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After 60 miles of flat and fast riding from Louisville to the base of the mountains, we had to climb 4300ft to reach a pass at 9100ft. This sounds like no huge challenge, but Christophe and I are not used to biking at high altitude, so we suffered a lot from this climb. Above 7000 ft I stopped to rest after every 200 ft gain in elevation. After some riding around Rocky Mountains national park, the route was going back down to more urban areas. The last 200 miles were pretty boring, but at least they were flat.
On sunday the day was very hot. Every gas station was the occasion to put ice in the camelbak and wet a T-shirt wrapped around my head to fight the sun. Regarding food, tons of sandwiches, plenty of hot dogs, gallons of coke, chocolate milk, coffee and water. And of course, some cake au lard made specially for the ride.
It took me 38 hours to complete the 600km brevet. Including a couple breaks during the night to lie down and rest/sleep on the side of the road, under an emergency blanket - I slept a total of about 2 hours. Christophe had problems with loose cranks and hurting knees, so he dropped after 400km. Which was nice, because he was not as tired as me during the trip back to CA and drove a lot.
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