Triple Bypass 2009 – A Modest Report

Andrew Hyde — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 16:00:58 +0000

I did the Triple Bypass this weekend, which is an epic 120 mile road ride with 10,000 feet of climbing.

It was my first century (ride over 100 miles) and easily the toughest thing I have ever done. It took me 11:30 to complete with some of the most active and amazingly strong people in Boulder.

Locals rocking the ride were Seth Levine, Eddie O’Neil, Ari Newman, Mike Soltys, Rob Johnson, Nate Abbot, Natty Zola, Brent Daily and Kelly Taylor (perhaps a few more?).

This is how it broke down (or you can look at a pretty map of Brent’s ride):

Hour 1: Ari Newman gave me a ride to the start. Just at dawn, we got on the road, joining Rob Johnson to start the first pass.
Hour 2: My first flat tire in 2 years. While changing it, a nice lady in a support vehicle stopped to assist with a full size pump. She was awesome, we talked about the tour and her husband doing the race. Also found out that she doesn’t know how to ride a bike.

Hour 3: Descending into Idaho Springs. Big time fun descent, speeds of 40-45. The cars couldn’t pass the slower riders safely, but the bikes could pass the cars. A weird situation. Found Kelly.

Hour 4: Climbing again. Didn’t find Bobby Johnson (Rob’s Dad who played support vehicle).

Hour 5: Holy all that is good in this world that is a climb. Bonked like I never had, 15 miles near or on I70 with a headwind. Ug. Lunchtime! Cold watermelon saved my life.

Hour 6: Summit! With Rob, Eddie and Ingrid at the Loveland Pass. 11k feet.

Notice the TechStars socks for Ingrid and myself.

Hour 7: Another crazy descent. Thinking I hit 48 or 50mph. Passed Ingrid with the biggest smile I’ve ever had on my face. Rob kept up on the descent.

Hour 8: Swan Pass, the hidden climb of the day. Felt strong, but here comes the rain.

Hour 9: Sprinkling rain going into aid station 4, full rain about 8 miles up. The final pass of the day, Vail, made me want to just go home. Mentally I was done. The rain was making me pretty cold and every time we passed an underpass, there were five cyclists trying to warm up. Found out my rain jacket wasn’t really waterproof. Put my iPhone away out of the rain.

Hour 10: Full blasting rain.

My thought process:

This is bad.
*Starts raining hard*
No, this pure sucks.
*Can’t stop shivering, brakes don’t do much for slowing you down*
Fuck that, this is miserable.
*rain turns a touch into hail*
It can’t get much worse. I should stop.
*10 miles to go on a 120 mile ride*
Fuck that, this is amazing.

Hour 11: I somehow kicked it into gear for the last 10 miles. I passed around 60 riders and was almost at a stand up sprint for the last mile. All the roundabouts were blocked off for the cyclists (which rocked after such a ride). Crossed the finish line and was full of joy. The rain stopped, cheered Rob on as he came in, checked my bike and sat down to a 1200+ calorie dinner. I had just burned over 10,000 after all.

Check that one off the list. Half Iron (a copperman?) is less than a month away. One more week of hard training and then time to cruise into it. Then a super Longs attempt.

Congrats to everyone that did it!

Andrew Hyde » Brent Daily

Triple Bypass 2009 – A Modest Report

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