Leadville Thursday

Below is a slideshow of a very mellow Thursday in Leadville for us. We started slow and went down to the coffeehouse (Proving Ground) for some good coffee. Afterwards we met up with some of the other riders and went to do some gift shopping, at the LT100 store as well as to the Bike Shop (Cycle for Life). Afterwards we had already agreed to volunteer at 4:30 to help set up the gymnasium for the Friday and Saturday events but as it turns out they also needed us at 11 so we helped both at 11 and 4:30 stuffing bags of goodies, rolling posters, setting up chairs and sponsor banners.

Between the volunteering Jan, a California cycling veteran accompanied us out to the course where she showed us how it runs through the flat lands and through some forest up to an aid station, about 20 miles into the course (Pipeline). We also paid a visit to the monster they call Powerline, it's about a 3 -4 mile climb/descent, we do it in both directions and it is steep, mean, rough and dirty. I hiked with her and Steve part way, Mike chose to leave it as a surprise. The pictures you'll see below are of a stream we pass after the Powerline and of the lower section of Powerline, there are 3 sections like it.

After all of that we changed into our Got Mountain/Got Cruiser t-shirts and headed over to Bill (Doc)'s house, where he put on a nice spread of salad, snacks, beer and wine etc. and we brought our own meat or whatever to cook on his grill. Mike and I had Churrasco, Steve and Michelle had more steak. This was a very pleasant gathering of mostly Minnesotans all part of Bill's INDY riding group, (I'm Not Dead Yet) and a few more riders he invited. It was such a pleasant experience with such nice people. Doc if you ever read this THANKS A MILLION!!! We goofed off using his Pulse Oximeter to measure how well we all mainatain heart rate and oxygen levels in our bodies. It's amazing how well more athletic people can adapt to the altitude.

Well now we plan our bags bikes and go to a medical check in tomorrow, so it's right around the corner. Wish we had a large group of loud Miamians here, UNA GRITERIA, but we will represent you all well, I am sure.

More tomorrow I hope.

Serge