Vail Challenge
 

I was reading through my new issue of Bicycling and saw the page for the Vail Challenge. It looks fun. I am thinking about it. It is a long way to fly from Houston, however. It will be much easier than most of the days that we encountered on 2012 Ride the Rockies if the wind cooperates.
BicyclingVailChallenge.com

It will do for training for a proper offroad ride.

Go for it.

The way the weather is going ---- It will be done in the snow. The end of Setember is almost Winter.

Looked at the map --- BIG uphill to start --- mostly downhill after.

It does look like fun. A few years ago I road a mtn bike from the base of Vail up to the top and back down. It was Octoberfest at the bottom. Octoberfest in Vail is first two weekends of Sept. this year, and TOV is last weekend of September. They really should coordinate things better...

If I get in better shape, and have the weekend free, I might drive up. We had the Frazier Mtn. Madness mtn. bike hill climb and race in Taos last weekend. I almost signed up, and am glad I didn't. I just wasn't ready this year.

If anyone decides to attend, please post updates.

I am considering it too, but have no experience with long climbs and steep grades at 11k feet.

I ride over 100 miles a week (individual and group rides on weekends), but at near sea level altitude. Lots of hills, but... they are hills not mountain tops. Averaging 19mph over 45k on my own through flat land is not a problem.

Would like to hear from anyone about the challenges of high altitude riding or just the fitness levels required to complete the Amateur (15-17mph) route? And by complete, I mean hit the 3 stops and stay in front of the sag wagons.

Isn't the route the same as the Copper Triangle ride? Does this replace the CT? Anyway, this ride starts in Vail and hits the bike path up to Vail Pass and down to Copper. After that it is on the road back over Fremont and Tennessee Passes to Vail. Nice route, but expect it to be cool riding temps.

I am from Houston and was able to Ride the Rockies. This was multiple days of difficult climbs with 2 passes above 12000 ft. yahoojames if you are strong you can do it. I think BikeWNC is probably correct about it being cold. Almost every morning in June I encountered temperatures near freezing.

Vail Pass (from Vail to Copper) has one of the steepest sections of any of the routes I've done on Colorado. It wasn't very long but it was a pretty consistent 13%. The locals call it "The Wall". When I did it I had about 825 miles on my legs from the two weeks of riding and it felt very much like a very honest 13%........It seems like you come out from a tunnel and make a left and there it is......running right along the Interstate. I wonder how many sign up for that ride. That could be a lot of cyclists to put on the bike path. I thought we had too many on it at times.

I think the route is from Cooper to Leadville and then to Vail. The Copper to Leadville is the reverse of on of our RTR days.

read the fine print " shuttle to start at Copper" (not cooper is at top of tenn pass) so a shorter, easier version of copper triangle
that said THE DAY BEFORE they ride the vail time trial course that's a 10 mile uphill course on vail pass to end of old us 6 so not to top of vail pass

I'm not going to the Rockies, but I'm going to Chappell Hill Sunday morning.:D

Why use the shuttle? Don't you want to warm up your climbing legs?

A long portion of the Bike Path from Vail to Copper is being repaved in the next few weeks. Should be smooth sailing. The portion of the path that ISN'T being repaved is another story.

Thanks @gtragitt

Here's last year's Sep-29 weather at Copper Mountain, southerly winds and chilly start

http://www.wunderground.com/history/...lyHistory.html