June 17th and 65 Miles from Telluride to Montrose

June 17th, one of the pleasures of ride the rockies is the opportunity to visit towns that you would otherwise never see. Leaving Telluride, we rode into Sawpit, Placerville and up the Dallas Divide. The latter destination was a fairly grueling 14 mile climb from 7,300 feet all the way up to almost 9,000 feet. The good news was the last part of the ride was a 36 mile downhill into Montrose and the high plains of Western Colorado. The RtR Tour passed through Montrose in 2005 . listen

Powered by Jott

Waltzing in Montrose

We're here at Montrose High School tonight and people are showered up and ready to eat a meal, and to climb in to bed, before tomorrow's ride which is 92 miles, into Crested Butte. More later, thanks for blogging us. listen

Powered by Jott

If There is a Prettier Town...

If there is a prettier town than Telluride, I've found very few competitors. A gorgeous town but it looks like all the big money has taken over what once was a friendly, almost ramshackle destination and tried to compete with Vail and Aspen. But, it's still very pretty. We went up on the Gondola in search of a late dinner but were disappointed and returned down the gondola to the base where we ate at Fat Alley (highly recommended). The gondola, incidentially, doesn't stop at the top as most do. It traverses the whole mountain from front to top to back. A recommended ride in Telluride.

Powered by Jott

Hi Blog-heads, we are...

Hi Blog-heads, we are behind schedule with our blog, because of cell phone difficulty in Telluride. Bought an expansion card to load photos in Cortez, but it can't be set up without your home computer (thank you, Palm and Treo). The process of resetting the Treo meant deleting many pictures. Wah. Nonetheless, the ride into Telluride was a treat. I'd always wanted to see Dolores and Rico after hearing Tom Gonzales' descriptions. The route from Cortez to Telluride was 77 miles, 64 of it was a climb of gradually increasing intensity.

Course Official Ted the Shark

Ted is a veteran rider who has been elevated to 'official' status on the tour. Always helpful, very bright, and one rider who gets down from an elevation quicker than anyone else. Lee and I had a late supper with Ted in Cortez and now have the low-down on bicycling, living, and hints for the tour. Try the mexican cauldron at Tequilas...excellent

Rick Exaults Top of Lizard Head

The top of Lizard Head. I sagged Bobby and Holly Romero's SUV to Mile 40 on this morning and was unceremoniously dumped to ride to the top. Very glad I did it.

See the Lizard?

There's a Lizard there somewhere. This was taken after Rico about halfway up the climb from Priest Gulch.