This morning we woke to very sunny skies, with temperatures a little warmer than
yesterday.  The group assembled a little after 7:00a and headed off for the day's ride at
7:30a.  Here are Tom's statistics:  75.65 miles today; 152 miles cumulative; average
speed 13.5 mph; maximum speed 44 mph; time in the saddle 5 hours, 34 minutes, 32 seconds;
total time on the road 7 hours.

Alice had a flat along the way and Don stopped to help her (she was behind Tom and Don
was behind Alice), so their time was a little longer.  And Tom got bit on the lip by a
bee (after getting bitten in half and spit out, the bee was declared the loser in that
battle).  Other than that, our troops had an uneventful day on the injury/breakdown
front.

Here is Tom's description of the ride:  "We started out from Buena Vista with much warmer
temperatures than yesterday.  The warm temperatures, in combination with a slow climb at
the outset, allowed us to shed our cold-weather gear quickly.  We climbed from 8,000 feet
to 10,000 feet on the way to Leadville, which was a 35-mile trip.  The last five or six
miles into Leadville, we had a crosswind that made the ride a little more difficult.
From Leadville, we had about five miles of downhill, which was very welcome.  Then we had
a five-mile climb that took us up to the summit of Tennessee Pass (a 500-foot gain that
took us up to 10,400 feet).  From mile 45 to mile 56, we had a nice downhill ride, but it
was not as enjoyable as it could have been because of the wind.  We then climbed three
miles up to Battle Mountain Pass (another 500-foot gain).  From Battle Mountain to
Edwards, we had a 25-mile downhill ride that took longer than expected because of a
headwind.  We figured that what should have been a 30-minute ride actually took an hour.
But everyone agrees that today's wind was nothing like day 2 of last year's ride!
Whereas the scenery was up close and personal yesterday, today's scenery was far-away
spectacular, with the Collegiate Range to our left until we got to Leadville."
 
 

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