First, I apologize to all those who might be reading this and not getting to enjoy any pictures. However, I went into this ride wanting to break our club’s course record and possibly go under 11 hours for a difficult unsupported double century. We did have a couple folks with bottles at key locations, but I out-rode their support at 85 miles. I knew I would have to keep my stoppage times to a minimum to make this possible, so no photos. To kill the suspense, I finished the loop shown in the below link in 11:07 (or 11:05-depending on which clock is used in the results) and broke the previous course record of 11:08 by Mark Lowe. Mark is the voyager (rando-style) record holder at Hoodoo 500 and a good friend in the Rocky Mountain Cycling Club.

Grand Loop course info

Bottomline Up Front:

Distance (climbing)- ~200 (~15,500ft)

Total Time – 11:07 (~11:05 on my Garmin)

Estimated Stop Time- 27 minutes

Average speed- 18.1 (~18.8 without stops)

So this is how it went down:

We started from Golden at 0300; and, at least I knew I would be done in time to get some lunch and be out of the mountains before the real afternoon storms. Since, I have been with the club for a couple years now, I do find myself as a marked man. Many riders seem to yield to my pacing over the early sections. I got to share this privilege with Mark Lowe and we had a great early pace group of about 5-6 all the way to Lyons- going about 35 miles in 1:30.  I spent about 2 minutes stopped and then another minute on the side of the road for a comfort break. Great start, now the climbing begins.

From Lyons, we went up to Estes Park and then Trail Ridge, this begins nearly50 miles of ascent and about 80 % is solid climbing grades. The group did get whittled down to four by Estes and then three due to pro-longed comfort breaks. At Estes Park, I personally was stopped for just under 3 minutes for bottles and another :40 for another comfort break. I had done about 56 miles total in about 3 hours total time at this point.

Heading into Rock Mountain National Park, I rolled gently to try to get a re-group. By the time the road really tilted, it was myself and a gentleman named Eric Nelsen. The aplen-glow was just showing as we started climbing the switchbacks and our good speed ruined some of those beautiful 3-D  mountain views at dawn. I rode Trail Ridge the best I have ever gone but battled a gnarly bad-patch for about 6 miles. Thankfully, Eric rode steady and this allowed me to wallow and focus on his rear wheel.  By the time we reached the visitor center we had cleared roughly 82 miles in 5:15 total time. This would be the last time I would get bottles from our group’s stopped support car. I was halted for only 4:30.

At this point, we descend on the shadowed west side of RMNP and it gets very cold. Thankfully, I was able to ride with Eric on the flats through Grand Lake and Granby. My process was pull strong to warm-up, then drop back in Eric’s slipstream to EAT!!!!  I had done about 900 calories total to RMNP, but now had to make up for the nutrition stoppage that occurred above 10,ooo feet. Embarrassingly, Eric and I stopped twice on the way to Granby- once for me missing a cage and dropping an important water bottle and then for a relatively slow flat change due to Eric’s frozen fingers. As a team, the two of us managed these times well and I was happy to not roll away from him when he flatted because we did work well going into Granby. At this point, I was getting my second wind and knew that I had a good thing going. At a gas station in Granby, I chose to have us stop and quickly re-fill bottles. We had gone 119 miles in 6:55 total time. Unfortunately, my compadre was in need of some food and he waived me on.

Due to our extra stops, Mark Lowe had caught and barely passed us. I ventured on in hopes of riding along with Mark. Despite my good intentions and hopes, I ended up rolling on solo. Mark was having some issues and I was having a great day. It was a bummer, as I know together we might have dropped that record under 11 hours.

I rolled well over the hidden gem of a climb from Granby to Tabernash and then had a stellar ascent of Berthoud Pass. Looking back, I wonder, if I could have pushed harder. However, I feared the two mini-climbs in the last twenty miles. I had a slight tail wind at the start of the climb and I hit the final true check point (top of Berthoud Pass) at 9 hours for 151 miles.

With roughly 48 miles to go I knew the 11 hour mark would be very difficult to attain. However, the headwind at the top of the climb yielded a fantastic tail wind to Empire and I was flying. Most of my friends know me as a terrible descender, but thankfully with my new rig, a BMC Team Machine, that I procured from this spring from Colorado Multi-sport, I am practically a new man on the descents. I just wish I had a little more weight- but just for the descents. My only other stops were a well executed water bottle fill and trash dump at Idaho Springs and then a minute waiting for the light to allow me to get onto I-70 for a couple miles.

The only other true tests at Floyd Hill and Beaver Brook Rd I rode steady despite having dead legs from 30 miles of descent. When I dropped down Lookout Mountain, I scanned from clock to speed to the road and then to gazing upon Golden. Much like Flagstaff in Boulder, you go down the road and feel like you could just bunny hop off the side and land in the parking lot below. I chose the safer and less direct route and barreled into Golden where I had started, at 2:07pm, according to the time-keeper. I was stoked to have toppled the club record, as I know Mark to be a worthy adversary in these record attempts. Despite the fact this was not truly a race, it was a good test for me and my sponsors gear. I do have to credit the validity of my loyal supporters who will get proper mentioning around the508 in October: GU (beverage, gels, and tablets), 2XU compression even got me to the Toad the Wet Sprocket Concert that night, can’t forget my morning boost from RUCKPACK.com, and seeing well with my Zeal Optics, and through Team4Mil my butt was covered by Assos.

I did not include a lot of nutrition information or power numbers, but I rode only 193 average (to include stops) and 227 NP. Nutrition was, as always, great, the only downfall was having to take comfort breaks. At the 508, don’t follow too close on the descents…