Road Cycling - Telluride roadie rides

Headed up to Telluride a week from Friday for the Blues and Brews Festival and thinking about taking the new Orbea with me. Anyone done any road stuff there?

I have. I rode from Ouray to Telluride over Dallas Divide. The problem with that ride is coming up the canyon, the road was narrow and winding (hey, its the mountains!) and it had a fair bit of relatively fast truck traffic. Not fun. I also rode from Telluride to Dolores over Lizard Head Pass. You go outa town and turn left (about the only paved left you can make). That was a far nicer ride. It had a lot less traffic. You could do that on an out and back basis. I would advise not to go beyond Lizard Head Pass though because from the pass to Dolores (which is a nice ride to) it is all downhill. So it would be some work to get back to Telluride.

I'll probably be doing a one way from Dolores to Telluride if I take the bike. I know there will be a little bit more traffic than usual due to the festival, but I figure Friday morning won't be bad at all. Glad to hear that it's a good road from someone that's been there. If the weather looks alright, I'll check it out.

Several years ago wife and I were on a road trip driving from Telluride down to New Mexico and encountered a huge group of riders, like an organized century or something, riding toward Telluride. I'm pretty sure we were driving south on 145 at the time (toward Delores/Cortez). So, from that I'd say it's rideable.

My thought at the time was, "those guys are going to be doing a lot of climbing".

Yeah, the whole point of riding in that part of Colorado is to climb.

I'll be ordering that 13-29 cassette pretty soon.

Edit: 49.6 mi. from Dolores to Lizard Head Pass with a max. grade of 7% for one mile. Gain 3270 feet in that distance. Sounds fun, if the weather looks alright and the bike is here, I'll do it.