My First Colorado Bike Ride
Back on the Bike
After five days of cold but beautiful weather in Durango Colorado, I decided I just couldn’t let the cold keep me off my bike any longer and had to go for a ride.
I put a light long sleeve wool shirt under my trusty Stone Brewing jersey and some bike tights on under my shorts and prepared to step out into the sunny but 20F weather. As I grabbed my bike gloves I realized half-finger gloves might not be up to task in this cold but didn’t have anything else short of giant insulated gloves. I hopped on my bike and away I rode.
We’re up at 6900ft here and since my road bike is in the shop getting rebuilt from the move (I had it boxed up to protect it) all I had was my fixed gear. I like climbing hills as much as the next person, but going down hills on a fixie isn’t the funnest thing. So I took off on a 20 mile nearly entirely flat loop to Ignacio.
My hands started freezing as soon as I left, but I didn’t turn back and they warmed up a bit as I got my heart rate up. I made it down to Ignacio, took a quick water break and headed back. I was awed by the amazing views of the La Plata Mountains in the San Juans Northeast of Durango and just had to stop to look at them.
I made it home about an hour later, 19 miles with an average speed of 17.5mph. Sure it was entirely flat, but not bad on a fixed gear at close to 7000 feet elevation when I haven’t done a real ride in quite some time.
I’m anxiously awaiting the call from the bike shop that my road bike is ready so I can get out on some longer rides.
