Pikes Peak 14th September

It was only a short drive downhill before I'd parked by highway 24 and the start of the road to Pikes Peak. Once rolling, It wasn't long and I was already into my lowest gear and I hadn't even made the entrance station!

This was the first year bikes have been allowed on the climb year round after a successful trial last September. So I gladly paid my $12 and was onto the climb proper. It ascended in steps with the steeper sections fortunately followed by easier sections where I could recover. Low down the altitude was not yet an issue.

It was around Glen Cove where the road kicked up again via a series of hairpins and it got hard again. It was steep and meant I had to work hard to keep the bike moving! Finally the angle relented and the road wove around the rocks named the Devils Playground due to the way lightning dances around them. Although there were a few menacing clouds, luckily the weather was holding.

The summit was in sight, but once again the gradient kicked up. My gearing incorporated a mid cage derailleur so I could use a 13-29 cassette had been fine up until now on all my travels. The problem was at this altitude studies show you can only produce around 72% of your sea level power and at that power I could barely turn the pedals on this section! My cadence was sitting as low as 45 rpm and any time I tried to push even a little above this substantially reduced wattage, I'd spend the next minute trying to recover!

Gradient profile - http://www.brentacol.com/gradient_pics/pikes.png

The summit did thankfully finally arrive; the top the complete opposite of Mt Evans as it was swarming with cars and people! I did there discover how to be a minor celebrity; have a bike around the viewing platform. I was asked numerous times incredulously if I'd ridden my bike all the way up and even had photos taken including group shots. I even got asked if I was a professional cyclist! They obviously must have arrived just after me, as if they saw me chewing the bar tape with a distant, tortured expression on the climb that wouldn't have been asked!

On the way up I'd given up trying to take photos, as I would hold my breath whilst taking the photo to keep steady and again gasped for breath afterwards. So on the descent I stopped for a few more photos of the scenery and then continued down to the van.

I cleaned up as best as I could, got my food organised and then set the GPS. It was going to be the longest driving leg of the trip; from Colorado Springs to just short of Tucson Arizona – 1200 km!

As I left the outskirts of Colorado Springs the rains returned! So other then the freezing rains on the Eastern side of the Trail Ridge Road, I was leaving Colorado relatively unaffected by the horrific flooding that has hit the state over the last couple of days.

Interstate cuts a swath straight South through Colorado and then New Mexico. I stopped briefly at a road stop still in Colorado to brew a coffee and then at Santa Fe New Mexico for gas; otherwise didn't stop till just short of Deming where the road hits I10 and pulled the van off the road at 11pm. Nine hours driving with still a few tomorrow to finish the journey...

Ride details: distance 64.08km Maximum elevation 4,301m

2,226m elevation