Saturday, after two Thanksgivings in a row (one cooked by my aunt and one by my lovely wife), I headed about an hour into the mountains for a big bike ride with some people I didn't know. I knew I was setting out for an adventure because we were going to be riding from the
92fifty bike shop in Black Hawk down to Centennial Cone for the last lap of the season and back. The ride was planned to be about four hours. The night before I walked into the basement to decide what to ride the next day. I could either rebuild a set of pedals, reseal a set of wheels, bleed a brake, and tune a drivetrain in order to ride my comfy geared bike, or just throw my singlespeed on top of the car and leave. Seemed like an easy choice. The next morning, the singlespeed went on top of the car and I rolled out. Big mistake...
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| Waiting for me at the top of the first climb. |
It soon became apparent that I had brought the wrong horse for this course. It was all good, though. There's no sense in complaining about it, and I had made my decision. Suffer on...
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| Third to last climb of the day. |
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| Much walking was done. |
After mashing 20 to 30 RPM for the previous 6.5 hrs, I finished up the ride at Jonathan Davis' house, instead of riding the last two or three miles (uphill) back to the shop. It was quite a fantastic ride. The Centennial Cone singletrack was pretty cool. It will definitely be worth going back there once it opens again on June 15, 2014.
The best part of the ride was all the great people I met. It's good to meet people who love doing long, hard rides. I'm really looking forward to riding with them soon. This will be a good way for me to get some fitness over the winter. I'm glad I found a group to ride with, but next time I'll bring a few gears.
