The Bicycle Tour of Colorado is a week-long fully supported bike tour that is put on every summer on varying routes through Colorado. I've been pretty pumped for a while about going, because I've never been on a bike tour and I got to combine some vacation with training.
Before I get into any details, let me get this out of the way. I ride more than your average person and I love pushing myself hard to get stronger. Going into the tour I knew that riding for a week would be tiring, but completing each day's ride was never really in question. I was riding this for training, not to prove to myself that I could do it.
There are a lot of people on this tour where these rides presented a significant challenge, and those were the people who really impressed me. Me riding up Slumgullion Pass is not impressive. The countless number of people I saw struggling up these mountain passes on heavy touring bikes, sometimes stopping to take a break or walk, smiling as they struggled...now that's impressive. It takes a lot of mental strength to get back on your bike after you were exhausted enough to get off in the first place with the only reward being the personal satisfaction of making it to the finish. And if that's not impressive enough, there was one guy on the tour with cerebral palsy. Can you imagine? Here's a guy whose motor skills make it physically difficult to even get on a bike and he's riding up these hills. It blows my mind and really makes me appreciate what I have and what I'm able to do. It makes me want to ride hard...just because I can.
Stay tuned for a rundown on my experience at the 2010 BTC.
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