High Altitude Century

Bagged the first 100 miler of my cycling career this weekend, in the high alpine air of the Colorado Rockies no less.  I've found that life occasionally demands the right cocktail of confidence and ignorance to accomplish awesome things, and I was definitely on the right mixture Sunday morning when I left my friend's Vail apartment. Hey, it's all downhill to Denver, right?

Indeed, it is a total descent of about 3,000 feat from Vail (elev. 8,000 ft) to the mile high city, but there is this other thing called Vail Pass that sits in the way, all 2,662 vertical feet of it. I also got to meet Hoosier Pass (elev. 11,500 ft) after Breckenridge, and claw my way up Kenosha Pass right at the end of the day. If I was looking for a hill climb, I found it in a big, big way. Oh yeah, it's the Rocky Mountains.

Highlights included testing out the new panniers and shoes, getting mixed up with the Teva Mountain Games time trial outside Vail ("...who was THAT guy?"), meeting Jake, the awesome dude that pulled over to give me a tube, and being back in the mountains.

Lowlights included getting a flat halfway up Vail pass, packing an incorrect tube, walking the 500 feet before meeting Jake, and a little post-ride altitude sickness.

When it's all said and done, though, it was a great ride. I lost the light before making it home to Littleton (thank you, flat tire fiasco), but I did make it 101 elevated miles on a fully loaded bike before days end. This was exactly 1/35th of what Greg and I will take on this summer, and I feel totally confident in what lies ahead.