If you're unfamiliar ... no I didn't have heart surgery. The Triple Bypass is a 118 mile bike ride in Colorado with 10,800 feet elevation.
It takes 4,000 + bike riders up over 3 mountain passes.
I did this ride last year, and I thought it would be fun (type 2 fun) to do it again and see if I could finish faster.
Of course, last year, the whole thing went about perfect and lots of things can go wrong over 8 to 10 hours on the bike, so finishing faster wasn't part of my success criteria.
My wife dropped me off in a shopping center parking lot close to the start line a little before 5:30 am. This is a little earlier than I started last year, but not by much.
Officially, I passed the Starting Line at 5:35am.
It was much cooler this year, which was great, but it did mean the start was down-right cold. Luckily I had prepared with warm enough clothes to get me through the first climb and (more importantly) the first big decent.
Because of last year's experience I had fine tuned the amount of extra stuff I brought along. I think I was right at the perfect point of being prepared while not bring too much extra.
Like last year, the first climb made me feel pretty good about my self. Generally I feel like a slow climber, but I literally passed hundreds of cyclists up Juniper pass.
... and I was able to get a PR on the official Strava segment. I was pretty proud of last year's climb, and wasn't thinking I'd be able to beat it this year. But I did. I even stopped for at least one photo during the climb, so I could have done even better.
It was such a great ride up pass #1. Such fun!
The first "Aid Station" (not to be confused with "First-Aid Station" was considerably further along the ride than it was last year. I wasn't a fan of that decision initially, but it turned out pretty good.
I think I was a little more efficient getting my bottles filled up and food in me this year at all the aid-stations.
The first decent was cold. Again, I was prepared, so not too bad. I think some less experienced mountain riders were surprised by the cold temperatures (close to 40 degrees), but at least it doesn't take too long to get down into Idaho Springs.
I passed the Idaho Springs check point at 7:50 am.
At this point I was able to shed some of my warmer clothes. As I mentioned earlier, the temperature of the whole ride was much cooler this year, and the segments between Idaho Springs and the Loveland Ski area are the places where this was most appreciated.
I passed the Empire check point at 8:32, and the Bakerville check point at 9:29.
Last year, the route between Georgetown and Loveland ski area was the toughest on me. This year, it didn't seem nearly as bad. The temperature was a big part of this, but I think maybe I was a little better prepared mentally for it this year.
It was still probably the toughest, and I kept asking myself "are we there yet", but not nearly as bad as last year.
My wife had planned to meet me at the Loveland Aid-Station again this year, but they moved the station making it much less convenient for SAG personal. Plus, I was there faster than expected.
So, I actually met her on the off-ramp from the highway and had her do a u-Turn, and we skipped our first planned meeting.
Oh well.
I'm a little annoyed, because while I feel they did a good job communicating the first aid-station move, I don't think they ever told us the 3rd one would be moved. I might have missed it.
Regardless, I spent less time in the third aid-station this year than last, still fully fueled with full water bottles.
And then, it was time to climb the 2nd big pass ... Loveland Pass. Again, I got a PR on this climb. I felt like I wasn't really struggling at all on this climb. I didn't go all that fast, but it was a steady decent pace.
And ... I passed the Loveland Pass Summit check point at 11:19 am. This is another one of those confidence inspiring points of the ride. While it is only a little over half-way through the distance, at this point, there are only like 2,000 feet of climbing left.
2,000 feet climbing is an average Wednesday for me. So, it sort of feels like it's all down-hill from this point.
It felt colder on the summit than I remember from last year, and I took the time to put on arm-warmers, gloves, and a head band to keep my ears warm. I'm glad I did.
And, the most fun I had both years was this decent. My wife doesn't like looking at my max-speed here.
Of course, it isn't "all down-hill from here" ... after this decent, we had to go through Silverthorne / Dillon. This year, Swan Mountain Road is under construction and the route took us up the bike path rather than the road. It felt longer and more difficult, but not too bad.
It wasn't long at all until I was at the Summit High School Aid-Station. I passed that check point at 12:25.
I didn't spend too much time here. I actually only filled my bottles with water here rather than the nutrient drink.
I saw my wife a little later in a church parking lot in Frisco, cheering me on.
From Frisco we climbed up to Copper Mountain. I feel like this was the one area I was considerably slower this year than last. I wasn't feeling too tired. I just didn't have the "punch" I had here last year.
My wife was along the route here. I grabbed some ice cold water from her, gave her a kiss and then continued on up towards and over Vail Pass.
I got over the Vail Pass check-in at 14:09 ... right after the last aid-station of the ride.
Then, it was downhill into Vail and then into Avon.
The stretch from Vail to Avon is another spot where I feel proud of myself compared to others on this ride.
I'm generally faster on this stretch and start to pass big groups again.
Both years I was impressed by how well the organizers / volunteers / police kept the route safe for us. The roads through Avon really highlighted that for me.
I officially passed the finish line at 15:10.
118.62 miles (including the short ride from parking to the start)
8:18:21 riding time (vs 8:22:36 last year)
9:44:43 total elapsed time (vs 10:14:55 last year)
14.3 MPH (vs 14.1 last year)
I didn't feel as tired at the end as last year. Again, everything went about as perfectly as I could imagine. Thankfully I had no mechanical or physical issues.
Another wonderful epic ride.
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