Cycle Montana Day Two

Ennis to Dillon, MT- 72 miles

Today the weather was nearly perfect for a little Montana bike ride. The day opened with a 2000 foot climb over to Virginia City over about eight miles. Once the road went up it was pretty tough on me at first and I stopped at every mile marker for about six miles. At first I was overdressed and getting too hot, but after I shed some layers things got better and I found a pretty good rhythm and did not suffer too much in the last parts of the climb. The stops gave me good opportunities to take pictures and helped me to save my legs for and even harder day tomorrow. I was certainly not fast today but I am not really feeling all that tired tonight and should be good to go tomorrow.  I was not exhausted at the end of the ride either. (The Recoverite seems to help... thanks Dave.) Surprisingly, there have been remarkably few aches and pains in neck, hands, or seat so far, and just minor tinges of foot pain. Knock on wood.

Although pictures cannot do justice to the beauty of this place, here are a few anyway:

Tomorrow night I will likely be without internet access so I may not post for awhile. But the ride is a big one with 3800 feet of climbing by mile 45.... and the last 25 miles to Wise River are ALL DOWNHILL! I may try some video of that.
GARMIN LINK FOR TODAY'S RIDE

Afterthought: riding in these mountains I have gained a far greater appreciation for the quality of road bicycle brakes. The speeds that are possible when the road points down are amazing.

Cycle Montana Day One

Forty-six miles completed and about 300 to go. Today we rode from near Bozeman to Ennis Montana through some incredibly scenic country- about one-third of it along the Madison River. Weather was cool and mostly gray, but I did get into some rain near the end of the ride at kind of a bad time. Aside from the great scenery, a highlight of the day include getting buzzed and honked at by a Montana redneck in a pickup (about mile ten) and getting into rain and crosswinds coming down a seven-percent three mile grade. That came after a 1000 foot climb in about 4 1/2 miles and was kind of scary. Here are a few pics:

 Here I am before the big climb after the Norris intersection.

 This is Richard who flew in from Florida with his Bike Friday... very gregarious guy!

 I think this guy is from Georgia. I crossed paths with him several times today. It is a group of about 60 riders so we get pretty stretched out during the day.

Here is link to complete picture set: PIC LINK
Here is link to Garmin output for the day: GARMIN LINK
My legs don't feel bad at all tonight. Tomorrow we ride 70 miles to Dillon, starting with a very big climb to Virginia City.

The next time I ride on a tour I will weigh less than 200 pounds....
The next time I ride on a tour I will weigh less than 200 pounds....
The next time I ride on a tour I will weigh less than 200 pounds....
The next time I ride on a tour I will weigh less than 200 pounds....

Reconnaissance Day- Bozeman, MT

I arrived in Bozeman yesterday leaving me plenty of time to recon the area today before meeting up with my riding group for the initial meeting and dinner. (Looks like a nice group of folks and have already had some good conversations.) This morning I could not resist making the short drive down to Ennis where we are going tomorrow. Stopped by Burnt Tree Hole fishing access point where I have fished many times and where the ashes of a now deceased fishing friend where placed in the Madison River in 2008. It is a beautiful and special place to me.

While in Ennis I stopped in my favorite flyshop to say hello and there has been hardly any fishing due to high runoff conditions. There is lots of snow remaining on the mountains and Montana is greener than I have ever seen it. As you can see, it was gray and rainy today, but tomorrow promises to be much better. There will be about 2000 feet of climbing in the 46 mile run to Ennis.

Well, that is all for now. Tomorrow there will be some actual pictures of people on bicycles in these places. I will be experimenting with a helmet cam for the first time.

LINK to full picture set

I'm On My Way- Douglas, Wyoming

After an uneventful 600 mile drive yesterday, I arrived at my target destination in Douglas, Wyoming. Elevation here is around 5000 feet.

An early one-hour ride around Douglas this morning was both interesting and refreshing. Temperature is about 48 degrees so I had to dress up warmer than usual. Wow, it is great to ride around in cool air on legs that are not tired!

 A friendly native was interested in my bike!

Today's destination is Billings or Bozeman. I'm playing it by ear.

Slideshow of all yesterday's pics

Week in Review: Second Week in June

Completed my last block of hard rides yesterday and now it is just short easy rides alternated with rest days until next week's tour. I must admit I am pretty tired of riding around slowly on tired legs. At least the weather was not oppressive from Thursday onward! Anyway, the week consisted of:

Tuesday- one-hour easy ride (in horrible heat)

Thursday- 1 1/2 hours of moderate intensity hill repeats at Chalco Hills

Friday- 3 hour ride at easy tour pace

Saturday- 4 1/4 hour ride at easy tour pace.

Sunday- 2 hour easy ride (Bikemaster's Wine Tasting event.)

I Made Some Cycle Montana Maps

First Three Days: I think these will be the hardest days. They contain climbs that are difficult to prepare for here in Nebraska.
Day One- Bozeman to Ennis (I have been to Ennis many times for flyfishing.)

Day Two- Ennis to Dillon (a Cat One hill starts the day.)
Day Three- Dillon to Wise River (has climbs of Badger and Grasshopper Passes... how hard can that be?)

Week in Review: First Week of June- Training for "Cycle Montana"

Rather than reporting on each and every ride, I think that I will summarize. For June 1 through 7 there were five rides totaling about 11.5 hours of riding. Longer rides of 2.5, 3, and 4 hours were done on consecutive days leaving my legs pretty well shredded. Most of these rides had an element of heat stress that made them a LOT less fun than normal. Today's one hour recovery ride was done with temps around 98 and wind blowing 20-30 mph. Yuck.

There is a day off the bike tomorrow and then a four day cycle of progressively longer rides will begin. After that, riding time will be cut back dramatically before the tour begins on the 19th. This is following the training plan recommended by Friel in Cycling Past 50.

Garmin Links for Selected Rides:
June 7th
June 4th
June 3rd