Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 2 – Creede to Gunnison - 106mi

Two words for today – Epic. Brutal. Rode first 20 miles in a loose paceline, after that Gregg and Julie rode off ahead. Wouldn’t see them again until camp tonight. Jen and I rode together some, but usually Jen was way out front, then me, then John somewhere behind, and we’d all catch up at the aid stations. Brutal climb up Slumgullion Pass (11,530'). A woman crashed in front of me on a descent – she was wobbling, out of control, then her right foot somehow came unclipped, then she started screaming that she was going to crash – she disappeared around a curve and lost it on some scree on the outside edge of the curve. She was pretty banged up – plenty of road rash but no broken bones. Lucky considering the vertical rock face she could have crashed straight into. She’ll be gun-shy for a while I bet. Got rained on, then hailed on. Made the stupid mistake of not putting additional clothes on until after I was *already* cold – I couldn’t warm up when I finally reached an aid station, and couldn’t stop shaking even after wrapped myself in a borrowed blanket. John caught me at that aid station, he decided to sag it in, I decided to keep going in an attempt to warm up. I learned later that fully 2/3 of the riders sagged it in today. Was shivering majorly, the shivers were transferred through my arms to the handlebars making for interesting bike handling until the pedaling warmed me back up, and I could feel the heat spreading from my upper legs on up my body. Twelve mile descent at about 30mph was welcome relief. Mileage approx 104 miles, average speed 13.8mph. Slow, but I did it. Groin was very sore. Got a massage, ate dinner at a grocery store (all restaurants in this small town were filled up.) Had a late hot shower. Tired, but had a tough time falling asleep.