Day 43: 37 Miles

Fowler, CO to Pueblo, CO

I got up this morning with the best intentions of making it past Pueblo to Cañon City. It was only 37 miles to Pueblo and starting before 7:00 AM meant I’d get to Pueblo very early. A few miles into the ride I changed my mind and decided I’d make it a short day. I have a lot of climbing ahead of me and taking some short days leading up to the climbing should help me out. Yesterday’s long ride gave me the option for a short day today and I decided to take advantage of that.

Today’s ride was flat but the headwind was stronger than expected to start the day. I got 16 miles into the ride and saw a tandem bike and 2 other bikes lined up outside a country store. Mike, Bill, Mark and Patti had ended yesterday 18 miles behind me, but they start their mornings so early that they were ahead of me. I stopped into the store to say hello and find out what their plans were for the day. They were also planning to stop in Pueblo, but will be taking a rest day tomorrow. I’ll consider my 37 miles ending around 10:30 as a rest day and will move ahead tomorrow.

After stopping to talk to everyone it was only 21 miles to Pueblo. The road remained flat and the wind disappeared so I made quick work of it. That allowed me to get to the bike shop just after they opened. I’ve been having issues with my rear wheel since Kentucky and the 2 bike shops I’ve stopped at between Kentucky and Colorado have not been very helpful. The shop in Pueblo spent a lot of time working with me to figure out the issue and I’m hoping the problem is fixed. The rim for the rear wheel was almost perfectly true, but the tire was not sitting on the rim properly. The first thing the bike mechanic did was use Windex on the tire to act as a lubricant to try and slide the tire into position. It was like a scene right out of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, where Windex is the solution to everything. The combination of Windex and a big clamp to stretch the tire out correctly seemed to do the trick. If the problem comes back I’ll probably need a new rim, but we’ll see how this works out for now.

While I was in the bike store Matt walked in to drop his bike off. He is taking a couple of days off from riding to go to Denver. The bike store will hold on to his bike while he travels by bus to Denver and back. I left the bike store and decided to figure out my hotel options when I saw Mike, Bill, Mark and Patti heading to the shop with their bikes. They were all staying at the Marriott tonight. It’s much fancier than I’ve gotten used to, but I decided to treat myself and stay there as well tonight.

The Marriott didn’t have any rooms immediately available, so I gave them my phone number to call me when a room was ready and headed to the brewery down the street. I got a beer flight and a salad, which is a weird combo, but I haven’t seen many vegetables in a while. I’m definitely happy I stopped in Pueblo. Even with the 37 miles of riding, today is going to feel like a rest day and allow me to make a strong push up the mountains in the next few days.

Tomorrow the plan is to make it to Cañon City which involves some climbing, but is probably the last easy day before I make it over Hoosier Pass at 11,542 feet. The last week has been so flat that I’m actually looking forward to climbing the mountains. I know it’s going to be hard, but there should be some incredible views along the way.