5th Friday at .9: Epic road ride over Loveland Pass - 93 miles

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So we get invited up to stay with the Showman's in Breck. Strikes me as a great opportunity to ride up there Friday and meet the girls inn the evening. How often do I get the chance to do that? I was figuring on around 112miles or so, Boulder, Coal Creek, Central City, Idahoe Springs, Loveland Pass, Keystone, Breck. Most of that worked out just fine. Left home around 7 am and beat most of the traffic up 93 and Coal Creek. Though neither of those are all that welcoming to riders. Had a motorcyclist going down the canyon yell at me "watch out for the boulder!" I thought that was kind of nice but then never came across a boulder. What he must have said was "Go back to Boulder!" 20 miles to get to the top of Wundervue with lots of gradual climbing. Then a schuss down to Pinecliff before more gradual climbing to the Peak to Peak. Heading south is nice with wide shoulders and mellow climbs with great viewws for 10 miles or so. Then a 6 mile barrel down to Blackhawk, where you still hae to walk your bike through town to get over to Central City. Here's where the bum luck began. I thought I had the map in my head for finding Virginai Canyon Rd. So I confidently head up Main St and up out of town, climbing a mile or so up a steep side road. Asked a local and he said this ain't the way. I followed his directions and those lead my up a road to Bald Mnt which then circled back down into town after 30 minutes of hard hard dirt road climbing. Arg. Seriously arg. Finally hit the right track and made it over the Central City Parkway and over towards Idaho Springs. My legs were feeling bit a taxed on the final climb before a long and steep drop down to town. All that elevation gained - lost! Back down to 6500 ft and facing a 5000 ft climb along I-70 to Loveland Pass. Worked my way up through town and stopped in Dumont for a burger. Onward upward and hooked up with the Ride the Rockies group on their final leg of their 6 day trip into Georgetown. Fun! Then found the bike trail that climbs up along the highway almost all the way to Loveland. Very cool! But then the real kicker hits: first, piles of snow along the bike path west of Bakersville. Then a thunderstorm with a downpour and plummeting temps. At one point, as I was hiding under a pine tree to stay dry, the rain changed over to snow. Ugh. Cold sets in, my will to push on wanes... Waited out the rain/snow and made it up to the Lovelnad Valley ski area where I conferred with Rachel. Checking eh radar, all looked good so I went for the pass, 4 miles and 1200 feet above. Made it about 2 miles up the nice grade of that road when the snow came back. All was well on the climb, stayed warm, thought the situatio was pretty cool. But the decent, the decent in snow/rain. Ugh. I buckled up with a bar and headed down, wiping snow off my glasses and made it the 3 miles to ABasin in the pouring rain, and found shelter in the ticket booth. 7 more miles to go but after watching the steady rain not let up, I finally asked an employee heading Dow the hill if I could catch a ride to Keystone. There, a cup of coffee did wonders to warm me back up. Since the rain was not letting up, I gave up on the goal of a century ride and caught the Summit Stage bus (free!) to Breck. It took a whole hour+! But it got me there in one piece. So it goes. Might need to do this one again later in the summer when the temps are warm.

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