Friday at altitude

The taper for CTR has begun. Ride are short and easy. Most of the rides are 1 hour....with a few 3-4 hour easy efforts also put in to keep the body reminded it will be riding non-stop for a few days starting Aug 1. To beat the weekend crowds and to beat the closure of Mt Evans Rd due to the hill climb race on Saturday, Sonya and I headed up to Mt. Evans to do an easy 3-4 hour ride at altitude. The plan was to park about 20 miles from the summit then pedal in HR zones 1 and 2 all the way to the top. On the mtb with the pretty easy gearing ration on the SRAM XX, this is not that hard to do.

Done paying the $3 fee, now it is just over 14 miles to the top of Mt. Evans.

Not after too much pedaling, treeline is well below us.

Riding at about 13,000 ft.

Sonya riding her own pace for the day.

One of the many switchbacks. Took 2 different photos and merged them together in Photoshop to get this perspective.

Less than 1/2 mile to the summit.

Sonya poses at the summit of Mt. Evans. Elevation is roughly 14,130 ft.

Fresh water bottles thanks to the folks over at FRS.

A slight uphill on the way back down to the Ergon van. Descending at nearly 30 mph at this elevation equals a windchill in the 40Fs.

Elevation and HR data posted on STRAVA.

All photos for the day that were taken with the EPIC cam are posted here.