Copper Triangle

Ever since coming to Colorado I've gotten more and more into cycling. Partly due to the enthusiasm of a former co-worker...thanks Scott! It's a great sport for us guys past our prime in more traditional activities. I get to experience the beauty of Colorado and get some exercise. I like the speeds involved in cycling, it's much more entertaining than the boring monotony of running, you get to see a lot more scenery and cover a lot more territory. Plus it's easier on the body. Unless you crash, that is.

One of the reasons I love cycling here is because I love the mountains and they provide a great backdrop for cycling and a significant challenge. This year I signed up for the Copper Triangle. It's a bicycle ride that covers 80 miles in the mountains, going from Copper to Leadville to Vail and back to Copper. It goes over three mountain passes (Freemont, Tennesse, and Vail) and has a total elevation gain of 5,900 feet. Enough talk, here are the ride stats:



I was very happy to have a few friends along for the ride. A couple of guys from church did the ride and we rode together for most of it. That made the ride much more enjoyable, to have someone to talk to and draft off and feed off each other. Thanks guys!

I started the ride by noticing it was 52 degrees in Copper. Great, that's plenty warm, and I dressed accordingly. Then we hit the street and started climbing and it quickly went to 35 degrees. It was alright climbing, but after about 12 miles we started going downhill, in the shade, and it was still cold. One of the guys I was with said he'd never been that cold in his life! I was glad I brought a wind jacket in addition to arm and knee warmers, it made a huge difference on the downhill.

We skipped the first aid station then climbed Tennesse pass, which was quite easy. A bit after that we hit Battle Mountain, which isn't a pass but was a steep couple of miles. I was feeling pretty good. I told Alicia I could have done the ride with two gears, one for the uphills and one for the flats. The downhills I was usually just riding my brakes to keep from going faster than I was comfortable with. We stopped at the next couple of rest stations at the bottom of Vail pass and before it got really steep. At that point we split up and went up Vail pass separately.

I'm sure the really strong riders had already gone through. But I was feeling pretty good, so I hit Vail pass hard. It was a hard climb, probably the hardest ones I've done. But I pushed myself.I ended up passing hundreds of people, pretty much constantly on the left side. There were maybe half a dozen guys that passed me, but I think I caught at least three of them. At one point the grade hit 12% and that was pretty tough. I stood up and kept passing people, they were going really slow and I didn't want to fall over, but my heart rate went really high.

After that pass I waited up top for a while due to a little miscommunication about us regrouping. After realizing that wasn't happening I went to the finish. All told the ride went great, I really enjoyed it. That's the first time I've ridden that long, the breaks helped a bunch. I'd love to do it again next year.