drunk, jokes get cracked, photos get snapped and friendships get made.  It doesn’t get much better than this.  If the Internet access hadn’t crapped out when we crested the pass, we would all have been able to use our Smartphone Apps to know exactly where the riders were but no matter.  A helpful support car came along a few minutes early to let us know that Jans Voigt was leading the field by a little over 2 minutes and sure enough, a little while later he hove into view.  41 year old Mr. “Shut Up Legs” himself.

He wasn’t smiling but then, he was riding 106 miles today, almost all uphill and I sure as hell wouldn’t be smiling either.

Four more riders ground their way passed us and then came the pack.  Looking mean and angry, they didn’t seem to be going much slower than when we saw them on the flat.  So it was no great surprise when we learned later that despite dragging everyone else up the hill, Voigt was beaten in an exciting sprint finish after losing the lead only a couple of miles from the finish.

Sorry Jens, but we had a great day all the same.

Tour de Colorado - Tuesday III

So it doesn’t really look that far on a map.  Aspen to Steamboat Springs.  The road is a bit squiggly it’s true and we knew that meant some uppy bits.  But we really didn’t expect it to take us this long.  A supermarket and gas stop took way longer than it should.  And some endless construction zones slowed us somewhat.

But the most troublesome delay was due to the truck deciding to revisit an old and so far, incurable problem which causes it to just die suddenly.  Out of the blue, the engine will splutters to a halt, taking with it the power steering and brakes.  Which is about as exciting as it gets when you’re going down a steep hill pulling a trailer.  Fortunately, even though this happened three times on the journey, there was no harm done.  It was just a hot, long and wearisome drive.

Still, it’s late evening now and we’re snug in our little trailer, with dog and dog snoozing on the floor.  The beer stayed cold and the campsite is pretty.  It’s not all bad, this bike touring lark.

Tour de Colorado - Tuesday II

It’s several years since I last visited Aspen and my account of it is somewhere over there in the archives.  My impression hasn’t changed much.  It’s pretty enough and if I was a skier, I’d love to visit.  But it isn’t somewhere I’d want to live, even if I could afford to do so.  As a client once explained it to me.  In Aspen you either clean the hotel rooms, or manage the people who clean the hotel rooms, or you own the hotel rooms.  Yeah, that’s about it.

In 1971, my favorite author, Hunter S. Thompson ran for Sheriff on what he called the “Freak Power” platform.  Basically this involved mobilizing the hippies and societal dropouts in an attempt to block the wealthy and powerful from ruining the small mountain town he loved.

His manifesto included the following:

“To drive the real estate goons out of the valley: to prevent the State Highway Department from bringing a four-lane highway into the town and in fact, to ban all auto traffic from every downtown street.  Turn them all into grassy malls where everybody, even freaks, could do whatever’s right.  The cops would become trash collectors and maintenance men for a fleet of municipal bicycles for anybody to use.  No more huge, space killing apartment buildings to block the view from any downtown street, of anybody who might want to look up and see the mountains.  No more land rapes, no more busts for “flute playing” or “blocking the sidewalk”…fuck the tourists, dead-end the highway, zone the greedheads out of existence, and in general create a town where people could live like human beings, instead of slaves to some bogus sense of Progress that is driving us all mad.”

Hunter came within a few votes of winning the election, scaring the crap out of the controlling elite.  But did he really fail?  Certainly, the town has changed dramatically since the early 70’s and the results of a pursuit for the almighty dollar is evident almost everywhere.  It’s depressingly overrun with condos, expensive boutique shops and tourists like us.

But (most of) the downtown streets are closed to traffic, there is a grass lined stream running down a central mall, the threatened four-lane highway stops well short of town and while the cops may not be bicycle mechanics, they wear pastel colored uniform shorts.  And the ones we encountered were friendly in a warm, fuzzy kind of way.  Not only that, there IS a communal bicycle sharing program.  Also, the sidewalks were comfortably blocked today.  Maybe this would have happened without Hunter’s efforts 40 years ago.  Or maybe not.

Either way, as we drove past the turnoff to Woody Creek, Hunter’s home for so many years, I downed a beer in his honor.  (I had no Wild Turkey).  In keeping with the spirit of the thing, I didn’t even hide it in a closed container.

Yeah, me and Hunter S. Thompson.  Outlaws.

Tour de Colorado - Tuesday I

Lots of people in the campsite are here with their bikes.  Serious, hardcore looking machines, weighing less than the potato chips I eat as recovery fuel after a ride.  Then there’s the group with the more interesting machines.  Long wheel-based cargo bikes, very fat-tired mountain bikes and 2 creations with one frame welded on top of another and the seat five feet off the ground.  It was something of a relief to learn that unlike apparently everyone else; they weren’t planning to ride to the top of Independence Pass.  This made us feel a little better about our planned ride.  An epic climb of 0.7 miles from the campsite to the highway with an elevation gain of 10 or 12 feet. 

Although to be fair, none of the hardcore types had dogs trotting alongside on a leash.  Nor were they carrying camp chairs slung over their shoulders or a dog water bowl in one hand.  So eat it, hardcore types.

Once by the road, we settled into a shady spot just up from the guy in the stars and stripes top hat and the lady in the bear suit.  We didn’t have too long to wait before the parade of team cars, photographer motor-cycles, cop cars and assorted hangers on began.  The riders weren’t long behind but like yesterday, were past in moments.  And this is frickin’ uphill.  I’m starting to think I’m going to need to spread molasses on the road so they slow down enough for me to get a good look at them.  We have cheat sheets with the rider names, numbers and jersey patterns but seriously, they go by so fast, Eddie Merckx could be tucked in there on a penny-farthing and I wouldn’t notice.  How the hell Phil Ligget can call the races based on the stuff he sees on his monitor is beyond me.

Tomorrow though.  Tomorrow we plan to be watching near the top of Rabbit Ears pass near Steamboat Springs.  Maybe that will be tough enough to see if any of them are human.  

Tour de Colorado - Monday II

So finally, it’s time for the race itself.  The riders will do a couple a couple of laps of downtown Aspen before heading down the Roaring Fork (cool name, huh?) Valley for a bit before hanging a left and up into the ski resort of Snowmass.  Back down, up around and through Aspen once more.  3 times.  For 64 miles.  We parked ourselves on a patch of sidewalk opposite the historic Jerome Hotel and let our dogs perform their party piece of being conversation starters.  Just about everybody in Aspen today has an Australian Shepherd, or knows someone who has an Australian Shepherd or will look into getting an Australian Shepherd now they know what Australian Shepherds are.  Yay Aussies.

This passed the time nicely until the racers arrived.  We knew they were coming because the team vehicles started pouring through several minutes ahead.  The cop cars chirruped their sirens, the support cars blew their horns, spectators clanged their cowbells incessantly and such was the party atmosphere, it was something of a surprise when the bikes finally came round the corner.  And then they were gone.  Seriously, it was that fast.  I couldn’t go that quickly on a bike if you dropped me over a cliff.  Even the slow guys were fast.  And this was on a corner so we can only imagine the speed they go once they have a head of steam.

Fortunately, because they do this three times, about 45 minutes apart, we had another two opportunities to snag some photos.  Although that didn’t really help because the buggers weren’t going any slower the other times.  We did manage to get several shots of empty road after the cyclists had gone by so I anticipate a call from Sports Illustrated any time now.  Peter Sagan won apparently.  Maybe we’ll get a proper look at him tomorrow when he’s going uphill.

Tour de Colorado - Monday I

Somewhat to our surprise, it seems some other people also had the idea of coming to Aspen to watch the US Pro Cycling Challenge.  And like us, they’re planning to camp while doing it.  So much so, we struggled to find a spot big enough even for Lucille to spend the night.  Fortunately, a campground just a mile or two from downtown Aspen was allowing folk to camp in their overflow parking lot.

That’ll do nicely and we were soon snug in our little hard sided tent.  Not the most restful night I’ll admit but that was largely due to an older guy in the parking spot next door who seemed to have a broken volume control.  But no matter.  We awoke to clear skies which promise a sunny and warm (OK, uncomfortably hot) day ahead.

We seem to be the only people here without ultra-light road bikes and leg muscles but everyone is very friendly and they hardly tease us at all.  Better yet, two skinny guys gave us half a dozen eggs, which they can’t carry.  Free stuff is always a win but better still when it complements the Canuckian Bacon we brought.

It’s midday now and as predicted, pretty darned toasty.  We’ve explored the streets and collected armloads of brochures.  Another couple of hours ‘till the racing starts so for the moment we’re just chillin’ in a coffee shop.

Life is good.

Tour de Colorado - Sunday II

Before embarking on an ambitious project such as following the US Pro Cycling Challenge around Colorado it’s essential to spend hours researching the details, considering logistics, planning routes and making advance reservations.  We didn’t do any of that, obviously, but it would have been a good idea nonetheless.

Instead we bundled dog and dog into the back of the truck, threw a few clothes into a bag, hooked up Lucille the travel trailer and hit the road.  Sounds simple enough so it’s hard to explain why it was almost noon before we finally pulled out of the driveway but hey ho, what’re ya gonna do?

It only took us another 30 minutes to get gas (there are only a few summer weekends remaining so the whole world was in line at the pumps.)  As if that didn’t put a big enough strain on my limited patience, they were out of ice which meant we’d to stop at another gas station to avoid my cooler o’beer warming up.

But eventually, we were on our way.  Bowling along at a rare lick which didn’t really slow until after Buena Vista (pronounced Byoona, not Bwayna – write that down) when we began to really go up.  And up and up and oh mah lawrd did we go up.  All the way up Independence Pass which tops out at over 12,095 feet.  Narrow and windy with big cliffy type drops without the comfort of a guard rail and up and further up and the only thing more exhausting than hauling a travel trailer up and over a pass that height would be to do the exact same thing on a bike.

Which is what the cyclists will be doing on Tuesday.  OK, they’ll be going the other way but I promise you, it’s no more of a pick-a-nick in that direction.

Before that though, they get to have an easy day tomorrow to start the tour.  A mere 64 miles on a circuit around Aspen and Snowmass.  And only 8,000 feet of climbing, which is dead easy to type. 

We’ll be there with cowbells on. 

Tour de Colorado: Sunday

An exciting day in the Gunsmoke Household.  The morning has been a flurry of activity as we pack the covered wagon ready for a week touring Colorado as we follow the US Pro Cycling Challenge.  After a cushy year gathering dust in the back yard, our caravan is now spic, span and pointing in the right direction.  The pick-up bed is full to the gills with all manner of crap we'll probably never use.  And the dogs are in full-on velcro mode, making sure we don't accidentally leave them behind.

Dear Wife is 'almost' ready to get in the shower so our planned early start is only 3 or 7 hours behind schedule.  Believe me, this is promising.

Aspen bound tonight - where the millionaires have been pushed out by the billionaires.  We'll blend right in.