The first ride of Twenty Ten was a real thriller not knowing what was around the corner in a very familiar training route. Dry Creek Trail runs from I25 through Westminster, Broomfield, Arvada, around Standley Lake (with a little imagination) and back. This trail is popular with the Black Lab runner crowd but was better suited for Siberian Husky sled crews this Saturday. Weeks of -32 degree weather and a foot of snow left the urban trail in a barely passable condition is some stretches.
Common sporadic higher temperature days in the 50's started the melt presenting a variety of riding conditions including fast steady sections of frozen ice/snow pack, rut producing melting slush cranks and fast dry pavement portions always South facing.All was going well until I attacked a gummy 1/4 mile of doubletrack below the dam. The YETI ARCx stopped fully when Play Dough consistency muck froze the fore and aft wheels. Sage brush sticks save the day providing poking and scraping utensils. Fifteen minutes later I'm looking over the vacant waterway. Return trip will be off trail (sorry tree-huggers) using available grass for traction. Made a valiant charge up out of the weir road shortcut until traction broke and I collected the first elbow mud of the day.
Garmin stats left us with 29.6 miles, 2 hours and 36 minutes and an average speed if 11 mph. Usually I'm on the 16-21 mph pace for this ride. Mud and snow on this day made the route feel like a constant 8% grade. Great ride ended with a flat and being locked out of the house..... cold, bonked and dripping wet.
Gotta love Colorado winter riding!!!!
1 comment:
Good job Dave .. 11 mph is my summer speed in the dry.
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