About a week ago I found this blog post about climbing Pikes Peak. At the time I shared it on Facebook and the forum on the CRMBT website. It served to confirm my brilliant deduction that attempting such a thing would be hard. I mean, the author has climbed all the big climbs in Colorado, including Mt Evans, and he writes that this is the hardest climb he's ever done.
That doesn't bother me. Obviously, after I've done this next year, I'll tell anyone who will listen how hard it is, and I'll make it sound worse than he did. I imagine my written account of the ride will read something like a movie review: "I laughed, I cried...". No, what bothers me is what the author has to say about when to ride it.
I was so glad that our attempt to summit Pikes Peak would not come on our first day out of Colorado Springs, but rather on our last day. Five days of riding, acclimatizing, and enjoying the heights would get me ready to give it a go. And I still think that adding this to my climbing resume will be a perfect way to end the tour, as well as a reason to celebrate. But being reminded of how many tourists are driving up, and down, Pikes Peak highway, especially on a Saturday, makes me wonder what else I'll write about the experience. "I laughed, I cried, I cursed a minivan from Alabama".....
Header photo from Michael Seeberg's blog, Road Cycling Colorado
Hmmm, Pikes Peak?!?! Gravel...and most importantly the Brake check area...hehehe
ReplyDeleteRoger, the cool part is it's paved all the way to the top now, and as of early this year, it's open to cyclists. I need to train like crazy to be able to do it.
DeleteWell after reading that I am now looking at putting on a 30 or 32 cassette that day. If I tried riding that with a cassette with less then 25 teeth I would call it the most difficult climb I NEVER did. Yeah, the Hawaii climb. THOUGHT about doing that, went to the beach. Bruce P.
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