Colorado

Took a brief vacation to Colorado to visit friends Craig and Alison and to watch the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in its second year. Colorado was great!

After leaving the airport Andrea and I met up with them at Pinche Tacos and followed up with a beer at the Vine Street Pub. The next morning we drove out to Aspen, a 4-hour trek through the winding mountain roads. Our arrival time was perfect as we were able to see everything along the race course and visit all the tents prior to a large influx of other spectators. The Women's Crit race was pretty fun but it was great seeing the guys fly down the chute for their Stage 3 finish.

That night, C&A met back up with us for some dinner at Brunelleschi's for some good salad and pizza. Then, we went to Aspen Brewery for some shitty service and limited selection. Thursday morning Craig, Andrea and I (on our nice Giant Avail Carbon frame bikes rented from D&E Ski and Snowboard Shop) got up and started out ride up to Independence Pass from Aspen. The climb was long more than anything, no big climbs to speak of, just constant incline and altitude. I decided I hadn't worked hard enough so I went back down about two miles and did a "charge" back up the mountain. That did it for me and I was coughing and had what felt like a hole in my lungs for a while afterward. The temperature fluctuated wildly depending on the sun/clouds/rain so I bundled up as best I could. We waited and finally the race came through led by the eventual stage winner, Jens Voight of "Shut up, legs!" fame. We hung out in Aspen for the rest of the day and ate at Justice Snow's. Pretty, pretty good. For some brewed digestifs, we ambled in to Zane's Tavern and were greeted with another underwhelming service experience. We did indulge in some hot wings which were quite perfect. Finally, Friday morning we are breakfast at Poppycock's Cafe and ceded our boothed table to none other than Mr. Ken Burns and family.

Then, it was time for some hiking in the mountains. From the outset, we wanted to visit some hot springs and multiple people recommended Conundrum in the Maroon Bells region outside Aspen. We took about 4 hours to hike up and were able to get campsite #10. The highest one in the area but it had a great view and a relatively flat tent area. We dipped into the hot spring for a while and just barely beat a rainstorm we saw come up through the valley. After getting up, enjoying some breakfast and another dip in the hot spring, we headed back down to the car. We cut an hour off the ascent time and started the long drive back. After some deliberation, we decided not to visit fort Collins and instead cleaned up and went to dinner at Cheeky Monk's. Being a Belgian restaurant, naturally, we each had moules and Belgian beer.

The next morning we had coffee and some breakfast at DazBog's in Capital hill neighborhood. Good coffee and a very gay friendly atmosphere but very expensive to buy in bulk (~$!$/lb whole bean) so I declined. We bikeshared to the library downtown and once again checked out the scenery. Shortly before the final stage time trial began, we stopped by the United Healthcare tent and I jumped on the bike and trainer they had set up for, I assume, Training peaks. I blew my load too early and got crushed but then the computer crashed and as we were leaving I told the folks good luck. Apparently, that was the magic word as the guy gave us two tickets to the grandstand. Grandstand access was pretty nice, upgraded bathrooms and a vantage point right on the course 200M from the finish line.

The time trial was actually pretty exciting in that (thankfully) we got a start list and were able to time our breaks and interested depending on who was going out or coming in from the course. Started were staggered by 1:00 and then 2:00. Levi Leipheimer started the stage with a lead but ceded it to Christian Van de Velde and his great time trial.

Overall, great trip. We got to do everything we wanted and I got to be pretty active right before a prolonged period of relative inactivity.