Courage Classic 1997

Well, Kim and I succesfully complete our 4th Courage Classic this past weekend. The route this time was very different from our previous 3 years, and presented quite a challenge. However, we managed to survive the trek, and even have fun doing it!

We registered at Copper Mountain Resort on Thursday evening. We managed to hit "rush hour" and the total process took about 30 minutes. Then we were on our way to Leadville to camp for the night. After setting up camp, hitting Pizza Hut for dinner (carbo loading!) and calling mom to get over some homesickness (I'll do better next year, I promise!) we managed to get to bed by 10 or so.

Friday - Tennesee Pass and Vail Pass

The tent zipper alert was sounded around 6AM and we awoke to a beautiful but cool mountain morning. Since Leadville is above 10,000 feet, we started the day oxygen deprived. After loading up on yogurt, bagels, eggs, etc., we packed up our gear. We were on the road by 8AM headed for Tennesee Pass. I had done this part of the ride before, so I knew we had an easy start to the day. Since Leadville is so high, we only climbed about 200' to the top. A good way to build up some confidence. We then roared down the highway, heading past Camp Hale - noted as the home of the (in)famous 10th Mountain Division from WWII. These were the guys who were later to return and start most of the major ski areas. Then we were hit by the first challenge of the ride - Battle Mountain. It looks like a small blip on the map, but is a serious grind to the top. (Remember folks?) Once crested, you're rewarded with a glorious and long fast downhill into Minturn. You pass over a bridge hundreds of feet below a small town - very pictureqe. I was under careful instructions to keep the tandem below 35mph, so we made great use of the rear drum brake. The brake started sqealing after about 20 min of descent. We poured a full water bottle on it for cooling, and ever last bit boiled off! I guess it worked well! After Minturn, it's a gentle climb into Vail and lunch. After lunch we started up the bike trail toward Vail pass. The clouds were continuously growning more ominous. As it started to rain, we joined others in a crowded bus stop shelter. There we waited out an intense lightening and rain storm. We probably waited 30 minutes waiting for it to pass. When it did, it was the end of rain for the ride that day. The Vail Pass trail is mostly an old road turned over to bikes. Near the top, the road ends and a classic bike trail begins. With the exception of the 50% grade (OK, so I'm exagerating a bit!) as the trail dips under I-70, it was just a steady, slow grind to the top. We actually did much better than I expected. And, we didn't sag! I was really proud of how Kim hung in there! We pulled into Copper Mountain just as another storm was dumping. We hung our in our rain gear just checking the place out. We finally ate early and set up our camp under a chair lift. That evening we were asleep by 9PM!

Saturday - Loop Tour

Saturday was the "loop tour" around summit county. There was a Loveland Pass option, but it was closed due to rain, snow, and hail by the time we got there, so we couldn't go on it (that's our excuse, and we're sticking with it!) The tour went downhill from Copper to Frisco on the bike trail, up to Breckenridge on the bike trail, back down the hill, then up and over Swan Mountain to Dillon, and climbed to Keystone for lunch. Flat #1 was on the way to Breckenridge. It was about 1.5 miles from the Aid station when someone told us we had a flat. Who knows how long it had been that way! I just re-inflated the tire and went on to the aid station. There I found the thorn, and replaced the tube. Flat #2 was on the bike trail between Dillon and Keystone. I never did find what caused that one, but it did use up my 2nd of 2 spare tubes. We tried to kill enough time at lunch in Keystone for the storm to pass, but it never hit. We pushed on toward Dillon and only had a few sprinkles. We then took the bike path around Lake Dillon to Frisco. Flat #3 was at an aid station. Since the tire was just low, I figured I could just fill it up. Then I could here the tube leaking through the tire!! It turned out to be glass embedded in the tread. This one I had to patch, and then we continued on our way trying to beat the storm. It started to rain just as we hit Copper Mountain and continued raining hard for an hour. We spend the time indoors (patching tubes!) and generally hanging out.

Sunday - Freemont Pass

Sunday we managed to get a pretty early start packing up our soaked gear. We were off by 7:30 headed toward Freemont Pass. This was a road I'd done before as well, and knew it to be a long but satisfying grind to the top. The weather held without rain and we made it back to Leadville by noon. Since the clouds were looking ominous (and we were too tired anyway!) we skipped the option around Turquoise Lake. With about 150 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing behind us, we felt pretty proud!

The CC is a tremendous tour that I highly recommend. Even with 2000 people, the ride feels small and friendly (except on the narrow bike paths!) There must be a 1:2 rider:volunteer ratio the way everything was handled so fast. And the food is phenominal! If you get a chance, do this ride! (Let me know if you'd like to form a team for next year!)