more bike riding

In an effort to build into a century ride mid-September, I twisted a friend's arm into riding up to Palmer Lake yesterday.

up up up then WHEEEE.  Except that bump at the end hurt.


This ride is so beautiful. And it usually hurts with 2000 ft of climbing straight out of the gate.  On this ride we saw:

• a huge dead elk on the side of the road.  This thing was as big as a horse.  Oddly enough, it was gone by the time we rode back.  Apparently either a) they're quick to clean up early Sunday morning or b) someone took it home for dinner.  I'm pretty sure it was a fresh kill and it was hit by a car.
• loads of deer, including some 3-4 point bucks in velvet.  I don't know why, but seeing does never excites me.  Seeing bucks is very much "hey, cool!"
• random, domesticated llamas, including some alpacas.  Are alpacas different than llamas?  I don't know.
• donkeys.  They always look out of place in a pasture.
• cows and baby cows.  The babies were especially young looking, not sure what was up with that.
• The coolest thing was that we were riding down the road on a false flat and we come upon some buffalo in a field (domesticated).  One buffalo was feeling frisky and ran along with us for a few hundred feet.  WAY COOL.  And then he stopped and head-butted his friend.  Very amusing and not something you see every day.

I took my road bike (90% sure it will be named Billy the Goat) and the hills weren't so awful.  The "attention getting" hill was still done in granny gear, but at no point was there a time on that hill where I thought I was going to tip over from lack of inertia.  My legs also felt pretty fresh.  Although that last bump at the end of the ride about killed me.  I figure it was about Olde Stage steep, but only 1/3 as long, probably 12% grade.  Ick.  We took a small detour to see where the road went.  Turns out it went straight up.  We took it for a few miles, realized it was getting late into the day and decided to head back to the truck.

Also interesting and very random was that there is a brand new tri shop in Palmer Lake.  This is a town of 2,000 people with a 2-block storefront area.  I usually stop at the gas station for a fluid refill.  The gas station usually has someone very cranky behind the counter and its not very clean.  And its expensive.  We rolled up to the new store (I think we saw the coffee place next to it first) and my friend went "hey, a bike store".  I quickly realized it was a tri store.  Very cool.  They had bike racks out front and FREE water inside.  And the owner seemed super happy to have some tri-geeks in there.

Cornerstone Multisport.  All 200 sq feet of it.

We were going to do a 65 mile loop, crossing over I-25 and up to Castle Rock but it was hot out and we just decided to head back downhill and see if we felt like adding miles.  I love this downhill.  I hit 40.5 mph, a new record. 

The new bike and I are getting along ok.  I swapped out saddles and I'm not sure that was a good idea.  I was uncomfortable after only 1 hour, which makes for a bit of a long ride.  The downhill went better, but probably because I could stand up frequently.  I think I will be getting a proper fit shortly, and probably buy another adamo saddle.

I think 2 loops of this sucker will be good training for CDA.  One loop, 53 miles was 2,500 ft of climbing. :)