Up, Up, Up to Breckenridge

It was quite a warm night, and I ended up sleeping on top of my sleeping bag for a while. I woke with the dawn just after 5, and began to pack up my gear in time for breakfast at the cafe which opened at 6.  Pete got grumpy at me for starting so early, but it took me almost exactly 45 minutes to pack all my gear and be ready to ride -- I was just in time for breakfast at 6.

We started riding just on seven. It was overcast and cool, just 12 degrees, with a light head wind. We rode for 7 km on the highway, which was a bit scary because there was no shoulder on the side of the road. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic that early in the morning.

We then turned onto a dirt road, climbing gently through open grassland. We saw a couple of hot air balloons soaring up from behind a hill in the distance. 

I discovered that Oscar's bracelet had fallen off my handlebars...I was sad about that, but the thin rubber bands had worn quite badly so it was only a matter of time. I still thought of Oscar and Anneke a lot during the day...they're still with me in spirit, as is my dearest wife, Ruth.

I saw a pronghorn antelope not far off the road; it ran away as fast as it could. 

The road had washboards, and was gently climbing for about 34 km. Fortunately the tailwind and gentle gradient made it quite doable.

We met another Tour Divide racer, Charlie Kharsa. He told us about the terrible storms he had to get through in Montana. Apparently the front-runners missed the storm, but the rest got caught in about a week of terrible weather which put them far behind.

We told Charlie about our experiences in New Mexico, and he looked really worried when we said that some days we rode all day and had only gone 64 km (40 miles)!

We stopped for food at the 34 km point, and met two riders from South Africa: Charles Hughes and his son.

We reached the tar seal at about 40 km, and met two more racers: Shane Rauch and Matt Arndt. They seemed to be having a good time.

We rode on to the sleepy village of Como. There is a restaurant and hotel there, but it's closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, so all we could do was sit in the doorway of the local fire station where I ate salami wrapped in tortillas for lunch.

Como was where the real climbing began. We had climbed 500 metres (1,640 feet) in the 47 km from Hartsel to Como, and another 555 metres (1,820 feet) in the 16 km from Como up to Boreas Pass.

The temperature had climbed to about 35 degrees as we climbed up the steep and rocky road. Whenever I could look up from the road, there were amazing views all around.

 At one point, we heard a landslide of rocks tumbling down the mountainside. I began to get quite tired as we neared the top, though fortunately my legs didn't threaten to cramp today.

We stopped at the Boreas Pass, 11,482 ft,  for food, photographs and some well-earned rest. 

 As we were recovering from the climb, three Tour Divide racers also reached the summit: Jason Snell, Brett Wolf and John Fairbairn. Jason was riding a singlespeed bike, and had flat pedals -- he's even more crazy than the rest of us crazy folks.

The descent down the unsealed road on the other side of the pass was about 16 km long. The road was rough in places, with some narrow cuttings through the rock where I was glad we didn't meet any cars coming the other way.

 The road was quite busy, with other cyclists, walkers, runners and cars. Apparently it's the week of the 4th of July, which is traditionally a holiday week in the US. Lots of people go to Breckenridge for the holidays, and come up the mountain to enjoy themselves.

We saw another Tour Divide rider coming up the hill, and a deer standing on the road.

 We finally reached the tar seal at the 65 km point, and descended quickly down to the tourist town of Breckenridge. There we found a cafe and had something to eat and drink.

Pete had decided to finish his ride in Breckenridge, so he booked a hotel for the night. Gay and I are hoping to ride onto Kremling tomorrow, and Steamboat Springs on Friday. Unfortunately, it's the 4th of July on Friday, so accommodation is going to be very hard to find. We tried phoning several motels and hotels in Steamboat Springs, but they were all fully booked.

Gay and I rode on to the town of Frisco, intending to stay at the campground. The route took us along a cycle path, which was fantastic -- two lanes, and with give way signs wherever the path crossed a road. This worked brilliantly...you could ride safely away from the busy highway, and crossing roads was trivially easy. If only the cycle paths in New Zealand were half as well thought out...

In Frisco, we bought more food and supplies from a local supermarket. As we were riding towards the campground, Gay spotted a motel he said was cheap but really good, and we asked if they had any rooms. They did, so we decided to stay there for the night instead.

We had ridden a total of just under 100 km (62.5 miles) in six and a quarter hours of actual riding time. We climbed 1,125 metres (3,700 feet). Quite a day!