Ride the Rockies 2014 Day Four: Arriving Before Happy Hour

I had one goal for yesterday's ride from Steamboat to Avon, and that was to spend as little time on the bike as possible. The issues with my right shoulder/back and left foot would only get worse the more time we spent "in the saddle." The 82-mile ride looked daunting: a slow, steady climb from Steamboat to Toponas then a big descent into the Colorado River valley, followed by a 6 mile climb back out. After another descent we would end with a 11-mile steady climb to Avon.

In addition to a nice tail wind, new Team Beef rider Shawn did a lot of pulling on Day Four. Here he rolls along the green pastures of the Yampa Valley with the Flattop Mountains in the distance.

But God was smiling on us yesterday (perhaps feeling sorry for torturing us with rain, sleet, hail and snow on day one) and he blessed us with a nice tailwind for most of the day. It was the first time on RTR 2014 that the wind wasn't working against us. As a result we made good time and arrived in Avon after just 5 hours and 25 minutes of riding.

Dropping into the Colorado River Valley was a sweet descent, but we paid the price on the climb out.

When we rolled up the Gore Range Brewery, Shawn asked what the title of my blog post would be for this day. There wasn't much of anything to complain about, unlike the Three Bitches from the day before, until we sat down at the bar and realized we had arrived an hour and a half BEFORE happy hour. Bad timing!

The Brisket French Dip on a homemade pretzel roll at Gore Range Brewery was amazing.

Nevertheless, we enjoyed a great post-ride meal and washed it down with some liquid carbs. Unfortunately, Team Bar2Bar captain Paul (the Pilot) and his daughter Leah overshot the bar (the one he chose) by several miles, so we closed up the official Bar2Bar destination and headed on into town to meet them for a happy hour margarita* at Agave.

It was a beautiful night at the party in Avon.

Time to get packed up to head out for today's ride, a 74-mile doozy featuring three big climbs: Battle Mountain, Tennessee Pass and Fremont Pass, before dropping into Summit County. The plan is to stop at the Moose Jaw Pub in Frisco before heading into Breckenridge, the overnight destination. The Moose Jaw has been the official Bar2Bar stop on many a Ride the Rockies over the years. I'm already looking forward to enjoying a cold one sometime around 4:00 this afternoon.

Ride on!

Daren

*Ordering margaritas with Paul is story worthy of an entire post. Remind me later :)