6/21/2008 Day 15: Pueblo to Colorado Springs, CO 60 miles

The mountains at a rest stop

More mountains

Mountains

Before entering the Garden of Gods

Mountains from inside the park

Garden of Gods

shadows

More rocks

The ride today was absolutely beautiful. Mountains were in view the entire ride, the farther we were in the ride the closer they became. The Marriott hotel is letting us stay in a conference room, if you walk out the back all you see is mountains. The weather has been amazing, it is in the upper 50's-low 60's in the morning and in the 80's in the afternoon. We were only on paved road for 20 of the 60 miles today because some Texas 4000 alumni took us on a route that was 20 miles of dirt road and 20 miles of gravel paths. Although this would have been really fun if we had mountain bikes...we dont and it was therefore rather unenjoyable on our road bikes. The 20 miles of paved road was amazing though. The scenery is amazing, the air is clean and the heat is bearable. I cannot imagine being in the heat of the desert as the sierra team is on their route now.

Once everyone was showered after the ride today much of the team headed up to Garden of Gods. The views were amazing and as always we had a great time.

Today I rode for Mamma my moms mom and my inspiration for applying to Texas 4000. Although the gravel was tough and I bonked* for the first time this summer I was able to finish the ride with Mamma in my thoughts.


*Bonking: also referred to as "hitting the wall" basically when you run out of energy to burn...its not fun!