In an effort to walk you through the whole run of emotions, from dread to excitement I have to back up to the day before the ride. The ride was to take place on Saturday July 13th, but before that could happen I needed to be in Colorado, so starts....
Friday July 12th 2019.
I was in Logan until after 10:00pm Thursday night, but knowing I was going to get up early on Friday, I made sure to get all of my cloths I was going to need both washed and in the dryer, that put me to bet a bit after 11:00pm on Thursday night. Friday Morning at 4:15am I woke up and started to get ready to go, the drive is expected to take about 9 hours without stops so we figured we should get out pretty early. My usual routine in the morning, wake up, take a shower, and get dressed....that's when it hits you! You are on your way to the ride of a lifetime, 120 miles and over 10K feet in elevation gains in a single day! "No worries" I told myself, "I am prepared for this." And truthfully I was and am, I'm in the best shape of my life, having lost around 75 pounds just a few years ago (like 5 now) and have cardio strength that I never thought was possible.
Getting packed up is the easy part, I travel a lot for work, so waking up to leave early in the morning and packing without forgetting something is simple. I loaded up my duffel bag with everything I'd need including some nutrition for the first climb of the ride. Loaded my bike on top of the 2016 Subaru Outback, and I was ready to go. As I was loading my bike, my dad, who was only in town for two days passing through on his way to Yellowstone, was just coming back from a walk. I talked with him for a couple of minutes, but that really was all I had time for. After loading up my cycling partners stuff, we were off.
Taking the southern route to Colorado so we could scope out the conditions of the ride terrain - south from home on I-15 to US hwy 6 over soldier summit in Utah and continue to I-70. I-70 from there through Grand Junction (where we stopped to see my mother and father in law for about a half hour) and on to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We stopped in Glenwood for lunch, where I had a burger and some fries, with water to drink. I stopped drinking soda 10 or so years ago, I almost always drink water with lunch. From Glenwood we continued on; as we reached Avon, I started to point out some of our ride to my riding partner. I grew up in Colorado and drove this section of I-70 frequently, and even have ridden portions of the ride. Conditions looked great, activity trails along side the interstate looked clean and in good order.
We arrived in Evergreen to pick up our rider packets, wow, talk about excitement. Shade canopies all over the parking lot, tons of riders and bikes everywhere; we were finally here and ready to get started.
Not long after we left Salt Lake City, I realized that I had forgot my charger to my Fenix 3, my only tracking devise for the last 2 years. I had been eyeing a new cycling computer for a while and my cycling partner has a Garmin Edge 820 and the information it gives about climbs is far superior to what my Fenix 3 gives (which is basically nothing). It really has helped us on training rides to determine how hard we can push ourselves on climbs, knowing where the top is and how much elevation gain you have to get there. Well, It was time to pick one up, only problem was, the cycling store we were at to pick up our packets didn't have an 820, they only had a 520. There were some features on the 820 that I really wanted and didn't know if the 520 had similar features. I found an LBS in Golden, Colorado that had the 830; I didn't even know that Garmin had made an 830. I looked up the specs and determined that the 830 was (as I expected) an upgrade, and newer model to the 820 with the same basic specs but a larger screen and bigger battery for longer life. My decision was made, and Golden was not that far away, in fact we were staying in a hotel in Golden.
We met up with 4 other guys for dinner, one whom we had previously worked with before he left the company we work for today. I bet you can't guess what kind of food we had....of course, it was Italian, no better way to carb load at dinner than to have Italian. I had lasagna with a lintel soup, and plenty of bread.
We finished on Friday with a single light IPA while we cleaned the chains on our bikes and ensured everything was in order for the next day. After talking with the guys at dinner, all who had done the ride a few years earlier, we were a little worried about time. We had booked the latest shuttle back from Avon, at 7pm, but had to check in at 6:15 for that shuttle. We were shooting for a 6:00am departure time from the start, so that left us with 12 hours of total elapsed time to complete the ride. According to my workings, if we maintained a 12mph average (knowing climbs would be slow and downs would be super fast) we should really make it in under 10 hours of ride time, that leaves us with 2 hours to play with for stops at the aid stations.
Saturday July 13th, 2019
Our hotel is about 20 minutes away from the start, but there is always those little things to you have to do to be truly ready to ride. We woke up at 4:00am to start getting ready for a 6:00am departure. We arrived at a parking location at 10 till 6:00am. The parking location was less than a half mile from the start. By the time we got the bikes down and everything on, including sunscreen it was about 6:05. Rode to the start, checked our finish line bags that contained normal cloths to get out of the bibs as soon as possible, used the bathroom one more time and it was time to start.
Lights flashing for safety I started my computer at 6:09:38, it was about 2 minutes to the start line from where I started my computer, only because we had to wait for a light to change. Off on the first climb we went.
The first climb on the Triple Bypass is Mt. Evans and Juniper Pass, it is a bypass highway that runs from Evergreen to Idaho Springs. Starts off pretty mild but does have a nice steady climb at 4% over just under 15 miles. The first Aid Station was setup at just shy of the top. We stopped for a few minutes to refill water, Nuun Hydration, and grab more snacks. I had set a 30 minute food reminder on my computer, so I actually did quite well at grabbing a bite or two of something while climbing Juniper Pass. Total ride time to the 11,020 foot summit of Juniper Pass with 3,318 feet of total elevation gain was 1:56:19 at an average of 7.6 mph. Overall for this year on Strava, that puts me in 945th place with the top being 1:07:29 and an average of 13.1 mph. Snapped a photo of the craziness at the aid station as well as at the top of Juniper Pass, as we were riding.
Words can't describe the decent from the top of Juniper Pass to Idaho Springs, but I can tell you that FAST, is not an appropriate word for it. From Echo Lake to Idaho springs, Echo Lake is not quite at the top, but just about a mile down from the top, took 21:37 to go 12.39 miles with many hairpin turns. My average speed was 34.4mph on that stretch my my max at 42.5mph.
From Idaho Springs to Georgetown is a slight grade up,but really it's a nice warmup for what's to come. From Georgetown you go up, and up, and up to Loveland ski area, which is also the start of Loveland Pass as well as the same elevation as Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70. This section was the most difficult for me, even though it only averages 3% grade. I had completely bonked just into the start of this climb and had to stop a couple of times to take some energy shots. Luckily at the Loveland Ski area is another Aid station with lunch. At this Aid station, they had rice crispy treats, sandwiches and Coca-Cola, I had each just to try to get my energy back. Because this was the lunch stop it was also our longest stop of the day. I don't know if the 'A-A Ron' sign below was actually for me or not, but there were in theory supports that my parents knew when they lived in Breckenridge as well as my cousin along the way somewhere.
After refueling I felt a lot better and really got after the Loveland Pass climb, it's relatively short at only 4 miles but it is an average of 6% grade, so it's pretty steep. Loveland Pass from Georgetown is really a huge time suck, so if you are planning to ride this event, just know you are going to lose hours in that section - 16.07 miles took me 3:29:43, with 2:21:06 being ride time. The actual Loveland Pass climb took 52:49 with 40:34 of that being ride time (there were some great picture opportunities. Loveland Pass is just shy of 12,000 feet at 11,992 feet, the air truly is thinner up here and much harder to feed your muscles.
There is no Aid station at the top of Loveland Pass, in fact the next aid station is not until you reach Hwy 9 on the other side of the small Swan Mountain Pass climb. Be sure to pace your fluid consumption, thinking that it's all downhill to the next aid station from the top of Loveland Pass is incorrect. The Swan mountain climbs are short (there are two of them) and much less steep than you have already done, but they are still there and it's HOT! From the Summit of Loveland Pass to the next aid station is 16.4 miles with about 500 feet of elevation gain on Swan mountain for 2.5 miles. Total time on Swan Mountain for me was 24:35 at an average of 6.2 mph. The decent from Loveland Pass is on some road that has a lot of pot holes so be careful as you descend; it didn't stop me from cooking along at an average of 31.8 mph and a max of 44.7 over 8.6 miles. I spent a total of 16:18 on that descent.
The ride is relatively flat with less than 700 feet elevation gain from the hwy 9 aid station to Copper Mountain ski area, about 40:00 spent on this section. I heard people on the ride saying that Vail Pass was the hardest climb on the whole ride, not because it is actually the hardest, but because you have already summited two 11,000 foot plus passes and have around 90 miles in. I found Vail Pass to be easy, it's short and has an average of 4% grade. It's a bit over 4 miles and took me 30:24 at an average of 8.2 mph.
From Vail to Avon is thought to be all downhill, and while on an elevation map it sure appears that way, the last 10 miles into Avon is more flat, with maybe a 1% decline grade. Knowing we were almost done when we got to that part and wanting to get as good of time as we could, we pushed it hard (with a head wind the last 4 miles). The last 13 miles after the Vail Pass drop into Avon was an average of 23.3 mph with a top speed of 39.6 mph. It was really awesome to see a 25 mph speed limit and your speed sign flash at us as we pass it at over 31 mph. As you are riding into Avon, it's a really awesome feeling to be rolling through roundabouts at 20+ mph with the police shutting down traffic in those roundabouts for you.
Overall, I had the time of my life on this ride. The time spent training leading up to it was a huge commitment and a ton of work, but how many people can actually say they've completed the Triple Bypass over Juniper Pass, Loveland Pass, and Vail Pass. 120 (ish) miles with over 10,000 feet in elevation gains. My specs:
117.35 miles
11:23:38 total elapsed time
9:06:42 moving time
Average of 12.9 mph
Max 44.9 mph
Average of 34 breaths per minute
Max 47 Breaths per minute
Over 6,000 calories used
For all of the photos we took see this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/pJMMhwKUM4zruXtXA
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