Flying solo this trip--although I hear Don's voice prodding me along the Colorado climbs.  The family and I visited family in Fairplay CO in a RUSTIC cabin.  You can find it on Mapquest near Park Road 18 (gravel) and Levick Road(two ruts in the grass) south of Fairplay.  Solar power.  Water from a spring up the mountain.  A true get away. 

Up the road on 18, you can see Horseshoe Mountain:

Horseshoe

So I brought the road bike and explored the area.

Day 1:  North on Route 9 towards Breckenridge.  No time the acclimate to the 9,500 foot altitude.  Jumped on the bike early in the morning (42 degrees) and headed towards Alma.  Keep rolling past Alma and saw a sign:  Hoosier Pass, 4 miles ahead.  Turns out it's the Continental Divide at 11,500 or so feet up.  Phew.  Coming back was obviously a highight.  Lost track of the speed after 36 mph.

Hoosier Pass

Day 2:  North past Como.  Took 285 north to see what I could find.  I found rollers.  And beyond Como, I found Red Hill Pass.  Not too bad climbing up the south side, but of course, I had to come back the same way and climb it on the north side.  Yikes.  Maybe hard to see in the picture, but it's a long, long incline (I don't know, maybe 8% grade).  And rollers on the way back.

Red Hill Pass

Day 3:  Just a quick out and back.  The water line to the spring up the mountain broke the night before and there's work to be done splicing together pipe where the split is (and water pressure in the cabin is shot).  Took 285 south towards Buena Vista.  Turns out mostly downhill to the turnaround point and uphill back.  Hit a little of Route 9 south, too (had a little time to spare before my assistance was required).  Beautiful views everywhere.

South of Fairplay on 285

Day 4:  A rest day.  Sort of.  Drove from Fairplay to Grand Junction (via Vail--nice place to stop for a hike at 10,350 to 10,981 ft.).

Day 5: Jennifer's second-cousin's husband Dick took me to Colorado National Monument (www.nps.gov/colm). It's very close to their house.  The North Entrance is four miles from their house.  It is an incredible national park with many canyons and the major road going through it runs along the rim.

On this day, Dick rode with me, so we drove in the park from the South End (4930 ft elev.) and avoided the very steep climb and started at Cold Shivers Point (6198 ft).  There was some climbing to the highest point in the park (6640 ft).  Going down to the North End (4690 ft) was fun.  The views were incredible included in Day 6.

Day 6: Jen's second-cousin Margo was convinced based on the previous day's experience that I could ride from their house to the South Entrance through the park to the North End and back to their house with no problem (including the steep climb we drove over the day before).  So naturally, that's what I decided to do.  The climb was a bit of a bear with lots of switchbacks and one tunnel.  Once at the highest point, the small dips and hills along Rim Rock Drive seemed like bumps on the rode.  Here's a picture from near the top of the climb.

CNM South Climb

The ride included a lot of photo opportunities so I did end up stopping a bit here and there to take pictures like these:

CNM 1

CNM 2

CNM 3

CNM 4

The total ride took a litte under two hours riding time.  I left at around 7:00 and didn't see too many riders. The web site for the park says the aggregate climb for 33 mile loop (including the roads outside the park) is 2,300 feet.

Day 7:  As a finale to the rides, I thought it would be interesting to do the previous day's ride backwards.  The climb is the same obviously, but it is more gradual (and much longer) going in reverse.  I passed one strong looker rider and didn't see anyone else going that direction (I left the house at 6:30 and it's Independence Day).  It was tougher in some respects, but my speed climbing was a few mph faster.  Going down the steep North End was technically challenging--I tried to brake as little as possible, but you know how that goes...

Upon my return, the entire group was set to go for a five mile hike into the park to the Indepence Rock.  No rest for the weary.  Hard to appreciate from this picture, but here it is:

Independence Rock

All in all, a great trip to a great state.  The rides ranged from long climbs to rollers, low temps (40's) to high (80's), mountains to valleys.  Gotta love Colorado.  On our travels, we even spotted a special street sign for bikers pass through a tight road with a climb.  You could press a button on the pole to let drivers know how long you'll be between the two signs:

Bikers on Road

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Today was a great and eventful day.  We again started our ride with the killer one mile climb out of Snowmass Village.  Our tour guide, Don, took us to a beautiful area with the best view at the top.  The climbing wasn't too bad as we are acclimating more and more to the altitude--of course, our legs have been through a lot in the last few days.

Up to the Bells

Up to the Bells 2

We did about 4,000 feet of climbing (for some perspective, climbing Roanoke hill from the credit union to the top is 110 feet).  Snowmass is around 8,000 ft and the top of our ride was at 9,600 ft.  There's a lot of climbing getting there and back, too.  You can see the South and North Maroon Bell Peaks behind us in the pictures below.

We made it team

Maroon Bells

We had a real cool encounter as we prepared to descend from Maroon Bells.  Don headed down ahead of Jamie and I to find a spot to grab some video of us coming down.  As he did this, a fast rider zoomed down past Jamie and I who was wearing the team colors of Garmin-Chipolte.  He was riding a Felt, too.  At the time, we were fairly certain he wasn't a poser and was a real team member.  Fortunately, Don had the video rolling as this rider sailed towards him.  Based on the velocity of the rider, Don thought this guy was Jamie.  The rider stopped right next to Don and said hi, as he noticed a gal going up that he knew.  So he turned around and climbed back up with her.  We did a little Internet research to match the video of him with the team's web site.  Turns out it was Will Frischkorn who finished 2nd in this year's Tour d'France Stage 3.

{{Added 10/1/08:  Journal entry from Will in Velonews even mentions his trip in CO.  See link for details: http://www.velonews.com/article/83880/garmin-s-will-frischkorn-finds-that-sometimes-time-off-the}}

Click on the little triangles on the two videos below to see Will and then Jamie and I.

Will Frischkorn

Soon after Jamie and I sailed down to Don.

Maroon Bells Descent

We biked straight over to Aspen and had some Mexican food.  That was when the only rain fell during our stay.  The last challenge was to get back to Snowmass from Aspen after eating lunch AND a new storm was brewing and we had to hustle back up to the condo.  We toyed with the thought of doing another local loop in Snowmass, but Coronas at the pool sounded a whole lot better giving the legs a well-deserved break.

Needless to say, we're pretty happy with our performance over the three days.  We felt like we held our own considering we're coming from 600 feet altitude back home. 

Tonight will be another home-cooked meal from our master chef, Jamie.  We plan to leave tomorrow at the crack of dawn (Don and I had to convince Jamie 4:30 AM was a wee bit early for us).  Looking forward to seeing our families and telling tall tales of our adventure. 

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Today, we headed straight out of the condo straight up.  To get from Snowmass Village to anywhere else, you must climb a mile at a grade of 9-10% (about 375 feet of climbing).  The good news was once we got to the top, we had a long fast decent. 

After that we worked our way to the base of the Ashcroft run.  Very pretty.  There was a river going along side of us which eventually was many feet below although still next to us.

Jamie & Jeff Ashcroft Mtn.

Jamie & Don on road to Ashcroft

Today had about 3400 ft of climbing over the course of 40 miles.  It took us about an hour and 32 minutes to get from Snowmass to the top at the city of Ashcroft and 30 minutes to get down.  The highest we got was 9,720 ft (we started at about 8,000)--the road basically ends at the base of Ashcroft mountain.  We have acclimated somewhat to the altitude and did OK.  Still some huffing and puffing, but we didn't stop nearly as much as yesterday.  If yesterday was a 10 on a difficulty scale, today was a 7 (with tired legs).

Going down was more fun than yesterday as there were some great straightways where Jamie got up to 40 mph.  I think I was a bit slower and Don averaged somewhere in between--maybe 30.  Below is a video of Jamie and I screaming down the very beginning of the decent.  Expert videography by Don Video and Associates.

Click on the little triangle on the video below to see Jamie and I scream down the mountain.

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After we got to the bottom, we headed straight for Aspen for lunch.  Lots and lots of bikes everywhere.  We had a great Italian lunch (what else would you expect).  Someway, somehow we managed to bike our way back to the condo.  There was a "short cut" to avoid the way we came down from Snowmass.  However, it included some short little switchbacks up a bike trail that maxed out at 12% grade.  That was tough since you were barely pedaling when you had to switch to the right or left.

Needless to say, we were ready for the pool when we got back.  Then grilled some salmon and beef kabobs and baked potatoes.  Carbing up again as we'll be heading for Maroon Bells tomorrow.

The weather was funny today being on the dark side of the Continental Divide.  It was 45 degrees at 7 AM, but 70 by 11 AM.  We'll see what the weather brings tomorrow.

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Today was the first day of riding in Colorado for Jamie, Don and I.  We started at in Estes Park at an altitude of 7,600 ft.  Yes, we felt the effects of high altitude almost right away.  We were huffing and puffing just getting to the entrance to the park.  Here's us at the hotel and the entrance to the park.

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We stopped quite a few times along the way to take pictures and catch our breath.  We were one of the few riders going up, so we were constantly approached by tourists asking us questions (maybe, why on Earth would you climb this mountain range?).  Everyone was very friendly and from all over the country.

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The picture below is the same backdrop as picture P1010031.  You can see the road we climbed to get to where both pictures were taken.  The grades were never more than 6% or so, but there was barely ever a flat section (or downhill)--just climbing.  And did I mention the lack of oxygen.  Whew!

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Over the course of about two hours we climbed about 4,080 feet while riding about 17 miles to just about the summit in the park.  We climbed to above the tree line.  At the bottom, the temperature was in the 70's at the start and 80 degrees on way back.At the summit, it was windy and cold (maybe in the 50's).  We had to put on the jackets near the top.  Especially for racing down.  What took about 2 hours to climb took about 37 minutes to get back.  The pictures below of us at the top.

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After getting the bottom, we had a quick lunch and drove through very scenic passes all the way to the Aspen-Snowmass area.  Altitude is near 8,000 ft.  Believe it or not, three men can pull together a nice dinner on their own.  We made a great pasta and grilled chicken dish (Jamie is a wiz with some fresh ingredients and Don grilled up chicken fast) and salad.  Don made a fancy dessert (Gramma Golf's Cream Puffs).  Need to carbo load for tomorrow's adventure.

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Today I embark on a new biking challange:  the Rockies.

Jamie, Don, and I will be riding tomorrow.  Stay tuned for details.

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The last day in Italy was low key.  Some wandering about in Valstagna (a nice city along a river and mountains), a great lunch at another friend of Jamie's.  Some shopping and a farewell ride.

We went up from the hotel.  A climb to Conco.  About 1,500 feet of climbing.  8 mph up the 5 miles.  38 minutes to go up, 12 minutes to go down.

All the training paid off. The climbing was tough and a unique experience in riding (hours of uphill is a lot different than the rolling "hills" of Texas).  Thank goodness I brought the bike with the smaller front gear.  It came in handy.

To cap it all off, we had dinner in town at the top of a small mountain within the walls of a castle.  Not a bad way to finish off a very successful trip.  We are very thankful to Jamie and Siv for inviting us into their little secret world across the Atlantic.  Highly recommend the area for touring and biking!

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Italy 007

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Another touring day on the 24th: Verona.  Can you believe Romeo and Juliett were real?  They may have been.  We visited Juliett's house. You can see her balcony. It's a quaint town with many churches, shopping, an arena dating back to the 1st century (which is now used as the opera house).

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20,000 people can fit in the arena.  Not sure I'd enjoy sitting on the the hard steps.

That night we had dinner with another colleague/friend of Jamie's.  We got to eat on their patio at the base of a few mountains.  Our hosts lived up to the billing:  he makes his own wines and grappa.  All kinds of grappa.  The meals have been an authentic experience: antipasta, pasta, first course, second course, desserts, coffees, grappa.  Did I mention the grappa?  They are all loads of fun and warm people. 

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Today was the biggie:  Mount Grappa.  I have never experienced anything like this on a bicycle.  I have no idea how professional riders can do what they do.  It seems humanly impossible.

Today Jamie and I conquered the mountain.  It wasn't easy.  First we had to bike 18 miles to the base of the mountain (no problem--the usual 18 mph or so).  Of course, it's not Texas.  There is lots to look at as you race through.  The trickiest part is the round-abouts.  There are some stop lights, but there are loads of round-abouts (or traffic circles).  You have to time your move to yield to traffic.  It takes some patience and practice.  Of which I have little.

At the base of the mountain, we learned there are 20 switchbacks on this mountain (turns out they stop labeling them at 12--probably a good thing).  The climb was 16 miles of riding with stopping to take pictures or get more water.  The temperature changed about 20 degrees from bottom to top.  Many riders were racing down as we climbed.

We averaged 8 mph, but only because there were a few downhills while climbing the mountain.  There was much of time where I was riding between 6 and 7 mph.  Just working on the turning the pedals quickly while the wheels seemed to drag

along.  For reference, when I ride with Linsday, she averages 7 mph (on the flat road, of course). 

As we climbed, we saw cows with bells on.  One group was practically a little orchestra with all the bells ringing.  Why bells, you ask?  Well, it's easy to lose your cows up on the mountain on a day like today.  As we got closer to the top, we started biking through the CLOUDS.  Towards the very end, we could not see two car-lengths in front of us.  I kid you not.  It took us 2 hours and 10 minutes to climb up the mountain.  Just 16 miles.  From the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain was 5310 feet.

At the top, we literally stopped to make sure we were at the top and asked a driver where the restaurant was.  It was right in front of us, but we couldn't see it.  Maybe 20 feet away.  Good thing we didn't give up and start heading down.  I was hungry.  A little lasagna goes a long way after you've burned close to 2,000 calories.

Made it

Lunch

Going down was fun.  But too short.  The 16 miles only took 47 minutes going down at an average of 20 miles per hour.  We could have gone down a lot faster, easily over 30 mph, but there were so many turns with uncertainty around each corner, so we had to slow down near each curve and certainly each switchback.  It was cold going down, we had to wear jackets until we got closer to the bottom.  That's where we saw two hang gliders take off (still high enough up the mountain to catch a good draft I guess).  They just lifted right up like a kite and flew in circles above us.

Hanglider

Hanglider2

After reaching the bottom, it was another 15 miles to home where we hauled pretty fast (around 20 mph) and passed a few Italian riders.  Although one caught my tail and drafted us for about 15 minutes then led us for about 5 minutes.  When we were almost home, we ended up at the bottom of the hill that the hotel is on.  So after all that riding, we had to finish with a 1.3 mile climb of over 400 feet.

You can see the Rosina at the top next to the church up at the top on the right (the church is the funny curvy building and the Rosina is directly to the left of it.

The Rosina Climb

The total ride was about 5 hours of total riding time (although we were gone from about 9:30 to 4:30).  It was 65 miles and 7,388 total feet of climbing.  Jamie asked we when we finished, "If your life depended on it, could you ride the same ride again right now?"  I told him, I'd be dead either way.

Tonight we have dinner at Jamie and Siv's friends' house.  Jennifer isn't back yet from Oslo with Siv.  We called them.  Looks as if they pushing the limit on shopping before we need to leave for dinner.

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Today was an all-day trip to Venezia (Venice).

We actually parked on the mainland and took a boat into the city.  Here's the view coming in.

Coming into Venezia

We docked and walked and walked and walked.

For those who aren't familar with Venice, the streets are just for walking.  The famous canals are for faster transportation (gondola, water taxis, and personal motor boats).

Here's a view of a canal going through the backsides of houses.

Canal

Venice is virtually a floating city full of fancy shops (like Rodeo Drive or Park Ave) tied together with religion and history dating way, way back.  We went into San Marco Piazza (where San Marco Basilica and the Doge's Palace (Palazzo Ducale) are, we saw both.).  Lots and lots of pigeons in the Piazza as you can see in the picture.

San Marco Piazza

The crowd of people are feeding pigeons.  Some are brave enough to put seed in their hands with their arms outstretched to the sides (like a scarecrow) and have the pigeons jump up on their arms to eat from their hands.   Some jumped on people's heads, too.  No, not us.

San Marco Piazza 2

We walked around a lot, had a fancy lunch, and took a gondola ride through the side canals and into the Grand Canal in the middle of the city.  There is a famous bridge over the Grand Canal there called the Rialto bridge (see below).

Fancy lunch Venezia

Rialto Bridge

Gondola

Long day of sightseeing.

Tomorrow is a big day for riding: Mount Grappa.  Longer ride, more climbing than Foza.  We'll see what route we take.

The ladies are going to check out Oslo and have a nice lunch there.

Off to bed--it's midnight.

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Today was a busy day for everyone.

It starts with Jamie and I departing around 7:30 to conquer the mountain to Foza.  Riding through Bassano del Grappa to get the base of the mountain was OK.  You get used to the urban challenges.  Once on the climb, its just you and the 21 switchbacks to the top.  Here's a picture along the way (I'm still breathing hard).  And at the top (I'm smiling--believe me).

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It was a one hour, nine minute climb with heart pumping fast and bike going slow (8 mph average).

At the top, Jamie and I stopped for coffee and water and talked with a few Italians who we passed going up.  They marveled at my Specialized bike.  Imagine that.

Cafe at Foza 2

After reaching the top, we had rolling hills and passed through towns like Asiago, Lusiana, Concho.  We had a fun decent.  We only had about 13 switchbacks after we had partially decended passing through all the towns up high. 

Asiago

Total ride took about 3 hours and 20 minutes to go about 50 miles (only 10 miles was climbing to Foza, believe it or not, but 8 mph is 8 mph).  Jamie's computer says we climbed a total of 4,500 feet during the entire ride.  My legs say otherwise.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Siv went to town (Marostica) and checked out some shops.  We all had lunch at the hotel.  Here's another view from there.

At the Rosina

After lunch, Jamie had business to conduct, so I went back to Asiago with the ladies.  This time in a little, stick-shift Fiat.  Asiago has Austrian history and looks very Bavarian.  Jen took plenty of pictures (with a regular camera).

Dinner tonight was authentic Italian pizza at Cucina Casalinga with Jamie's right-hand man and his family.  We're gong to their house for dinner Saturday night.  I think Jamie and his partner were figuring out the most difficult route for the climb to Mount Grappa.  Dios Mio.

By the way, at an Italian pizzeria, everyone orders their own pizza (not the typical 4-piece CPK deal either.  Even really old ladies (of course, I've seen them riding bikes in dresses, too).  And most folks eat with a knife and fork.  How un-American! ;-)  Unless, you're eating deep-dish in Chicago, of course.

Tomorrow is a day off riding since we need the whole day to explore Venice.  There is still much to see, do, eat, and ride.  Stay tuned.

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