Wow, what a day! Team Evergreen's Triple Bypass 2018 is in the books. 117 miles and 10,737 feet of climbing (according to Strava and my Wahoo Bolt) with 8 1/4 hours moving time and (embarrassingly) 11 hours total time. 8 hours on the bike was a random stretch goal I came up with the night before and I came pretty close. I was pretty satisfied nonetheless. I'll admit, the aid station time was a bit excessive, but I was waiting for the rest of the group at the first 2-3 aid stations and Loveland Pass was a nightmare of lines and then waiting for the water truck.
Luckily I met up with the "pirate ride" gang from last year - Patrick, Nolan, Darryl, Dana, and Shane (all the way from Arizona). I befriended John (Shane's neighbor from AZ) and paced the second half of the ride with him.
The only downside is that it appeared Team Evergreen was woefully under-prepared for the 4,499 other riders. The lines at the aid stations were horrendous and lunch was a total fail (sorry, Bijou). The food was lousy and they ran out of water. How do you run out of water at the base of Loveland Pass halfway through the ride?!? Well, I can only hope that they won't make that mistake again next year. They redeemed themselves by at least having ice cold cans of Coke available.
No rain, little wind, blue skies, mild temps, and a killer 28 mph avg pace line for the last 10-12 miles into Avon with John and some guys from a club team. My goal was to hit a 14 mph avg moving speed and the last 10 miles definitely helped. From an equipment standpoint I road my 54cm Cervelo C3 disc with a combination of Ultegra 6800 and 8000 components and loved every minute of it. My HED Ardennes+ wheelset ran perfectly and the 32mm Panaracer Gravel King tires (a very subtle file tread) were super plush and didn't slow me down much at all. I picked up the Cervelo back in March after getting a considerable bonus from work and I'm so glad I snagged it at a steep discount from Excel Sports in Boulder (it's actually a 2016/2017 model). I've put about 2,500 miles on it so far and the only thing I think I'm going to upgrade is the saddle, pedal/shoe combo (want to move from Speedplay Zeros to Shimano XT SPD's), and possibly get a second wheelset built. Second wheelsets are really helpful when you bust your first set and the bike is sidelined for a few days waiting for the shop to true them.
Long day in the saddle, but totally worth it. I successfully paced myself with my Stages power meter and Wahoo HRM and kept my avg power around 156 watts, near the upper end of my endurance zone. I definitely put out tempo and threshold power up the climbs, but I ensured I never went too far into the red. It definitely helped as I probably could have ridden another 100 miles after crossing the finish line. I've never paced myself with power on a long, hard ride before (I usually blow up mid ride and end up dragging myself back home), but today I did it! I have my sights on the Leadville Trail 100 MTB next year (although I do have to win a lottery spot), but I'll definitely be hitting the TBP again. I may need to head down to Arizona and check out a ride with John and Shane.
Keep those pedals moving!
At the start in Evergreen... meeting up with Dana, Nolan, Patrick, Darryl, Shane, John, and Mike.
Juniper Pass (Squaw Pass) descent from the first aid station down past Mt Evans Road / Echo Lake and down to Idaho Springs (video cuts out halfway down to Idaho Springs)
The last part of the Loveland Pass climb
My attempt to get on the opening of the GCN show... Play Sports hasn't used it yet, but there's probably a ton of idiots like me sending them clips. ;-)
Loveland Pass descent. I tried mixing this with Metallica's Battery (the live version with SF Orchestra), but Vimeo would probably take my video down for copyright infringement, so no dice. This is probably the best GoPro video I've take to date.
The finish line in Avon. The guys in the white, yellow, and black kit pulled John and I from the town of Vail all the way to Avon (~8-10 miles) at an average speed of 28 mph. It was impressive. 28 mph doesn't sound fast, but after 8 hours on the bike, 110 miles, and almost 11,000' of climbing that was an impressive pull. I felt like I was in the last 10k of a spring classic. It was amazing. Not sure where those guys were from, but they appeared to be middle-aged MAMIL's like John and I.
