Colorado!

Riding into Loveland was an amazing feeling, the Rockies had popped in to view, I had friends waiting for me to arrive and we were about to climb mountains! We had a build day in Loveland, which gave us some well deserved time off the bike. JP came from Denver for the night and Emily and Micheal came from Minneapolis to hang out too! It was such great timing to see all of them, with everything as it was, and it really made me feel like I got a slice of my traditional summer time fun. We found an italian restaurant that had a big gluten free menu and so Rudy and I each ate an entire pizza. Mmm eating after biking 90+ miles is an incredible thing. Our first climb was into Estes Park, and we were all anticipating a tough day ahead. Our mileage was about 60, and the climb was absolutely gorgeous. I've driven in the mountains lots of times, but you can see an entirely different side of nature when you are experiencing it at about 7 miles per hour. Everyone was so happy and pumped. Robby and I made it to a sign that said Estes Park at about mile 30, and when we realized that we had made it to our host site and the day was actually over we almost cried it was so exciting! We had been climbing fairly quickly, anticipating a long afternoon and then we arrived at the church just as the 10:30 service was starting! It was perfect timing for a pretend day off. We all explored the town and my friends got to spend an extra day with us too! A great send off for our big Rockies climbs!

Building, building..

They tolerated our exhaustion with great patience!

A long, long day as sweep when we got in at 9:00 but the sunset was worth it.

Racing to the host between a storm on the left and a storm on the right..