Triple Bypass

On Saturday we woke up at 3:13 am  (yes! crazy!), quickly got dressed, and hopped in the Sube to head east a couple hours to Evergreen, where a bunch (3500!) riders gathered to begin a day's journey over three mountains . . . on their bikes.  Gregg was one of those 3500 crazies.  I was one of the crazy crew members (I got a bright yellow card to hang on my rearview to make it official) that got to meet up with my dishy rider at a few of the aid stations along the way.  I've definitely been more thorough in my photo documentation in the past, but below you'll see a few shots of our boy on his 120 mile adventure over three mountain passes with 11,000+ feet of climbing.  (Crazy!)  (P.S. If you're interested in seeing the map and/or elevation profile, you can check it out here.)

Here he is just after the Georgetown
aid station at mile 42.  He looked great
and was about a half hour ahead of his
estimated time at this point!

Off he goes - the end of this parking lot
turned into a bike path which took him
to the next stop . . . Loveland Ski Area.

It was a lovely day at Loveland.

Then, after Loveland and the pass with the same name, Gregg descended into Summit County and met rain.  Lots of rain.  Heavy rain.  And thanks to a weird glitch in the system at Nashbar, he was without the rain jacket that he had ordered (in plenty of time to receive it before the ride).  So he made it to the next aid station at the high school in Frisco and was able to find shelter under the overhang at that building until his wife got there (lots of traffic on that road to the high school and a little shopping in Silverthorne made her later than she intended) so he could warm up in the car for a while.  A longer wait than anticipated pushed his finish time back an hour, but I say better late than never.

This is at the Vail Pass aid station - still raining, though
luckily the heavy stuff that I sat through and photographed
was just ahead of Gregg on the bike, so he didn't get too
soaked.  I did feel bad for this poor fellow and many like
him as they crested into the rest area in this downpour.

A little artistic attempt while waiting
in the car.

At last we both made it to Avon (just 5ish miles from home) - still wet and cool out.  Turns out this storm wasn't just one of our short afternoon cloudbursts - it lasted most of the day!  And while we really can't complain about the water, I just don't think it can be that much fun to be out in it on a bike all day.

If you'll look closely, you'll see how
Gregg feels about being on the bike
for just over 8 hours (that was his moving
time - total time from start to finish was
10 hours).

Gregg was obviously tired so we made a quick getaway to our dry apartment where a nice hot shower was much enjoyed by our fearless rider.  Today he says that the only thing that is sore after all those miles is his right index finger.  Crazy!