Day 6 and Day 7

Sorry I'm late entering day 6. It was a somewhat difficult and scary day on the bike. A shorter day of 144 miles from Durango to Monte Vista. After 90 miles of riding with up and down terrain, we climbed to the Wolf Creek Pass. It was an 8 mile steady climb. Elevation was 10,550 ft. I could have used some oxygen when I got to the top. The lunch truck was set up and the crew served us quiche, salads and hot chocolate. There was snow too. Then came the descent into town. 25 miles down with gusting wind. It was frightening for me. Once at the bottom at South Fork, I had 21 miles left of riding to get to Monte Vista. I rode solo from the Wolf Creek Pass into Monte Vista. I was pretty emotional by the time I finished with the wind beating me up most of the way, but the guys were supportive and gave me encouraging hugs. I could only think of what day 7 would have in store, but before I get to that let me tell you about our hotel.

We stayed at the Best Western Movie Manor just outside of Monte Vista. The only restaurant is at the hotel. The menu was dated, but the food was good. Joleen was our waitress and took exceptional care of us or rather the guys I was eating with. I didn't seem to much matter. The hotel rooms are named after hollywood stars. My room was the Ingrid Bergman room. At night they show movies outside where everyone from Monte Vista and Del Norte come for date night I guess. It's actually a drive in movie theater. All we had to do was open our curtains and turn on the sound in our rooms and watch. Kinda fun.

Now Day 7 - UGH!!!!! History breaking ride of the Elite tour.

The day started out sunny and windy. I tucked in behind Andrew the aussie and we trudged forward. We had two passes today and I was already concerned about the descents with the wind. Yesterday was tough in the wind and today was anticipated to be worse. We climbed the first pass (La Veta)with a tailwind. I've never climbed so fast with the wind literally pushing me up. Then came one of the PAC sag vehicles to alert us that the winds were gusting and to be careful on the 10 mile descent. I began to panic as the wind was pulling me into traffic. Andrew told me to go slow and to take my time. He followed behind me. It was terrifying. Between begging God for survival and screaming I knew I was going to have trouble. The wind was gusting up to 50mph and I was barely able to stay upright. Then one gust was so strong it pushed me off the road and I knew if I didn't ditch I'd go over the embankment. So I crashed and managed to stop skidding within a foot of the edge. Andrew later said as he watched he wasn't sure how he was going to get me up the drop if I had gone over. he sat with me until I could get my nerve back. I walked a couple hundred yards until I felt like I could ride again. It was the worst ride of my life. Once we got to the La Veta picnic area, the Pac sag vehicles were there as were the other riders. They came over grabbed me and hustled me to the van as today was the day that everyone on the tour was sagged to the hotel for safety. One other rider was pushed into a guard rail. He is the top rider of the group and he's the one that alerted the directors that it was too dangerous to ride. Lon is a RAAM official and made the call to abort today's ride with no penalty to us for qualifying.

So today ended up being a rest day for us with only 76 miles of riding. Tomorrow is 193 miles with wind. Hopefully it will be manageable, but if it's too dangerous they will sag us in again. Quite a day. I have some road rash to show for my effort, but nothing severe.

Keep those positive thoughts.