What if we.... rode bikes to Vail?

You get it, right? There’s no bike racing this year. There are no organized rides such as the Triple Bypass, a Colorado standard, to train for. So when my husband mentioned he was thinking about doing his longest ride on the longest day of the year, on a flat course out to the Eastern Plains, I said that sounds boring but what if I rode to Vail the next day?

I knew I could convince our teammates Michelle and Bill to join, they love a fun challenge. And while I’m the idea guy, Michelle is the route and logistics genius. So we started working on mapping out our ride and somehow convinced two other friends, Daniel and Ayel, to join us. Then in the Husband of the Year Award Nominee category, Rod agreed to drive sag for us, meaning that he would spend all day (and I mean ALL day, 6:00 am to 11:00 pm) driving for us. He did an incredible job - he was everywhere.

We decided to do essentially the Triple Bypass route, but start at our house in Denver, and finish in Vail. The total mileage was 141, with almost 14,000 feet of climbing. Definitely the hardest ride I’ve ever done. And at the finish there wasn’t anyone cheering or giving us a medal or really caring what we did! It was a fun and interesting study in, can you do something really really hard, just for the sake of doing it? Spoiler alert: the answer is yes!

Pre-ride… clean kit, full of energy

We set out at 6:00 am on a sunny, temperate Sunday morning. We had discussed this a lot and decided that if we wanted to finish, the first couple climbs had to be at a conversational pace. This meant I was really able to enjoy the views as we climbed Lookout Mountain. I highly recommend riding Lookout early in the morning. Almost no cars, very few other bikes, and the position of the sun was gorgeous. I kept my heart rate under 150 just to make sure I wasn’t building up Lactic Acid in my muscles.

Views to the west from Lookout

We made our first stop in Bergen Park, the traditional start for the Triple Bypass. At this stage spirits were high, we felt good, but we knew we had many hours of riding to go. I had thrown some winter gear into my backpack as an afterthought - how cold could it be up high when it was in the low 90s in Denver - and decided to put on a pair of arm warmers just in case it was chilly at the top of the next climb, which would take us to Echo Lake. This was a long, semi-demoralizing climb. The road surface isn’t that great and it seems to go on forever. But the scenery was nice and Echo Lake was beautiful. I decreed to myself that it was worth it.

Sag Dog Sophie contemplates her existence and enjoys the view of Echo Lake

So the climb to Echo Lake wasn’t that bad. The descent, however, was another story. The sun was behind high clouds which was nice for climbing, because we didn’t get too hot, but that meant the descent was Arctic. I experienced a strange phenomenon of shaking from cold while descending, giving my bike the feeling of having speed wobbles. Needless to say it was unpleasant. Everyone got down to Idaho Spings and said ‘AAAHHHH that was freezing!!!’

At this point we were approximately halfway done with the climbing and a bit under halfway done with the ride. We ate some real food, sandwiches and the like, and took off through Idaho Springs, to what we knew would be the most demoralizing climb - the uphill slog from Georgetown to the top of Loveland Pass. This is long, not always particularly steep, but brutal mentally. However, it also featured some of the most beautiful parts of the ride. We went under the Georgetown Scenic Railroad bridge and up a stunning bike path through the forest.

At this stage, Michelle and I were riding along, just enjoying having someone else to hang out with, and someone blew past us like we were standing still. I thought to myself well, we must be going really slow because we’re getting tired and we’re close to 10,000 feet of climbing. What I didn’t realize is that Gage Hecht passed us. Okay, he was just going really fast (he went on to get the Strava KOM on Loveland Pass which is nuts).

I’m surprised to say that Loveland Pass wasn’t a bad climb. It did snow a little at the bottom (for you east coasters, this is not uncommon in the mountains in June), but the climb itself wasn’t super steep and was very scenic. At this point Michelle and I had dropped the guys who were feeling a bit rough after the cold descent into Idaho Springs. We regrouped at the top for a few photos, more snacks, and to put on all the clothes because we knew we were in for another freezing descent. At this point, Daniel, who hadn’t been training as much after a crash, decided to stop his ride and become Assistant Sag.

Top of Loveland Pass, a cool 12,000 feet

This is where we get into the true emotional roller coaster of a long, hard ride. Anyone who’s done one knows what I mean - I went from feeling great, to freezing my butt off, to talking myself into getting into car at the next stop, to feeling energized and knowing I could do it. It was weird.

At the bottom of Loveland Pass, which was quite cold, we rode into an afternoon thunderstorm blowing into Keystone. Luckily we were able to hang out under some new construction and not get too wet. I definitely told Rod I wanted to get into the car at this point - I hate riding in the rain. He said no. What a great husband! (I really mean it, I didn’t actually want to quit)

Luckily the rain was short lived and within a couple miles we were dry and stopping to take our rain gear off because we were hot. The miles from Keystone down to Frisco were super pleasant - a combination of quiet roads and bike paths, nice weather, and the knowledge that we only had one more climb. We met Rod in Frisco at the bottom of the last climb, had a snack, and gave ourselves a pep talk to finish strong.

One really cool thing for those who haven’t ridden in the mountains - the last 30ish miles of the ride were all on a really beautiful bike path. Knowing you don’t have to worry about traffic makes a ride that much more pleasant especially when you’re already mostly dead. That said, we did find some more weather on the way up to the top of Vail Pass - more rain, and a driving headwind. I was in a bad spot and whimpered more than I’d like to admit. Luckily at this point Michelle was feeling good so I just sat on her wheel and kept pedaling.

Rolling into the last sag stop before Vail

From the top of Vail Pass, we knew it was all downhill. We sent Rod and Sophie to Vail to find a table for dinner, and cruised down into Vail. This was incredibly fun. The pass itself is gorgeous and flying downhill felt amazing after climbing so much. Bill led the way and Michelle and I just hopped on his wheel and enjoyed taking the last few miles a bit faster. We rolled into Vail around 7:00, for a total of 13 hours out, and 10:30 actual pedaling time. We changed clothes in the parking garage to keep things classy and headed to the restaurant for dinner.

By the time we had dinner and drove home, it was around 11 pm (the latest we’ve been out in years!). We were exhausted. And yet when Michelle said maybe next year we should do it again, but ride both ways over a weekend, I didn’t say no. It could be fun. So if you have a crazy idea this summer, I say do it. Why not?