Snow in May???????

Yes that's right you read it correctly it's May, it's Spring, and we got snowed on today! Where else but Boulder Colorado!

Andrea is visiting for the week in between Gila and Mt Hood races as her Brother lives here and she's keeping up the altitude training whilst Tiffany is living here whilst in the states and not racing!

On a lazy Saturday morning what better thing did we have to do but get up for an 8am local race up a mountain the race was Sunshine Canyon Hill Climb a tough climb that starts about 2 miles from the heart of Boulder it is 9.14 miles long average 7.6% gradient with a maximum gradient of 23.1% starting elevation 5509 feet and climbing to 8426 feet with total elevation gain of 3226 feet and the last 3.5 miles on dirt. So we knew we were up for a challenge and also questioning our sanity of racing up a mountain early on a Saturday morning on recovery/rebuild week hmmmm, i guess a good opener for Mt Hood!

We rolled out and already the pace was half on then we started settling into our own rhythm at about the 2 mile mark Mara Abbot (team high roads) had opened a gap then Tiffany and Andrea and a couple others were together then soon enough Andrea had a gap on the field whilst Tiffany was suffering challenging another girl for that 3rd spot eventually getting a gap and settling into her own pace feeling the effects on the first half of the climb of not have a proper warm up but then finished off slightly stronger!

As we were climbing up I couldn't help but notice cars coming down with large amounts of snow on their roofs and trunks, as we hit the dirt we started to get little snow flakes hit us and it continued as we reached the top and their was a fair bit of snow about which is understandable as all the snow hadn't yet melted from the cold winter Boulder experienced however it was actually snowing up their which wasn't cool especially considering it was May!

The race was a good hit out though Mara took out the win from Andrea not too far off the pace and Tiffany another couple of minutes back all going under the 55minute mark not bad for first thing on a Saturday morning! It was tough but the fun was yet to come as we still got the decent after putting on layers of clothing the fingers had gone numb and face and toes too as we began to descend the dirt sketchy as it is but fun too trying not to crash with the number of people still climbing and descending and also us nearly taking out people as we stopped part way down to get an awesome photo! Then finally back on sealed road the real fun began trying not to take myself out while flying down at 50mph and dodging all the other riders going slightly slower whist not being able to hold the brakes on the windy road as the fingers were so cold all made for a fun morning!

Hit up the coffee shop and ready for some easy days before flying out to smash it up at the Mt Hood cycling classic in Oregon!

until next time,

Peace out! Keep it rubber side down!