Anybody ever do this Century? This will be my first Century ride. Can you help out a newbie with some advice on this ride, or for that matter, any century? I am really doing this jst as a training ride. I plan on taking it real easy.
What should my longest ride before the event be?
The ride is May 19th. I am running the Colorado Marathon on May 6th.
Currently I have done 60plus on a fairly hilly Boulder, CO course. (no problems, running next day)
I run 35-40 Miles aweek. Bike 4-5hours total (3 times a week mostly on trainer, due to work shdeule) and Swim 2-3 hours a week.
Be kind.
I’ve done it once, was a day late in signing up for it again this year, couldn’t believe they sold 200 spots on a Monday! Anyways, I don’t have a lot of input for how long your rides should be before this one, but do have some info on the route.
When you leave Buena Vista and head towards Leadville, it is deceptively uphill - no big hilly mountain passes, just a steady rise in elevation about 30 miles to Leadville. Once you get to Leadville then you get into climbing - good long climbs up and around Tourquoise Lake. Back down to Leadville, then back up through the mine bike path - really cool bike path, back down to Leadville again, then that deceptive uphill from BV to Leadville becomes a screaming 30 mile (not mph, but mile) downhill going very fast. It’s a ton of fun.
Definitely ride single file on 24 all the way from BV to Leadville, be carefull when passing once the shoulder disappears about 1/3 of the way out of BV, it’s a big highway with big rig and car traffic going fast and relatively no shoulder, but once you get to Leadville and start going over and around the lake and the mine, way less traffic and you can group up a little bit - but still be wary of cars.
We were training for IMCDA when we did it and on the way back to BV hung a right at Hwy 82 for 6 miles out to make it a 112 mile ride.
I remember the aide stations being stocked well, lunch stop was great, and the bbq and fat tire beer afterwords a lot of fun.
Have your climbing legs ready!! Enjoy it!
This will be my first century too! How out of place will I LOOK on my 496 Tri?