The ridge road in Colorado National Monument was a truly spectacular ride and worth every twisty mile. From Grand Junction we rode up the steep 10 mile climb to the ridge hugging stretch end enjoied the gorgeous views of the valley below, the mountains in the distance, and the nearby red sandstone cliffs and other stone formations. we rode some 20 miles (most of the ridge road) out to the visitors center and back.
At some point I found that I could feel like I was flying, while riding a section of road that wraps around a gorge, by focusing on the cliff wall across the other side.
The return descent was somewhat scary, being steep and technical (quite a few gravel strewn switchbacks). Yet a few riders were much faster than me. I was too afraid of overheating my rims with my breaks and getting a blowout at 40 mph, so I controlled my speed.
Unfortunately, the rest of todays ride was a long, tedious, exhausting 60+ mile slog through barren desert, on a busy state highway, in 90+ degree heat, fighting an unrelenting wicked headwind the entire way, all the while sucking on exceedingly warm Gatorade just to stay hydrated. I'll take multi-mile climbs any time over this kind of riding. My pace during that part of the ride was only 10-15 mph, the high speed being on the "descents."
My legs were still good enough to keep working for hours, but my feet were killing me.
starting tomorrow we should be getting back to the kind of riding I thought I signed up for (lots of mountain road climbing and descending).
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