What can be better then a great epic ride over some huge mountains!? I definitely don't do enough of them, which is why I just had to take advantage of my weekend off racing, and did the infamous Rollins pass, from Boulder to Winterpark and back!
After seeing Hincapie win the tour stage (way to go!!!), it was my turn to pull the pedals. The climb from Boulder to Rollins pass took me 4.5hrs, taking me from 1600m up to 3400m in one go! With a little caffeine in my blood I was doing a good tempo the whole way, and enjoying every moment of the beautiful valleys and panoramic views. My friend John was waiting for me on the other side ready to show me the sweet single tracks down into Winterpark, which lead straight to his B&B where I spent the night.
John had been a soignée on Volvo Cannondale back in the day, and we had stayed in his Wild Horse Inn B&B during our preparation for the World Champs in Vail 2001. Together with his partner Chris, they now own a second one, called Snowberry, and it is also an amazing place. This area has a huge network of ripping single tracks, plus of course fantastic skiing in the winter due to the high altitude of 2500m. Really worth checking out!
So the next day I enjoyed french toast for breakfast before heading back up the pass, although on some different roads. My legs were really feeling it though and I was crawling pretty slow. Coming down to Boulder I discovered some great tracks. First a 10km river bed, rough as guts, then onto some flowing single track leading to the Eldora ski area trail network where we had raced 2 weeks ago. Finally I finished off the huge decent down Magnolia Rd all the way down to the heat of Boulder. Sweeeet!