Andrew Randell is in Colorado with his SpiderTech p/b C10 teammates, where they have been recovering from the Tour of Utah and getting ready for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, which starts Monday. Andrew brings us up to speed:
The guys riding around Lake Turquoise near Leadville, Colo.
We had a week to kill between the Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. What to do, what to do? How about visiting some small towns in Colorado?
Leaving Utah we drove to Hotchkiss, Colo., a one-horse town on the west side of the Rocky Mountains. Arriving in Hotchkiss we booked into a nice motel run by two Polish couples that were super nice, then headed across the street to the local restaurant for some fried steaks and chicken. Juicy!
A couple of training rides later and we were on the road again heading east over the mountains through Aspen — a beautiful town where we stopped for a coffee before tackling Independence Pass, which at 12,000ft (3687m) is one of the higher points of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. At the top we got out to take in the view. Walking to the lookout point there was a small rise that I sprinted up – it took a lot of puffing and wheezing to get my breath back. During the USA Pro Cycling Challenge everyone is going to be having a hard time at that altitude.
Leadville, one of the highest towns in Colorado at 10,200ft, was our destination that day – just putting the sheets on the bed that night had me out of breath. We spent two nights there at the Herbalife house. Sleeping at altitude is tough and both nights in Leadville many of the guys on the team, including myself, tossed and turned most of the night, not sleeping well at all. Up there we did a beautiful ride around Turquoise Lake, part of which went along the route used by the Leadville 100, a 100 mile mountain bike race. While Leadville is a shadow of its former self, almost a ghost town after its heyday as a gold and silver mining boomtown, there was a lot of history to see while there. For a beer after dinner we went to a saloon built in the 1800s where they still had much of the original bar intact. Beautiful.
Friday we drove down towards Denver to spend the day at the factory of clothing sponsor Pearl Izumi. The drive there seemed to be almost all downhill. At Pearl Izumi we went on their noon hour ride before they had a BBQ for us and their staff. They talked with us about the clothing, toured us around their facility and showed us some of the products that they are working on for 2012. From Pearl Izumi we finished our trip to the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, arriving in Colorado Springs where the race will start on Monday.
— Andrew Randell
