A Century Weekend!

This was a century weekend for us, as we took our road bikes out and rode over 100 miles in a little over two days - something we never dreamed of doing even a year ago!  Maybe it had something to do with the excitement of the 2011 Pro Cycling Challenge (Hopefully the USA's answer to Tour de France) hitting Colorado this past week, but it was fun for us nonetheless.  Nearly 150 professional cyclists were in Colorado this past week racing over 500 miles in 6 stages.  The fifth stage ran from Steamboat Springs to Breckenridge, while skirting Keystone and Swan Mountain Pass, a ride that Dianna and I ride routinely almost every weekend.  On Friday, we did our ride from Keystone over Swan Mountain to Copper then over Vail Pass and back to Keystone via Frisco and Dillon.  A short ride for the professionals, but nearly 50 miles for us old timers.  Saturday was race day through Summit County, so we just did a short mountain bike ride/hike then went over to Swan Mountain to watch the race.  We finished the weekend by riding enough on Sunday to give us 105 miles for the weekend!

Here's some of the festivities from the race over Swan Mountain.  The first rider to reach the summit is awarded the KOM (King of the Mountain) title.  The summit is clearly marked by the red arches at the top (and LOTS of fans cheering them on).

Lots of folks just having fun awaiting the racers to hit the summit.

This guy had to be hot!  (University of Northern Colorado Rams, although I think he could have represented ZZ Top in an earlier life)

After about an hour wait, the riders finally got there.  This was a breakaway of 4 riders that had leaded the peloton (main group of riders) for most of the day.  On this pass alone, their lead on the peloton was cut down from 2 minutes to only about 30 seconds.  These guys looked beat, they had already covered nearly 100 miles this day.

Right behind the four leaders was the main peloton, including Levi Leipheimer, the overall winner of the race for the week.  We were cheering for him since he's originally from Butte:)

Here's Levi in the yellow jersey, one that he wore all week except for only one day.  The leader with the best overall time for the race gets to wear the special yellow jersey each day while riding.

After about two or three minutes, the entire peloton has pretty much passed where we were and the race went on the Breckenridge for the finish that day.  The support vehicles with extra bikes and equipment follow all of the riders.  Pretty amazing that these guys are all so evenly matched and can finish a 100+ mile race as close together as they did!

Another fun wekend in Keystone!