Monday March 30: Fatman Down!
Clear, crisp morning. Michael has been up working for a couple of hours before I even get out of bed. He says I didn’t snore, so points to me.
Breakfast is breads and coffee. Not necessarily the best base for big miles. We take a group photo before the ride. Quick quiz for Tour of Colorado riders: guess who was the last one to show up for the photo/start of the ride? Take a bow, Eric. Then it was off down some steep, twisting roads with lots of gravel. My bike starts to shimmy from the strong crosswinds. Perfect. As we make a sweeping left turn we hear that sound that every cyclist hates to hear-the psssst of a big flat. Unfortunately it was Mario and he was in the process of turning and the flat tire washed out so he went down. Fortunately, no blood, no torn clothes. The tire had a pretty big hole so he and some of the guides returned to the Inn to get a new tire, so he ended up with a truncated ride. (Post note: Mario wanted to make sure I mentioned he was going 60 mph; yeah right) He was lucky. The ride turned out to be a 50+ mile hammerfest with 3800 feet of climbing. I popped at about 30 miles and had nothing left by 40. The terrain has lots of extended climbs and the rollers were being taken at 20+ mph. Mike and Eric did fine, but Mike was really regretting having a 23 for his largest cog. He did say his legs hurt later.
After cleaning up, I went in search of a Blackberry signal. Had to drive to the top of one of the mountains to get it. When I got back, Mike was on the back porch working and working over the carbohydrate recovery beverages. We moved the stereo outside and started blasting The Rolling Stones and I started to help him with the recovery beverages. Mario and Eric came over with more recovery beverages and we all sat on the porch with the amp turned just about all the way up-the woofers were moving big time. Martin came by and was delighted to share in a recovery beverage. As we were sitting there, a bunch of folks drove by to the restaurant for dinner and were impressed by all of us holding up the recovery beverages.
Dinner was at a local Italian place, Vito’s. The food wasn’t bad. And the Fatmen provided much amusement. Eric was absent as he was having dinner with his aunt and uncle. After we called Mario Mary, we had to explain Fatman names. Much bewilderment and amusement on our part. Later on, Doreen told Mario he looked like Michael Moore. Mike and I laughed and said, “only in profile” as in Fatman profile.
Michael and I turn in at 10:30-yep it was a hard day.
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