Frisco - Copper - Fremont Pass - Leadville

Friday afternoon -- all sessions done for the last day -- Py got ready for a late start ride.
In Frisco he rented a road bike, this time a nice one, a Trek Madonne/Ultegra. The shop guy was goofing a while around getting the SPD pedals somewhat useful adjusted...

However, at about 2pm Py got on the road, a few stops to fine tune the seat post height and finally moving towards Copper on a very nice and scenic Bike Path. In Copper he missed first a turn and needed to back track a mile... then heading up on HWY91 Scenic Byway to Fremont Pass. A long 6..7% climb, a few rollers on top before reaching the pass top itself. Scary looking clouds all around sitting in the mountains. Typical Rockies.
Soaring downhill towards Leadville was a bit slowed by a strong head wind. The run down was flattening out very gentle and it seamed to take for ever, no Leadville in sight. Py was running low on fuel, as he used up all the stuff already in previous rides -- and today he only had one scoop left for one bottle, plain water in the other and only took one Cliff bar along -- he was too distracted at the bike shop getting finally out there... he did not eat sufficient before as well, no time. That sucks now, he was running little short on time, as he need to be back by 6pm at the shop where he left some of his stuff and the car key. But he also need some food and only Leadville was coming up, the return by now would have been with no more food -- no good. So he speeded up more. Some houses, but no village. Finally a little climb and on top a gas station in sight, that gave him some energy... And a little Stop & Save ?!?!? shop, he got in, grabbed some Cliff Bars -- yes they had some -- and a cup of Coffee. Very good. A little in hurry now, he had about 1h40 left to return and it took about 2h20 (total time) to get where is was, but he was a little higher up and once back on top of the pass it should be all down hill -- very cool.
No time to be lost any longer, still more scary clouds... but dry so far. A quick estimate, he was on km 55 at 3100m and had to back track in less than 1h40, the Pass top was at only 3440m plus a few rollers -- should be doable.

Refreshed he took off flying down the little hill top of Leadville. A little tail wind helped flying though the flat to low incline long section before the final climb of about 300m. The road got wet and a strong cross wind with little rain set in, it got nasty cold but good he was climbing by now generating enough heat. Just fearing the long fast downhill in the wet. But magically just at the top flat section the rain stopped and the road was dry, the clouds were sitting on his right in a different valley now. He was only little wet and dried off just in time for the downhill.

What good luck. He was flying towards Copper with 60...80km/h on a pretty good and only gentle curved road for miles (HWY91 is rated 50mph) -- awesome average of about 50km/h over 20km distance. That made up some good time. Back in Copper heading toward the Bike Path to Frisco he clocked 20 minutes to deadline, that should work. A few drops of rain, but just a few. The bike path was almost free of any traffic, so he could fly it down to Frisco. Just a few slow zigzag turns in Frisco to get back -- at 2 minutes to 6pm he got back to the shop. Perfect timing.

Pretty much exhausted by now... looking for a good place to eat. He followed the advise of the shop guy and went to Tuscato at Main St., Frisco. A great choice and ride today.




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