Vaporized

Chad and I hit the road, bound for Colorado. I had a building sinus infection, but decided to go anyway. A few days in Colorado was sure to clear the head (in more ways than one) and I didn’t care much if my Vapor was a success or not.

Rainbows on the road ahead. A rainbow elevation profile in our future.

I took a nice snooze by the Arkansas river, behind Absolute Bikes, as the clouds built and the racers arrived. I could feel my head becoming lighter, but there wasn’t enough time. Race start was 10pm.

Or, maybe 12am. Steady rain delayed the start. The energy and nervousness near Absolute Bikes was palpable, impossible to ignore. It was cold in town (for us anyway) and snowing up high, right where the Vapor course would lead us.

I didn’t really care. I could either ride or not, and conditions had little to do with it. I just had to ride hard for a bit and see how the body responded, if at all.

I enjoyed the super easy neutral start. The jokes were flying as often as the lightning in the distance. One was my usual, “as long as it doesn’t get any {insert one of [steeper/harder/faster/more technical]} than this, I should be OK.” Only this time I was serious.

We hit the dirt and the race was on. I tried to hold a reasonable pace, but the result was not good.

OK, racing is clearly out. Maybe I can hang back and ride.

Not so much. I was swimming in my head and pedaling with much effort felt terrible. Even before it started raining I was thinking that I needed to bail before doing any descending on the Colorado Trail.

Chad stopped with me, feeling unmotivated and under prepared for rain/snow at 12,000′, and was further shambilized by a missing chainring bolt. We were done.

We cheered on the racers that rode by, one of whom was JJ. After riding by and realizing who we were, she yelled back, “wait a second, you fuckers! You can’t drop out before me!” Awesome. It was the funniest moment of the entire trip. She wasn’t feeling so hot either, but was still a bundle of energy. We had a nice trailside chat as the rain let up and I started feeling a little better. She turned to ride up to the Colorado Trail, pretty certain she was going to drop out. We started descending back to Salida. I could feel every bump in my sinus. Never second guessed the decision to head back to town.

A few hours of blissfully warm sleep brought us to Billy Bongo’s for breakfast. The Freako from Rico, Jeff, offered to shuttle us (thanks Jeff!!) up to our consolation prize for the weekend: the Monarch Crest Trail.

A fine consolation prize it is. The weather was beautiful. The air fresh and clear. Minimal climbing. Just what the doctor ordered.

Evidence of the cold night and storm.

We were riding the last ~40 miles of the (modified) course, so we got to ride with and cheer on a number of the racers. Pretty cool to think they’d been out riding all this time–time we’d spent wimping out, sleeping, eating, driving…

It was Chad’s first time on the crest, and my first time without bikepacking gear and without ~250 miles in the legs. It was pretty easy to forget about my fuzzy head and just get lost in the trail.

Even though every landing hurt, I couldn’t resist popping off every jump on the way down to Marshal Pass. We were hootin’ and hollarin’ at each one.

Brett Foster from Seattle, WA.

Aaron Weinsheimer from Salida, with Mt. Ouray in the background. We’d leapfrog with Aaron for the rest of the ride.

Lee and Joan were running aid #4. It was awesome to see them ‘out there’ and spend some time catching up. Joan handed us tasty tuna sandwiches, and Lee dished out his usual humor and wit.

Curious birds.

Time for Rainbow Trail!!!

It’s so fun to follow good riders on this trail as they duck and dive, fall behind and catch up. Cat and mouse, as MC would say.

Whoever designed this trail had a thorough understanding of the concept of flow.

Perhaps minus a few steepies… (Bear Oliver blew by us, ready to be done).

But alas, the trail eventually ends. The last switchbacks on Rainbow were rough for me. Sinus pressure and ringing ears, I was glad to see the smooth pavement.

We rolled into the post ride BBQ to chat with some folks, but unfortunately had to leave before our, heroes finished.

We needed to make some miles so we could ride in New Mexico on the way back…

Another fitting consolation prize, a few hours cruising around the foothills of Santa Fe was again just what the doctor ordered.

Check Chad’s site for more ‘switchback attack!’ pictures.

Great weekend. Thanks Chad, and a huge shout out to the massive crew responsible for putting on a fine Vapor Trail event.