Sargents, Colorado

We started riding just after 7 AM. The road was uphill all the way, but there was no wind at that time, and the road surface was good, so we made good time.

 I was still feeling a bit run-down from yesterday's epic ride. By 8 AM, the temperature was already a balmy 17 degrees.

It was a 14 km climb up to the top of Cochetopa Pass, at 10,067 feet. We stopped at the top for some food, and to be serenaded by some noisy cows grazing in among the trees.

 It was a fantastic descent down the other side, though the wind had begun to pick up, and we had to work when the road flattened out.

As we rode on, the headwind picked up, and I made good use of my aero bars.

 At 30 km, we reached the Dome Lakes, which were two artificial lakes joined by a weir. We stopped beside the upper one, where a hand pump provided good drinking water.

We had lunch by the lake, and then continued our gradual descent. 

About 10 km further on, we met a guy touring the Divide Route. He had a Bob trailer, and seemed to be having a good time. His wife came out and met him occasionally, and they had spent the night at the Sargents cabins, where we were aiming for.

 A bit further on, we passed two lakes, one green and the other blue. It almost felt like home!

The road climbed about a hundred metres up to the highway, which we had to follow (into the headwind, of course) for a couple of kilometers before turning off again.

On the highway we passed another racer, but we could only wave at each other because of the traffic.

Once we turned off, we began to climb up yet another unsealed road, straight into a stiff headwind. This looked like only a small climb on the map, but it was painful. About halfway up a car pulling a huge trailer came racing down, and didn't slow at all. I had to close my eyes and hold my breath for about ten seconds while the dust cleared...not the easiest thing to do while climbing a big hill!

At the top the road became undulating, and turned slightly so the wind was more to the side.

We stopped again at 39 kilometers to eat more food. By this time I was getting low on water: the bladder in my backpack had run out, and I was down to one drink bottle on my bike.

 By this time the temperature had reached the mid 30s.

We had a big descent. Close to the top, we met Brian Bridau, a racer from Canada. He was crazy: he had shipped home all his sleeping gear, expecting to just ride 50 hours at a stretch, but it didn't work out so he bought himself a tarp and a piece of fleece to wrap himself in when he needed to sleep. He said it worked well...

After the descent, I discovered that the bracelet Anneke had made for me had fallen off my bike. It was lost somewhere on the hill, but there was no way I could go back for it. Losing that made me rather sad.

We turned and began to climb up a small valley, with a tailwind. The temperature climbed to 40 degrees. Then we climbed out of the valley, turned, and began the final descent to the highway -- straight into a headwind again.

We met a woman racer, Sarah Caylor, who had very little gear on her bike but a heavy backpack.

We crossed a cattle grate with a sign that said "No trespassing, no playing in ditch" (!).

We reached the highway at 68 km, and turned to climb the final 20 km on the road to Sargents. Fortunately we had a tail wind, and made good time. The road also had a good shoulder, so I felt much safer being further back from the line of traffic. It was still warm; the temperature was in the mid to late 30s the whole afternoon.

I was down to my final half bottle of water, and was quite dehydrated by the time we reached Sargents.

We finally arrived at Sargents at 3 PM, having ridden 89 km and climbed just under 3,000 feet.

I was quite dehydrated, and my body felt quite worn down. It was a huge relief to sit down, eat and drink at last!

We met two racers passing through, Patrick and Kent.

We decided to stay in a cabin beside the cafe. It's cramped, but the beds are comfortable.

We also met Andy Amick, another Tour Divide rider. He's staying with two others in one of the tepees.

I'm still quite dehydrated; I drank a litre of Powerade, and I'm now onto my second litre of milk and I'm still thirsty!

We discussed our strategy going forward. Pete may have to bail early, in Silverthorne, to get back to work. We've been pushing the distance lately, but our bodies are suffering as a result. So we may ease back a bit to keep the pace sustainable all the way to Steamboat Springs. We should get there on Sunday, a week from today.

We had dinner at the cafe, and also ordered food for tomorrow. Gay ordered a pizza, but instead of getting it in a box, he asked the waitress to cut it in half, roll up each half and wrap them in tin foil, making two "pizza burritos"! He planned to have one for breakfast, and the other for lunch.

In the evening, I met Ken Scott, the third Kiwi on the Divide. Had a good chat. He was very tired and had a bad Achilles' tendon.