Wolf Creek Pass

I'll sum this ride up in one word - COLD!

Our group of 13 pushed off from the Kamas grocery store about 8:15 am this morning under sunny skies, no wind and warm temps. So warm that yours truly and a couple others decided to leave our wind breakers and warm gloves in the car.

The ride to Noblette was uneventful and the pace was nice. Seems like we were all saving our best for the climb to the Pass at 9,485 feet. By the time we got to Noblette the temp was noticably cooler, but not enough to worry about.

The climb is about 7.4 miles and 2,500 feet (I'm guessing) with 2 or 3 50-100 yard rest spots, otherwise it's always up. The hammerheads went off the front and I stayed with Barb Sherwood in the middle of the pack. We kept a good steady pace and did not redline, and, we didn't want to sweat cuz it was getting colder. I was catching up to Paul Moote, who was about 100 yards ahead of me, and issued a laughing warning I was going to catch him very shortly. That's all it took for him to light the rocket and increase the gap. Later he said he was searching for a spark and my verbal assault was just what he was looking for. Barb hung in there real well and was not too far behind when we crested the Pass.

We decided to head down from the summit immediately since there was no water and it was cold and breezy. The descent down was sketchy at best because we were shivering too much and our bikes were shaking. That's not good on a high speed descent like this so I backed it down to under 30 mph just to stay safe. We all made it down in one piece and gathered at the Noblette outhouse, out of the wind, and laughed and shared our "shivering" stories with eachother as we attempted to warm up. Later we found out one of the girls in the group had to get in some strangers pick up truck to warm up cuz she was loosing it! She felt it was safer being with a stranger than riding downhill frozen like a popsicle. She made it down without incident, but she did have the best story of the group.

All in all it was an excellent ride. I pushed a faster pace than last year and had higher HR and wattage numbers - but, I also have higher tonnage so my W/kg is probably worse. Things are coming around and I expect by Leadville I'll be fit and ready to break 10 hours. I'll do this ride a few more times and that should seal the deal for me.