After 4 days of climbing, descending and doing more climbing and descending, we were seeking a "flatter" ride to open-up our legs. We reached out to our friend Laura (who is also training for Kona) who lives in Boulder to see if we could link-up with her for her long ride. She was happy to have us tag along and we were happy to have such a great (and strong) tour-guide.
The ride was exactly what we needed. Flat with a few rolling hills and one climb to see Carter Lake.....every train-cation ride should include a beautiful view after a climb.
It was super windy with a lot of headwind and cross wind. Perfect Kona training!!
Karel and I have not trained on flat roads in over 1.5 years so it felt so great to settle into a rhythm and steady cadence.
And when I say great, it was far from easy as I was sitting on Karel's wheel...and he was feeling really good...and riding super strong.
We finished with 70 miles in around 3.5 hours which made for one fast ride in very windy conditions.
Thanks Laura for the ride! See you in Kona in a little over a month!
Karel and I quickly made our way back to the cabin (we parked at Centennial Park Trailhead), changed, had a recovery drink and made a to-go meal and we all boarded our van to head to Ft. Collins to watch stage 6 of USA Pro cycling challenge.
It took us a bit longer than planned due to a lot of traffic and road closures but we finally made it to the race venue in time to see the women's finish.
While our group got beers and food at a local restaurant, Karel and I met up with Eric, a Clif Bar contact and he provided us with two VIP passes. Thanks Clif Bar!!!!
Karel enjoyed a beer...or three and we both enjoyed some yummy catered food.
We met up with our friend again to walk around the "expo" area and then Karel and I made our way back into the VIP area to get our spot as close as possible to the finish.
The set-up for the stage was incredible - there were big screen projectors everywhere with the commentators pumping-up the crowd. There was a water station to ensure that everyone stayed well-hydrated and in the VIP area, there were several TVs showing live footage.
I have become quite the professional cycling fan thanks to Karel and prior to his triathlon journey in 2012, I spent many weekends on the sidelines cheering for him at his cat 1 cycling races.
It was so much fun to share this experience with Karel and the best part.....Roman Kreuziger, a czech cyclist, won the race!
After the race, we went to the team bus area which was really cool to see the athletes and be so close to the team cars and buses.
Karel and Taylor Phinney (stage 1 winner).
After waiting around for a while, Karel finally got a picture with Roman. We then made our way back to Boulder after a fun day of cycling and watching cycling.
What a special day for Karel...and go Czech!!!