Saturday, July 11, 2009

Triple Bypass - backwards

So our friend Lee had to drop off a car in Beaver Creek yesterday (just a little way past Vail) for his wife Linda, who is as we speak riding the Triple Bypass. We figured we could drop the car and ride *back* the other way in order to save some driving and do a big long adventurous road ride at the same time.

We certainly got what we were asking for. 3 big passes (11k, 12k, 11k feet, respectively), 115 miles, 10 hours (including about 1.5 hours of screwing around and eating). Sarah rode her new CX bike (pictured) with slicks, I rode my old man mobile with 35c cross tires, and we both were pretty happy to be done. I've never ridden that far (though I've been on mountain bike rides that lasted almost as long) in my life!

Starting weight (yesterday morning): 150 pounds
Ending weight: 144 pounds (yeah, that's mostly dehydration)
Weight this morning after stuffing myself continuously for several hours with food and drink last night: 148 pounds.

So bottom line: riding centuries in the high mountains (we never got below 7400 feet, and I'm pretty sure the average elevation was 9500 or so) is a great way to drop those pesky extra pounds. In my case, of course, I plan to make it up by drinking beer and eating Cabot cheese in Vermont next week.

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