superdex

c'mon guys and gals, how'd it go?

DataJunkie

OMG!
It's dex!

What did you do with snowy?

Anyhow, my first triple went wonderfully. I hung out with zin, his girlfriend, and other members of our club.

The descent from juniper pass (or is it squaw) was COLD. My bike was wobbling due to me shivering while I pedaled futilely trying to warm up. We stayed too long at the loveland aid station and ate too much. Half the climb up loveland pass was uncomfortable. The descent was windy and scared poor little old me.

All in all it was a gorgeous day with great company.

bmclaughlin807

I rode with my friend Kathleen pretty much the whole trip, enjoyed the ride immensely. Was plenty warm for the descent down from Juniper pass (Can't for the life of me figure out why everyone was cold! Oh, wait... I wore my wind pants down from the pass... maybe that's why I wasn't cold! )

The climbs were long and tedious... descents long but fast.

Didn't push myself too hard except for Loveland pass... left the aid station about 20 minutes after my ride partners and busted my butt up to catch up with them before they hit the top. Got my pic taken at the pass sign (I was decidedly less green in the pic this year compared to last year!)

The headwinds into, over and down Vail pass were rather annoying, and we finished up just in time to grab some food at the finish line.

Overall it was an AWESOME ride, and other than maybe a little less wind you really couldn't ask for better weather!

Oh, and my Air Zounds horn was a great hit with everyone except my ride partners...

zagnut

This was my 8thTBP and likely the last, at least for awhile. The logistics are just too much of a PIA.
The weather was great except for the headwind, but I'll take it. I felt sluggish for the first few hours yet I climbed Squaw in a time equal to my best. I never really felt good until the descent into Vail where as usual, I could "smell the barn". I had a total time of 8:25 and a saddle time of approx 7:40, my best. The beer was uber good, all 4 of em. Surprisingly, I felt reasonably good post ride. No abnormal aches and pains on this old body. I'd have to say it was a great day overall.

Zagnut

Bulldozer

Weather was great. My time was what I hoped for. The headwind from Copper to the finish sucked. I had a New Belgium Trippel to celebrate. Probably my last Triple for a while. Time to find something else.

Zin

Hmm, I didn't find the first descent all that cold in compared to 2007 & 2006. This year I only had a long sleeve jersey on and a wind vest which was perfect.

DJ is right about staying to long at Loveland Basin. Actually, we did eat to much, but even worse was that I ate food that had little value to help get me over the top of Loveland. I mean really, dry turkey sandwiches on a ride of this nature? PUH'LEEZE! I should have had the PBJs that were offered, but my stomach didn't like the sound of them.

Worst part of the ride, was pulling into Frisco and being told by our friends that we "just missed the pizza!" while they were eating some in front of us! That would have been perfect ride food at that moment!

It was a long day on the bike. Thanks to DJ for hang'n back with my slow self most of the day.

(Sorry about forgetting the keys to my LOCKED roof bike racks. The drive back would have been even more fun with everyone along.)

DataJunkie

No worries.
At least my wife was still in town (even in the same parking lot). What luck!

I still need to get that jersey back to you. Perhaps we should meet up in the tech center or on a ride.

Oh and with my company moving I copied you and rented a bike locker. Thanks for the idea.

Zin

No worries on the Jersey. Are you going to Loveland to do any of the ReUnion rides? If so, keep it until after that. You can fly the Hypoxia colors. Should be interesting to see 50 or so folks in club jerseys!

The bike locker was Sunshine's idea, so I'll pass this along to her. Neither of us have used ours yet. I don't see myself using is until winter when I may not want to ride all the way downtown.

DataJunkie

Then thank sunshine for me.

I.... almost made an oops. My son's 5th birthday is the same weekend as reunion and work is making it difficult to take off any time in the middle of that week. So no reunion for me.
Anyhow, we will find time to get together. Are you doing trail ridge in August? I should make that one.

Merfman

I'm a 50+'er and was conned into this ride by some friends! I had a great time but it was a long day in the saddle for me. That grind from Idaho Springs to Loveland was just not a lot of fun.

As we were pulling out of the parking lot, around 6, we saw a huge cloud of smoke and heard lots of sirens. Did something happen at the party or was that just an illusion?

chuckb

Same here, 50+ and I live at sea level, so TBP is quite a challenge. I basically duplicated my performance from last year, ie, struggling to stay at 9.5 hours riding time. The climbs are, thankfully not as steep as many of our Va rides in the Blue Ridge, but they just go on and on, and the descents are so long that I can get worn out just concentrating and holding on for 35 minutes of fast descending.

The updrafts were in evidence for me coming down from Loveland, and at times these were scary cross wind gusts while I was descending at 45 mph. The fear factor from the winds is what limited the speed.

Aside from the updrafts, the weather was perfect, but I got quite a kneecap sunburn from sweating off the sunscreen and failing to reapply.

I've become convinced (and via his blog, Joe Friel agrees with me) that, regardless of my training, the altitude of this ride is my limiter, so I will probably look for a ride next year that is challenging, but lower average altitude (Death Ride, Ramrod, Shasta...).

TBP is a point-to-point ride, so it is logistically complex, especially if you are flying in for the ride. However, the scale of the landscape is so astounding that I just love this ride. I'd highly recommend it. Especially if you're a 50+'er, I'd suggest a HRM, and discipline yourself to ride at what you know is a sustainable pace, because with the altitude of this ride it is the only way I can finish it.

dark13star

chuckb, I don't know if this is feasible, but you might do better with the altitude if you come out a week early and do some other rides while you acclimatize. That is the key to mountaineering and would help with this ride as well.

Pwnt

I wanted to be there. Stupid DNC!

DataJunkie

..but the triple was in July. I be confused.

Pwnt

Oh I thought you're we're talking about the hypoxia ride this weekend. My bad...carry on.

DataJunkie

lol

You missed a doosey of a ride. One rider had 4 flats. Another destroyed his frame and another had his chain break. egads!

snowy

Hi all!! Just thought I would stop by and say hi to everyone!! Hope all is well. I actually got on my road bike on Sunday for the first time since hmmmm. 9 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been riding my mountain bike this year and having fun! But, miss riding with you guys.

Snowy

DataJunkie

Hey there!

snowy

What's up Data? How are you?

DataJunkie

Doing fine. Had a wonderful year so far.
Now I am busily reducing down to my goal weight.

Sorry for the belated response. Apparently an off the cuff comment I made pissed off one of the mods. That in turn irritated me so I took a break.

How did your mountain bike racing go? Any podium finishes?

snowy

HA Nope no podium finishes I came in 4th place on one race, then I moved up a catergory and got my butt kicked. Racing a bike is hard, I knew this, but it takes alot.

I haven't been on bikeforums that much myself so not real sure who or what happened.

DataJunkie

4th is cool.
I am pondering starting road racing next year. I would be ecstatic to make 4th....or the top half of the field as it were
I am finally in a decent shape and getting skinnier by the week. My shape should resemble a toothpick next year. lol

Pwnt

Right On Snowy! I started road racing the tail end of the season. I joined a road team and everything. Needless to say, I didn't do as well as I had hoped. Man those guys are fast! But atleast now I know where I need to be for next season.

<goes back to training>

DataJunkie

Hey pwnt. What team did you join? I forgot to ask yesterday (or I forget) due to my allergies. They were being quite annoying when I picked up my knee warmers. Ack!

Pwnt

https://www.rockymountainroadclub.org/

Fleck from RBR got me going on these guys. Good bunch of guys. I am still n00bsauce though but they're getting there.