2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge Trip Summary

We arrived back in New Orleans yesterday afternoon in the midst of "hurricane hysteria" as T.S. Isaac (soon to be Hurricane Isaac) bears down on us.  It looks like we'll suffer a direct hit tomorrow night, about 24 hours from now, so I'm trying to finish up this blog and various other chores before the electricity goes out for who knows how long.  It appears that the storm will be a Category 1 or perhaps barely Category 2 at landfall, but anytime the eye of a hurricane goes over you, it'll be bad.   The wind is already whipping outside, but no rain yet.

I went to the office this morning, but our New Orleans & Baton Rouge offices closed at 3:00 pm today, & won't reopen until Thursday morning.  Tomorrow and especially tomorrow night will be a long, scary stretch, as it appears now that we'll experience hurricane-force wind for about 36 hours.  I haven't been in the direct path of a storm since Hurricane Betsy in 1965.  Even Katrina, seven years ago almost to the day, skirted New Orleans proper, and anyway I weathered that in the relative luxury of the Windsor Court Hotel, not at home.  Although some people have left, the city isn't under any kind of evacuation order, and "shelter in place" is the order of the day.  Nobody is really expecting a catastrophe along the lines of Katrina, but one thing you learn when you live along the Gulf Coast is how unpredictable these things can be.

After getting home yesterday, before even unpacking, I went to the grocery to stock up on a few things, and gassed up the car.  Lines were already forming at gas stations, but I managed to pull right up to a pump at the Lee Circle Exxon (most expensive gas in town) to top off.   I've closed all my shutters, brought in the outside furniture & moved all the big potted plants up against the house.  Tomorrow morning I need to remember to open the driveway gates & leave them open so that I can get the car out after the power goes!
Anyway, I'm sure missing Colorado & all the people who shared the trip with me for 10 days.  Here are some final statistics for my eight days of cycling:

Total miles of cycling:  445
Hours in the saddle: 31
Total vertical feet of climbing: 32,109'
Total vertical feet of descending: 29,544' (including 11,191' on the final day alone!)
Highest elevation ridden: 12,205', along Trail Ridge Rd.

Maximum speed: 48.5 mph, coming down Cottonwood Pass (might have been higher but for that police car sitting at the bottom of the stretch at 10% grade!)

Longest day of riding: 100.5 miles, ending in Aspen
Shortest day of riding: 20 miles on our "rest day" in Breckenridge

Crossings of the Continental Divide: FOUR
Miles of Dirt Road Climbed:  14, up Cottonwood Pass

Bike jerseys purchased:  Only one!
Total water bottles accumulated:  this number is too embarrassing to reveal!

Cities Visited:  Grand Junction, Gateway, Telluride, Crested Butte, Aspen, Breckenridge, Boulder.
Favorite new riding food:  Honey Stinger Waffle Cookies (although Nutella is hard to beat)

Favorite new hydration formula: Krank'd Sour Apple

New Friends: many
Memories: too many to count

In due course, I'll add some more photos & videos to the earlier blog entries, now that I'm home & connected to fast internet instead of slow hotel Wifi, so check back occasionally.

At the end of our last evening, standing outside the hotel in Boulder saying some final goodbyes, one of our guides, Chuck, recited the following passage by Edward Abbey, which captured the emotions one feels on a great outdoor adventure such as the one we just finished (really, you've just got to love Google):

"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive [them all]."

Until next time. . .allez, allez, allez!