Denver, CO to Fort Morgan, CO

Today was a pretty disappointing day on the bike, but ended up being alright.

We woke up at 5, got ready, packed, and had the usual breakfast. After having the previous day off, waking up at 5 was a little tougher than expected. I decided to ride with a kid named Jorge, from the GeorgeWashington University in DC. Now, I would never describe this kid as an athlete. In fact, he was the weakest cyclist on the team, often racking himself instead of finishing most days. Being a team, our goal is to have everyone finish. Thus, we try to give words of encouragement, and push him to finish everyday. Today was my turn to help him finish the ride.

In my paceline was Jorge, Trent, and Jon. It was pretty great to stay at the Marriot for the past couple days in downtown Denver. However, Denver’s roads were not exactly the best in the country. There were a ton of potholes and gravel all over the road, pretty bad hazards for cyclists. As we left the gorgeous downtown, we entered what seamed to be the ghetto, a complete ghost town at 6 in the morning. After about 10 miles in Denver’s other side, we finally entered into farmland. Welcome to Eastern Colorado, population: not many. Mile after mile, we past farm after farm. The roads weren’t any better than Denver. A lot of potholes. There was this 2 mile stretch of straight gravel all over the road…not exactly the best conditions for a road bike. And that’s where my day turned for the worse. I ended up getting a flat tire on those two mile stretch. I had an spare tube in my saddle bag, so after a half an hour of changing the tube on my tire, I was back on the road. It normally doesn’t take that long, but it was my first flat tire…ever. I guess I’ve been fortunate that from the past 2000 miles that I’ve road, I have never got a flat tire.

After a half hour later, I started hearing a leak. Another flat. I had extra tubes, and an extra tire, but it was in my backpack in Tex’s van. At this point, I was at the 40 mile mark. I had to rack my bike and get driven to the point for lunch, the 70 mile mark, and meet up with Tex to get another tube.

Once we got to lunch point, I got some assistance with my bike. I replaced the tire and the tube, and my bike was looking a little bit better. I got a lot more respect from the rest of my team, as my back wheel was as heavy as another cyclist’s entire bike. Sure, IronHorse (my bike) is heavy, but at least I didn’t have to buy it. It makes me wonder what I could do on hills if I had a carbon fiber bike.

After lunch, I had 30 miles to go to get to lodging. I joined a different paceline consisting of Houston (Tennessee), Stephen (College of Charleston), and Nick (University of Toledo). They haven’t had the best luck either today, have been in a collision with Brad (UNC). After joining them, our luck didn’t change. 4 miles into it, we had another collision. Stephen rubbed against my tire, which led to him flying across the street, scraped up. Nothing happened to me, but the collision led to a domino effect across our pace line. No one got hurt, but Nick’s saddle was a little bent, and Stephen was a little scraped up, but nothing too serious. Stephen was apologizing a lot about it all, but it wasn’t really his fault. With the wind pounding on ya, and the sun’s glaze staring you in the eyes, its easily to get in the motion and just zone out, but you can’t…you have to stay focus, you have to pay attention.

Everyone was nervous getting back on our bikes. We were all strong cyclists, kept it together, and darted off to lodging. After going 20 mph for over an hour, we finally got to lodging.

Today, we are staying at a Methodist church. They didn’t have showers, so we headed across the street and had showers at the local gym. I then took a little walk, and went over to do some laundry. The lady in charged of the Laundromat was really nice, and after hearing about the Journey of Hope’s cause, she let me use her machine for free. During the wait, I went over to the local Safeway, bought a few snacks, and headed back to lodging.

After a well deserved nap, we headed a few blocks down for dinner. This dinner we were sponsored by the Elks Club, a rotary club. They served us some sloppy joe’s, and introduced us to some of the town’s special residents. After a great friendship visit, we headed to Dairy Queen. We were all treated to a little ice cream treats because of our century ride. I felt a little frustrated about myself, especially since I didn’t do all 100 miles, but only did 70. 70 is a good number, but it was my goal to ride every mile possible. Today, the conditions were out of my hand, but it still is frustrating.

After the treat, we headed back to lodging and called it a night. We got back to back 90 mile rides, so the next few days are not going to be easy by any means.