Colorado Death Ride - July 1 2012

This blog was recorded as Paul was cycling! After 4/5 hours sleep I was up and ready at about 1 am this morning. Headed down and registered for the 2 am start - it was freezing cold, as warned! I definitely didn't get enough sleep - always difficult to go to bed so early! But nevertheless I was keen to get going. I decided I would try to follow the quickest guy from last year for the first 10 miles until the climb. He went off pretty quick and so I followed in the pitch back. There ended up being a group of 4 of us riding pretty damn fast until the climb. When we reached this point my plan was to slow down and let them go but I got chatting with them so stayed with them a while longer! But my heart rate was now 180 so I decided to slow down a little after the 10 mile climb! It was kind of fun though being out there on my own in the pitch dark - in those first 20 miles we had climbed 3650 feet. Hadn't put enough clothes on though - for the downhill I was shivering so much I was wobbling my handlebars - not good. At the bottom I was so cold I ended up sitting in the car for a while to warm up - then headed out - still dark. There followed another pretty good climb and then at the top the sun started to come out. Really nice, amazing views - up at 10500 feet - on the next good downhill it started to warm up at last - all the way down to the second checkpoint in Durango! My stomach had not been feeling great - think it just takes a while to get used to all this exertion - so I then stripped out of all my warm clothes - down to shorts and shirt - had some food and took my multivitamins - and was ready to head out again! I started to feel a lot better after all that - seems like the usual thing - I am riding faster than a few people but then I stop more to eat and so they overtake me when I stop. Then at 110 miles I stopped again for some more food - feeling pretty good now. Just over 7 hours so not too bad. Now I have just passed the half way mark - I am on my own - there was a bit of a headwind this morning going up that first climb and there is one now but as we are riding a big loop hopefully that means there will be a tail wind later!! I am feeling pretty good - I just tried to ride with a guy but it didn't work out - I was going a bit too quick for him - but I know there are two guys ahead of me - maybe if I catch them up I can ride with them for a while - be nice to get a bit of a break from the wind!!