Stardate 2015.011

Triple Bypass

Registration Time

Hi folks! It's early 2015 and time to register for many of the bicycle rides in which we like to participate. It looks like a full year again. Sorry, backyard. Although many of these rides are charity rides, some have become quite expensive, so we're being more selective. This year's docket includes Elephant Rock, the Santa Fe Century, Ride the Rockies (if lottery drawn), the MS-150 and the Triple Bypass. Part of the game is going out on a limb; most rides are nontransferable and nonrefundable. Finally, I would like to ride many segments of the Colorado Trail on my mountain bike. A jaunt back up to the Pacific Northwest wouldn't be bad either.



Elephant Rock
So far, Snowcatcher and I are signed up for Elephant Rock, Colorado's season opener. We're also going to register for a ride we haven't participated in, the Santa Fe Century. I've always wanted to head south of the border (Colorado's) to ride New Mexico's Santa Fe area. This will be the ride's 30th anniversary, so why wait any longer? Besides, I like New Mexico, it truly is the land of enchantment. I know because I'm an enchantment lizard. :)



Mountain biking Olympic Bronze Medalist Susan DeMattei; hubby, pro mountain biker and six-time Leadville 100 winner Dave Wiens; and Tim Fleming high atop Loveland Pass during the 2013 Triple Bypass. Yes, they went by me like I was in reverse.


My most difficult ride is the Double Triple Bypass, a 120-mile ride over several mountain passes exceeding 10,000 feet, then right back the way I came on Day 2. These passes include Juniper (11,140 ft), Loveland (11,990 ft) and Vail (10,560 ft). Honorable mention goes to Swan Mountain – steep and short and painful. For most of us mortals, this ride is at least a seven- to eight-hour day with 10,000 feet of elevation gain. This will be my seventh year riding this event. This is not the hardest 100-plus-mile day in which I've tortured myself. That would be the defunct Deer Creek Challenge. Nonetheless, the Triple hurts, especially if you ride the two-day event, which is simply riding back the same way the next day.



Colorado National Monument Stage of the 2010 Ride the Rockies
I've often wondered what the stats are to pull off a ride like the Triple Bypass. Over the course of a weekend, there are four different rides; there's a westbound on Saturday, a westbound/eastbound on Saturday/Sunday and an eastbound on Sunday. In addition, there's a three-man (or three-woman, which Snowcatcher wanted to do last year but couldn't find a third teammate) relay on Sunday. Entry for all events is by lottery.

Below are a few stats:

5,000 riders over the weekend
853 volunteers
6,189 bananas
3,390 oranges
420 pounds of peanut butter
43 permits required to organize the 120-mile ride
$500,000 given out to charities in the past three years
2,232 beers served



The 2013 MS-150 ride from Westminster to Fort Collins, Colorado. It's toward the end of the ride and the 75-mile riders are beginning their final two short and steep climbs. The 100-mile riders still have five short and steep climbs to go.

It'll be a hoot!

Adios

Stardate 2014.458

A Triple Bypass & Chasing Fitness

There's a big ride coming mid-July called the Double Triple Bypass. It's a two-day event with which I like to torture myself. Yet, I'm not ready and harboring too much winter fat. I need to train harder. During the week, I try to get out in the evenings for an hour or two; it's better than nothing. However, I haven't been very consistent.

On the bright side, Snowcatcher and I got some good training in recently with the help of the MS 150 High Rollers training ride and the annual Elephant Rock Cycling Festival. The high country is defrosting and we'll soon be in those areas as well. The High Roller ride traversed through rolling farmlands between Longmont, Boulder and Loveland, Colorado. It's been wet, and everything is spectacularly green now.


Elephant Rock is an annual (27 years) event hosting 7,000 cyclists of all abilities. The ride has 8, 27, 32, 62 and 100-mile courses to choose from, followed by food and a vendor expo. The rolling terrain is more pronounced and difficult in this region of Front Range prairie. The rollers are long and steep, and your legs don't hesitate to voice about it. Normally, I'm ready to tackle the century ride. However, I was skeptical of my spring fitness and opted for the 62-mile ride. In hindsight, I probably had the legs for the longer ride. On the other hand, I had enough energy to pluck some weeds later in the day. Snowcatcher said given the current popular and newly legal "recreational" activity in our state, that sentence could be taken very wrong. So I will clarity. I took up residence with the dandelions while I waited for Snowcatcher to cross the finish line.




Another training ride we do a lot is Vail Pass. It's a ride at elevation and very scenic. The west side is long and steep, and we try to begin on the that side. The bike path meanders up and over Vail Pass, and you don't have to worry about busy I-70. In fact, the bike path hooks up with the myriad bike paths in Frisco and Breckenridge for some longer riding. The view from the 10,666-foot summit is a good one.



Back to the Double Triple Bypass. The ride entails three mountain passes, all over 10,000 feet in elevation, and two of them are well over 11,000 feet in elevation. Ride length is 120 miles with 10,000 feet of vertical climbing. The second day is the same as the first, only reverse direction. The second day is more difficult because at mile 90 you hit the low elevation point of the ride (7,500 feet) and immediately climb to 11,140 feet. For me, each day will be an eight-hour grind, which is why it's hard to train for – eight hour rides require five, six, eight- hour training rides. Time constraints and weather can limit this

Adios!