Ride the Rockies - Day 5

Greetings Readers

Ride the Rockies - Day Five - Coming Soon

Update 06/18/09 @ 1:56 P.M. - Independence Pass - I really banged her all morning long. Damn, that is something few can say that they have done on a bike. Us Ride the Rockies riders started out from Leadville, Colorado and then we headed South and then West over Independence Pass and then our finish spot was Aspen, Colorado.

I will have to tell you that the biking gods were watching out for me today. I do not pray to the biking gods, but I do respect and giving acknowledgement in the biking gods from time to time.

This morning in Leadville the weather could not have been perfect. Fucking to perfect. No wind and the air was warm. How can this fucking be?! I was expecting the town to be cold. I was expecting the tent that I was in to be covered in icicles. I was expecting the wind to chill my ass to the bone. Not to mention that I was expecting my knee not to be any better from yesterday. Go fucking figure. Just that little showing of respect and hope to the biking gods made everything right in the world.

Taking a shit in the port a potty was a treat. Again, I was not cold. I actually went back into my tent at about 5:30 A.M. and then put some Tiesto - Nyana Disc 2 on and decided that when that disc ends that was when I was going to start biking (start my day).

I have to say that the air got a bit nippy since the wind started to blow in the from the South. Again Readers, I was worried about my knee and that I have fucking 18 miles of pure climbing up Independence Pass this morning. Also, I did not have the Colorado weather behind me so if you are a Coloradoan you know that the afternoon storms come in from the East and you never know what you can get - weather wise. You can get rain. You can get Hail. You can get Snow. Hell, you can get blizzard conditions that could close down a Mountain Pass. I did not want to get caught in any of those conditions so that is why that I got my ass in gear and got biking as soon as I can.

I am going to skip parts of the story since I do have a limited time access once more on this Internet.

Can you FUCKING say that I fucking rock!? Well, I know that, but perhaps you Readers really do not know that. I would have to say that the climb up from the East side of Independence Pass was pretty steep, but not as nearly as Monarch Pass. Yet, Monarch was only 9 miles to the top of the Pass whereas Independence Pass was about 18 miles with just a percent grade or two less than what we... er I did this morning. I found my grind and I basically keep that pedaling stroke going. Since Independence Pass was a major Mountain Pass for me (my Opinion Only) to ride up on a bike I only had one fucking goal. And that was not to fucking stop on the climb up to the summit. No fucking way. If I did stop on this particular Mountain climb I would not forgive myself. Never.

Fuck yeah! I did not stop once. I did take alot of picture on my climb up and amazingly enough those pictures that I see on the camera came out perfect. I can not wait to upload this pictures my faithful Readers next week or perhaps over the weekend. I thought that taking pictures would be very dangerous for me to do on the bike, especially Independence Pass, but needless to say I actually did that. I did scare myself a few times when the crosswinds caught my deep dish HED. rims, but other than that I did pretty darn well.

When I got to the top of Independence Pass I took a lot of pictures and then I had someone take a few pictures of me at the Independence Pass Mountain Pass Sign and then that was that. Again, the biking gods were looking out for me, or perhaps listening to my silent request last night. Partly Sunny... hell Mostly Sunny, a bit of a breeze, but no Snow! No Rain! No Hail! The song that I heard coming up those final 400 feet or so was John Denver - Rocky Mountain High. yes Readers, I know that was corny, but I will forever associate that song when I did summit Independence Pass on Andrea and her HED. rims.

I guess my time is up Readers, so with that I have to bit you farewell

Until the next time

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete