DENVER - 9NEWS Sports Anchor Susie Wargin is participating in her second Ride the Rockies and is documenting her ride on 9NEWS.com.
Ride the Rockies started in 1986. Over 4,000 people apply for the chance to ride the 409 miles across Colorado, but only about half are accepted through a lottery process. The riders span all 50 states and several foreign countries.
This year, 9NEWS is sponsoring the ride. The ride will benefit the Denver Post Foundation, which will present $30,000 to six nonprofits in each community that hosts the riders.
Check out Susie's photos from the ride.
Susie will update us everyday from the road. Here's the latest from Susie's Ride the Rockies experience:
June 18: On our final day of Ride the Rockies 2011, we faced considerably less mileage (50) than the previous days. Ted and I camped in Granby and woke up many times during the night to the sound of rain on our tents. When we emerged from our tents for breakfast, we found a soaked football field and cold temperatures. Everyone was wondering what would be waiting for us at the top of Berthoud Pass.
We took off around 8am and felt fortunate because the rain had stopped. Those who left before us weren't so lucky, in fact many of them faced snow on top of Berthoud! We climbed right away out of Granby along Highway 40. Before arriving to Tabernash, the route went off onto County Road 5 which was beautiful, especially with the low lying clouds that still had us guessing about what lied ahead.
At the rest stop in Winter Park, we heard there were busses on top of Berthoud to warm people up... yikes! We took off, stopped for a couple pictures at the Mary Jane sign (we grew up skiing there) and eventually hit the summitt. Lo and behold the sun was peaking through the clouds. It wasn't balmy so we got a quick bite to eat and took off. The line was really long to take a picture with the "Berthoud Pass" sign, so we just took a random photo to show we had been there.
The ride down to Empire was chilly but fun. From there it was a seeminlgly short 4 mile uphill to get to our final destination of Georgetown. Ted's wife and two little girls were waiting for us at the finish, it was great to see them!
I met so many wonderful new cycling friends this past week and now understand why people come back year after year. I have two RTR's under my belt and while each tour was different, they were also similar in many ways. The amazing sights in our state leave lasting impressions and the entire experience can be life changing.
The rides have been that much more special because I experience them with my brother. Ted has been a best friend of mine since he was born some 39 years ago. I hope others have similar bonds with their siblings and make the effort to do something fun with them. If not, it's never too late to reestablish ties and trust me, it can be very worth it.
June 17: We had an 80-mile trek from Steamboat to Granby on Thursday with a total elevation gain of over 4,000 feet. We took Rabbit Ears Pass, which was a very steady climb, but with some incredible views of Lake Catamount. It was very green.
At the top of Rabbit Ears, we enjoyed some Flippin' Flapjacks from Dan the Pancake Man. $5 all you can eat and we did - couple plates actually, figured we deserved it.
How about all the snow at the top of Rabbit Ears? Quite a bit of it still and it was a little chilly in there. The sun was shining but the snow really made the temperature drop.
The way down those descents are always fun. We actually crossed the Continental Divide twice on Thursday. Once on Rabbit Ears and then again here when we went by Muddy Creek. All in all, another gorgeous and fun day on the bike.
As I mentioned before, there is just about every age, gender, shape and type of person on this tour. That includes some friends from Special Olympics. Ride the Rockies partnered up with Special Olympics Colorado this year to provide the opportunity for six athletes and seven coaches to ride.
Also, I have to give a shout out to the Deep Rock Water team headed up by their president Tom Shein. He put together a team that decided to also raise money for their efforts and are close to $11,000 for the Samaritan House in Denver. Fun group of guys and very well hydrated.
So 50 miles on Friday and we will end up in Georgetown at which time I will put my bike away until next Wednesday when it's Bike to Work Day. It never ends!!!
June 16: About 2,300 cyclists have stayed in Steamboat for two nights this week, and yesterday many took the 50 mile Steamboat Springs Loop Ride. Since I did the Prologue on Saturday of 45 miles, we decided to take the day off and learned a lot more about some local companies with world wide appeal.
Did you know that big time companies like Honey Stinger, Big Agnes, Moots Cycles and Smart Wool are all based in Steamboat and have been for many years? HoneyStinger is an energy bar and gel company, Big Agnes makes sleeping bags and tents that are sold in all major sporting goods stores, Moots makes amazing titanium bikes and Smart Wool has those famous socks.
We checked out offices and warehouses and were really impressed with how they all operate. They don't have the employee pool to work with up here like a big city, but the employees they do have are all dedicated and devoted to make great products that are tested and tried out all over Steamboat.
We also followed pro rider Brad Bingham from Moots up Rabbit Ears pass, which we will tackle ourselves today. At the end of August, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge will go up the double summit of Rabbit Ears out of Steamboat for Stage 5. However unlike us, who will be stopping in Granby for the night, the pros will go on to Breckenridge. There will be some great viewing of the UPCC here in Steamboat because it will be the end of Stage 4 and the Start of Stage 5, which is the only time the riders will stay in the same town for two stages.
On Wednesday evening I had a chance to interview the Outreach Manager for Bicycle Colorado, Scott Christopher. He has helped pass many safe riding laws in Colorado and has the best interests of every cyclist in mind. If you ride, check out their initiatives and support this great non-profit working to make our roads safer!
Today we will cross the Continental Divide twice. We already crossed once on Cottonwood Pass, but we feel rested after not biking yesterday and our legs and rears are thankful. It has been nice staying here at the Holiday Inn the last two nights. Tonight it's back to camping. We are hoping for no rain, but it looks like that might be the case. We'll ride 80 miles today, 50 miles tomorrow!
June 15: Yesterday was one word - windy!
Yesterday, I was more worried about being rained on because it was raining at the time. That cleared away, which was nice, but as we made our way from Edwards to Steamboat, we dealt with a nasty headwind which made for a lot of worn out cyclists.
I used the fancy GoPro camera that our promotions department was nice enough to loan me. If anyone is thinking of getting one of these, I recommend using the helmet attachment rather than mounting it to the bike. Yesterday, I strapped it to my helmet and the video is much steadier and you can look around more. Check out my video in the clips attached to this article.
One of the cool things about riding on bike tours is you end up going through towns and places you never knew existed, like Bond, Colorado. I discovered yesterday that 183 people live in Bond.
If 9NEWS is going to continue being the TV sponsor, I need to get a boss or two on the road with me. My brother's boss, Gary Sears, who is the City Manager of Englewood, has ridden in multiple Ride the Rockies and he's back this year.
The views along Colorado 131 are just incredible right now because everything is so green.
It's really cool to see every shape, size and age of people on these types of rides. We've seen a Dad and his son riding a tandem bike a few times. In the pictures I took, it shows they are wearing jerseys from 2009, so they are pros at this ride.
It's always impressive to see hand cyclists riding 100's of miles. Adaptive Sports Center out of Crested Butte has a team of four hand cyclists participating this year.
I rode 80 miles yesterday, and today is a 50 mile loop around Steamboat which we are actually sitting out because I am shooting a few stories today on local businesses. We rode 45 miles in a prologue on Saturday so we'll still hit the same mileage.
Steamboat will be busy in August for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge to end Stage 4 and start Stage 5. The funny thing is, we did just about the exact same route yesterday as the pros will do in August, from Avon to Steamboat. We did it in 5 hours time - they expect the pros to do it in 3 to 4 hours!
June 14: This morning I am at the brand new Battle Mountain HS in Edwards, about 15 miles west of Vail. My brother Ted and I enjoyed another gorgeous day of cycling on Monday.
We took a beautiful trek along US 24 from Crested Butte to Leadville, and we had to stop and soak in the 14'ers along the way including the Collegiate Peaks, Lincoln, Democrat and Bross.
We made our way to Leadville, which is always a fun town to go through. From there we went over Tennessee Pass and Battle Mountain to get to Edwards.
After 75 miles, and a fair amount of headwind, we supported a locally owned restaurant here in Edwards called Markos, which has been here for 17 years, by eating huge piles of carbs.
I brought a cool toy with me on the ride this year called the GoPro camera. The camera mounts to the bike, a helmet or pretty much anywhere and takes some really good, steady video. You can see some of the video I have taken in the clips attached to this story. It's a pretty fun toy. I have taken some shots from the bike already, and I'm putting in on my helmet today.
As mentioned earlier, there are 2,300 riders in the Denver Post Ride the Rockies, along with 80 traveling volunteers. Many of them stay in hotels, but a lot of them camped (like we've done the last two nights). It is a really a fun community that goes from town to town, and I highly recommend training for and doing an event like for so many reasons. Not only do you get in shape, but you meet a lot of people from all over. There are people from all 50 states and a bunch of foreign countries are represented here, plus you're supporting local nonprofits and pumping money into a bunch of neat communities.
June 13: I'm in my tent and staying cozy, but I will be getting up very soon to start Day 2 of Ride the Rockies.
We started our day yesterday in Crested Butte and stopped in Almont for some killer pancakes from Flipping Flapjacks. They serve all you can eat Pancakes for $5 at the first stop each day.
From Almont, we started up Cottonwood Pass and went along the Taylor River. It is absolutely gorgeous scenery in there. Eventually, we made our way onto the hard packed dirt portion of Cottonwood Pass - for 14 miles. It was interesting, since I have never taken my road bike on dirt for that long.
At the 56 mile mark we made it to the top - 12,126 feet. It is very cold and windy up there, but pretty cool. After that, it was 20 straight miles downhill into Buena Vista where the cross country team put on a yummy spaghetti meal for the riders.
What's really cool about this event is along the way at aid stations, all the communities get involved. There are a lot of kids are making PB&J's, selling cookies, making dinner and breakfasts. For a few bucks that we pay, we can support these groups, and every town we visit gets $250,000 for the community from the Denver Post Foundation.
June 12: Today kicks off the 26th Annual Denver Post Ride the Rockies. My brother Ted and I made our way to Crested Butte on Friday so we could take part in a 45 mile Prologue ride on Saturday which benefitted Denver Post Community Foundation. Saturday also happened to be my 41st birthday! What a great way to celebrate: on the bike, with family, in beautiful Crested Butte. We rode with a few cycling legends like Ron Kiefel and Dave Wiens.
The Denver Post Community Foundation will present a $5,000 check to a different nonprofit in each host city this week. Today's grant in Crested Butte goes to Gunnison Country Partners.
Day 1 of RTR will take us and 2,300 other riders over Cottonwood Pass and into Buena Vista - a trek of 76 miles. I have a GoPro camera with me mounted to my handlebars and will take some video along Cottonwood. They say it's gorgeous, plus I want to feel like the pro cyclists will feel when they come here in August for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge (they go over Cottonwood in Stage 2).
More updates on Susie's Facebook and Twitter pages: www.twitter.com/susiewargin and www.facebook.com/Wargin.
More information on Ride the Rockies can be found at www.ridetherockies.com.
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