Bicycle Tour of Colorado - Day 4 – Montrose to Telluride- 65mi

Rode 17 mi paceline at slowish 14mph pace – boring, slow, not scenic, but important to save energy for the coming climb. Johns knee is still bumming him, Jen has bronchitis or pneumonia. Had a headwind for what seemed like all day. Climbed 3000 ft in first 36 miles – there was a headwind roaring down the pass, taunting us at every curve. Glad I had the 12-26 cassette, the 26 came in handy. Rained briefly at the top of the pass at Aid#2, but thankfully was dry for the descent, but still that headwind was dogging us. Pedalling to maintain 25mph on a downhill like that is just wrong. Climb up to Telluride wasn’t that bad, but traffic was truly nasty at times. Telluride is gorgeous with huge waterfall up at the head of the box canyon. Rode gondola, then second gondola, then still had to hike uphill to reach the girls huge condo. Ate awesome mexican food, shopped, and hung out in front of ice cream joint with a couple folks we met in the pool yesterday. Met Bob from St Paul who rides w/ Loon State team. Sleep at 10pm.