Not much happened today, riding through the glorious mountains of Colorado. We had another day to enjoy the views and even managed to find many Colorado plates! Most of the rest stops were located alongside the road as cities and towns became more spaced out as we made our way west.
quote of the day
“What’s your ideal shower tiling?”
ride overview
Mileage: 68 Miles
Elevation: 3,527 ft.
Points of Interest: Wild Coffee Roasters, Rifle
Ride Dedication: Hemali Dassani
Tales of the Trail
Today’s first couple of miles were on a short stretch on I-70 (woah). Luckily, it wasn’t too long and we had a big shoulder to ride along. Although the shoulder was large, there was a lot of trash along the highway that all of our teams successfully managed to dodge while on the route. Our first stretch of the day was a speedy 20 miles, where we ended at Wild Coffee Roasters for the first break. Riding through Colorado, we got another day of admiring the mountains and calling out infinite “my immortal cow” from the street signs. Today was a good day for finding license plates! Our team found at least five Colorado plates by the end of the day, which raises questions about how these plates end up on the side of the road. Nonetheless, they are fun to find and carry along the way as memorabilia.
Arriving at the stayover, the team was greeted with a warm welcome by the members of the St. James Episcopal Church! They provided us with dinner, and we got to talk to a community member, David, about their experience with cancer and what it was like. The team also spent the remainder of the day at the local recreation center, where we got to hop in the pool and jump off the diving boards, play pool basketball knockout, enjoy the hot tub, and take some much-needed showers. Thank you to the members of the St. James Episcopal Church who made our stay so welcoming with a welcome sign upon our arrival, smiling faces, and for providing us with dinner!
Cyclist’s Corner
Today’s Rider: Jessica Fornek
How are you feeling today?
I am happy we had a rest day yesterday. I'm definitely feeling more rested. I was van driving today, so that was like an extra little rest. I feel like it was a pretty uneventful van driving day. No one was in the van with me, and no one needed the van. So, just a pretty basic day. Other than that, it's been a good day. Our stayover has been awesome. They provided a really amazing dinner, and also bought us day passes to go swimming at the Rec Center. So I was able to go diving, which was really fun for me, and then came back to the stayover and worked on a puzzle. And people who know me know I love puzzles, so it was a good day.
Do you have any go-to gas station/rest stop snacks?
I usually just go for a coffee or an energy drink or something, and I'll get snacks from the food snack box. But yeah, I feel like most of the time I just want something refreshing, so maybe ce cream or a slushy type fruity drink or something, but it's usually coffee if I'm gonna buy something at a rest stop.
What is your rest stop routine?
I usually go straight for the snack box because I'm hungry, and then after I've eaten my snacks, I'll work on filling my water and putting my sunscreen on, and go to the bathroom somewhere in there. I really don't have much structure to my rest stop routine. It's kind of just like what comes next in that moment, I don't know.
How do you stay motivated on long/tough days on the bike?
I definitely think about the cause a lot, and just the fact that I'm able bodied and I'm able to do this, and even though I might not want to in that moment, those are the days where it matters even more to push yourself to do it, because that's why people are donating, because it's such an amazing thing that you're pushing yourself to do. And yeah, I definitely just think about my family who's been affected by cancer, and I also think about the fact that I've done it before, like there's nothing I can't do if I've already done this. A lot of the time, hard days on the bike are just a lack of motivation for me. So thinking of those things is really important.
For the remaining portion of the ride, where are you looking forward to visiting the most?
I think I'm most excited to go back to the Grand Tetons, because I feel like we hardly scratched the surface when my team went through the first time around. And I just want to see it again, like it was so beautiful. I'm excited to have a rest day there and explore a little bit more, and then probably also Mount Shasta and some of those places I've never seen before, like Bend, Oregon. Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of new places, from here on out, for me.