I'm first day here we had planned to race. It was the Colorado State Crit Champs. Feeling the altitude of 1600m just walking around, it was to no surprise that I was going to feel it on the bike. We warmed up for 30 minutes or so, me breathing quite heavily. Still I lined up to start what was going to be a tough race for me. Philip had previously lived here over the winter just past, so he was somewhat at an advantage. The race rolled out, 40-45km/h average, although the race was hard for me, if I was breathing alright there was only one real hard section, it was a long straight with a side wind then a fast right hander into the head wind. I stuck with the 70 or so Pro 1/2 men for as long as my lungs could take. This was 30-40 minutes in, I sat and rolled around the closed off streets watching Philip still racing. He ended up come in 13th, a great result.
After the race we decided to go do another hour on the bikes, just around the flats.
The following day was even harder than the day before. We planned to do 4 hours up in the mountains. Starting in Boulder riding up the must do climb of Flagstaff then on to the town of Nerderland, across the peak to peak highway and then dropping back down to Boulder. Making it to the top of Flagstaff for me was the toughest part, I had gone out a little fast, forgetting how hard it is to recover at altitude. But after an hour of climbing we had made it to the top. But this wasn't the real top of the ride. We descended down the other side until it came to a dirt road, even more descending got us to the bottom, then it was just a climb up to the town of Coal creek. It was then a flatish ride to Nerderland, my legs were hurting after climbing for 40km but I seemed to be getting used to the altitude with most of the ride 2000m+. We made it to Nerderland just before the afternoon storm hit. We found refuge in a coffee shop and was planning to wait it out until it was safe to descend back down to Boulder. But the problem was it wasn't letting up. A few hours later after scumming off the shops wifi, Philip called his brother to come collect us. I was glad that in the end we didn't get wet. It took away the factor that we could have gotten sick. Happy that we didn't. I have some photo's to come.
Calum
After the race we decided to go do another hour on the bikes, just around the flats.
The following day was even harder than the day before. We planned to do 4 hours up in the mountains. Starting in Boulder riding up the must do climb of Flagstaff then on to the town of Nerderland, across the peak to peak highway and then dropping back down to Boulder. Making it to the top of Flagstaff for me was the toughest part, I had gone out a little fast, forgetting how hard it is to recover at altitude. But after an hour of climbing we had made it to the top. But this wasn't the real top of the ride. We descended down the other side until it came to a dirt road, even more descending got us to the bottom, then it was just a climb up to the town of Coal creek. It was then a flatish ride to Nerderland, my legs were hurting after climbing for 40km but I seemed to be getting used to the altitude with most of the ride 2000m+. We made it to Nerderland just before the afternoon storm hit. We found refuge in a coffee shop and was planning to wait it out until it was safe to descend back down to Boulder. But the problem was it wasn't letting up. A few hours later after scumming off the shops wifi, Philip called his brother to come collect us. I was glad that in the end we didn't get wet. It took away the factor that we could have gotten sick. Happy that we didn't. I have some photo's to come.
Calum
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