Once again, luck was on our side as a long day of 149 miles was made manageable by favorable winds and pleasant temperatures. The temperature again started in the 30's but quickly warmed to the 70's. Scott Pretti from Pennsylvania and I once again rode together all day. We are evenly matched in ability and riding style. At about the 115 mile mark, Ethan and Tom caught up to us and the four of us finished together. As is happening more often than not, we were the first riders to the hotel again.
Today featured a massive descent starting at about mile 130. We dropped about 2,000 feet elevation over ten miles. The descent itself consisted of an 8 percent grade with ten switchbacks. I hit 51.5 mph on this descent. The limiting factor to higher speeds was simply the fact that I don't know the road. Ethan and Tom both descended faster than Scott and me. They are both from the Bay Area of California which features lots of descending compared to the Midwest. Unfortunately, today was so long that by the time we got to this descent my phone battery was dead so I don't have any pictures or video to show you of that section.
The scenery was beautiful and featured desert, high alpine forest, canyons and semi-arid grazing land. The scenery around the Flaming River Gorge is incredible. The canyons and rock formations are spectacular. The climb out of the Gorge was really hard. It took me an hour and ten minutes to make the climb. I'm only an average climber at best and when I got to the top I was exhausted. The big descent in to Vernal allowed me to rest and I felt good at the finish.
Tomorrow is an easy day of 54 miles in to Colorado. We don't leave the hotel here until 9 am tomorrow so it will be a good chance to get caught up on sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment