170 miles of crazyness

I signed up for a 200 mile ride with 20,000 feet of climbing a couple months ago. I'm not sure why. The ride would have been much more fun if it hadn't rained, then snowed, then rained, then snowed, then rained, and then poured. The temperature above 7,000 feet was never more than 40. After 170 miles of this I called it a day. I'd been cold and wet for about 12 hours and nearly shivered off my bike on a couple of sketchy descents. About halfway through the ride I changed kit and added a couple layers, and I was almost warm for a while. By the end of the ride I was wearing every layer I had carried including undershirt, jersey, arm warmers, winter jersey, vest, and rain jacket. I was never warm during the race but I never got too cold until I got to Ebbetts pass at the end of my day. Ebbetts pass was passes # 5 & 6 of the day. It is about 13 miles long in total with the first 7 being an easy lead up and the last 6 crazy (European) steep. Sections of the route kick up to 24% grade. I didn't know about the crazy steep part until I was there.  We rode up and over and down the other side of the mountain and then came back down the scary steep side. Steep + technical + pouring rain + no guardrail +carbon wheels =  not so much fun.  I couldn't feel my fingers, and my arms were shaking really bad as I crept down the hillside. Finally I made it to the bottom and arrived at the next checkpoint. There I talked with the bike support motorbike that had just come down from the last mountain of the ride. As soon as I heard rainy and windy I decided to call it a day. It wasn't worth another 3 hours of freezing for, and I'd already put in 12 hours. It turned out to be a good decision as the winning men's time was around 13 hours. All in all it was an amazing training day, and I can't wait to come back when winter has finally decided to move somewhere else. 

Me at the start......... still smiling. Actually I was smiling until the violent shivering began.

Nothing like being at 8700 feet in the rain on a 40 degree day.

Ugly storm clouds as we approached Carson pass. I had a sneaking suspicion it was snowing up there...... it was. 

Post race I was too tired to drive home, and I camped at Blue Lakes (one of the places we biked) at over 8500 feet. Conrad may never get his car back after this trip. The three sleeping bags were key to surviving the night.