Status: Accepted. Ride the Rockies is on!

I entered my name in the "Lottery Status" search engine, hit search and the one word answer was: Accepted. For the seventh time in seven tries my name was drawn from approximately 3,000 applicants for 2,000 slots on the epic adventure known as Ride the Rockies! And it is going to be epic. Seven days, 513 miles from Telluride to Colorado Springs, over three mountain passes and the Royal Gorge Bridge. Oh yeah, and a night in Salida partying at The Vic. 

 

We closed down The Vic on my first Ride the Rockies in 2005, making the
60-mile uphill ride to Leadville the next day extra challenging!

My friends from Team Bar2Bar -- Woody, Paul the Pilot, and The Hankster -- also got in so I know I'll have people to ride and camp with. Woody I rode nearly every mile together in 2012. Woody is a great riding/camping companion on his touring bike with saddle bags capable of hauling a 12-pack and bag of ice from the store to the campground!

 

Woody riding in his trademark Hawaiian shirt. I'm planning to join his for one day this year, but otherwise will stick to my Team BEEF jersey :)

Paul the (United) Pilot typically rides tandem with his son or daughter. I actually never ridden or camped with The Hankster. He's an indoor camper who gets up early every morning. I'm an outdoor camper who raraly hits the road before 9:00 a.m. But he usually meets up with the rest of the us at the designated Team Bar2Bar watering hole.

Hangin' with The Hankster

Time to kick up the training a notch. I rode 186.5 miles in February, all but 51.5 of those on my Cyclops Fluid2 indoor trainer. Not bad, considering I spent a week in Tampa and was sick for a week in which I did not ride. And it was a short month. But I had planned to ride 500 miles by this point in my goal to ride 2,000 miles before the start of the ride on June 8 and I'm at 376.85, so I'm running a little behind schedule.

The Team Bar2Bar campground last year in Estes Park.

The good news is I'm feeling healthy and don't have too much travel in March. My plan is to ride 400 miles in March, mixing in some road rides (weather permitting).

I'd love to hear from other riders who got in. Where are you coming from? How's your training coming?

Ride on!

Daren