Image provided by Charlie Backus

By Charlie Backus

From October 17th to 20th I visited Boulder, Colorado to visit a friend who had moved and look at the CU campus. More importantly however, I went to Colorado to ride the mountains, and realized that I am nothing compared to a Colorado cyclist. As I departed early Friday morning I immediately felt the rise in elevation. I had just arrived late Thursday night and went to sleep and had not yet experienced the intense rise in elevation.

It was a quick 10 mile ride in the Boulder proper where I would climb Sunshine Canyon Road up 6000 feet in elevation to the summit of the road. As a I left I told myself it would be a quick 10 mile road, but was quickly reminded that 10 miles in the mountains is more like 25 miles in the flat lands.