Tour de Park City- Michelle says...

Here we are after the ride. A trip on a gondola to a concert to celebrate 7 years together!

Ages and ages hence three roads diverged into Jeremy Ranch and cyclists took the one with the dead end. Although the tour took...well... a detour to start, it did turn out to be an enjoyable ride. We had perfect weather. The morning was a little chilly but once you started riding you warmed right up. We are so lucky to live minutes away from absolute stunning scenery. After our first 10 miles we headed out of town and towards the Jordanelle reservoir overlook which was a slight climb to our first refuel station. After that we headed into Francis. Talk about farm country! Cows, horses, barns and fields everywhere. Absolutely gorgeous! We then began our slight climb toward Wolfe Creek Pass. The scenery turned into a small, winding road with a creek bubbling next to us. We could see large pines in the background and an occasional cabin sprinkled about the greenery. Now this tour is considered one of the toughest because of the elevation change. Up (no pun intended) until this point it was an easy ride. We began our accent up Mount Everest ooops... I mean Wolfe Creek Pass. This was a 12 mile climb with the last 6 at 90 degree vertical. We made it to the second aid station with the feeling of an Olympian crossing the finish line. Only, we were at 50 miles which meant 50 more to go.

After refueling we sped down the canyon at 35mph with bugs hitting us with such force that I now know what a windshield feels like. It leveled off and now we enjoyed some flat roads and more farm country. I just love small towns. Kamas is one of them. They have cute little diners, and dairy freezes. It took me back in time to when life was more simple. Before Blackberrys, I-Phones and video games. We saw kids out playing baseball and riding their bikes. It was kind of weird. We approached our final fuel stop and loaded up on more power bars, PB an Js, rice crispy treats and topped off our water bottles. (Since we are mainly runners it is very odd to us that you get to stop for 5-10 minutes and stuff your face. You would never do this in a marathon. If you did it would take you 10 hours to finish and you would poop your pants.)

Anyways, we left our all-you-can-eat buffet and headed out onto a flat road with our climbs behind us or so we thought. A piece of advice for new riders: never talk to another rider who has done this same ride before. I did just that and found out that we had another mountain to climb with not one but two peaks!! Yahoo! I really wasn't too sore at this point but we were approaching 6 hours in the saddle and my butt bones were a little achy and I was tired of sitting. This is where you need that mental strength they talk about. We just kept plugging along. Then the wind came to make out climb even more challenging.

When my cyclometer read 90 miles. I was done. Where was the finish!? We were now climbing on the highway! Did we take a wrong turn (again)? We were being passed by those crazy peleton groups who were completing the 170 mile tour. I tried to join them but they were going 25mph and I felt like a champion at 12mph. The finish came in a very unclimatic manner. Unlike marathons where you get a finishers metal, free food, more grab-bag goodies and such, we were welcomed by food, bikes, and jerseys all...... for purchase! O'well. What an experience! We needed to get used to 100 miles in the saddle if and when we conquer an Ironman.

Happy Anniversary Jus!