Day 4: Green River, Utah to Fruita, Colorado 90 miles. 3600 feet of climb

Some knarly ups and downs for today's ride.

While this was the longest riding day for me since I rejoined this group, in many ways it 
was one of the easiest.  Or, at least, it seemed that way.  We had two things going for us for a large portion of today's ride:  smooth pavement and a favorable tailwind.

The day started out with a thin layer of clouds and remained that way for most of the ride.  Never saw much of the sun.  And yesterday's southerly winds were still blowing strong.  As we were now headed East, what was a major headwind yesterday started out this morning as a significant crosswind.  In fact, it was so strong that one of the guys noticed whitecaps on a large pond a couple of miles after the start.

The first twenty miles of this morning's ride were very quiet.  The only sound you could hear was the whistling of the wind against the bike.  Sort of a cross between a yodel and a train whistle, depending on the varying speed of the crosswinds.  But they were still strong enough to push our bikes sideways if we weren't paying attention.

Whether they are arroyos or gullies or washes, every couple of miles there's another drainage area.  Thought I'd show these as well as all the mesas and mountains.

Sometime around the twenty mile mark, things changed.  First, the winds shifted from the South to the Southwest, giving us an oblique tailwind.  Then, they shifted again and for the next forty miles, the conditions were dreamlike.  A perfect tailwind coming out of the West.  

Our route took us about  25 miles north of Moab and Arches National Park.  A shame we couldn't stop there.

I was feeling very strong today.  Even with the tailwind, I was climbing hills with greater command, even keeping a pace above 20 miles per hour on some shallower inclines.   And, whether from behind us or across us, none of us felt much of the heat of the day.  The temperature actually got up to around 100 degrees before our one sag stop today.  It's still in the 90's here in Fruita, but it doesn't feel all that hot.

I-70 road repaving.  At times, that lane on the left was the only one available for cars and trucks.  We had to settle for riding through all that crap on the right side of the picture.  Nasty stuff.  

But the best and, at times, the strangest parts of today's ride came when the Utah Department of Transportation was carving up and repaving Interstate I-70.  At times we were either living it up in the fast lane, literally, or bobbing and weaving in and out of construction trucks as they went about repaving the highway for about 20 miles.
   

For about six miles, the car and truck traffic was to the right of the cones.  We got to ride on the smooth, newly-paved road on the left side of the cones.  And with that tailwind, oh, what a joy!  One guy said it was better than sex.  I won't comment on his love life.  It was good.  But not better than sex.

There's a yin to every yang.  Today, my yin was riding through the sections of smooth roadways and a great tailwind.  My yang was my first flat tire on this trip.  Actually, first one since the Mississippi ride two years ago.  I didn't flat out once during last year's California/Nevada rides, nor on any training rides over the past two years.  Guess I was due!

Caught a tiny wire from a retread truck tire in my front wheel.  Fortunately, one of the riders had tweezers with him; something I'll be carrying from now on.  Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to pluck it out from my tire before putting in a new inner tube.  At last count, I think about ten people had flats today.  And at least two people had multiple flats.  Lots of junk on the roadway.

All in all, it was  good day today, flat tire and all.  It was a long day, but I got a chance to stop and take lots of pictures and had time to take in my surroundings.  Utah was such an interesting mix of urban sprawl, excavations of all kinds (minerals and dinosaurs), and the raw beauty of mountains and deserts.  

Saying goodbye to the Beehive State; saying hello to Rocky Mountain High

Coming over the last rise in Utah entering into Colorado was like hitting a light switch.  All the desiccation, the dry river beds and the brown landscape of mountains, deserts and plains were immediately replaced with green.  Green grasslands where brown deserts stood not five miles back.  Sage brush and green trees where nothing remotely arbor-like stood before.  And wildlife.  Where there were no birds before, now there were crows picking at dead carcasses on the roadside.  Above me, a hawk was playing with the winds, lazily catching updrafts.  It followed me for about half a mile.  It was tough keeping an eye on the road and further debris while I was looking up watching a beautiful sight.

Entering Colorado and descending into Rabbit Valley.  

Tomorrow, we begin our climbs into the Rockies.  It's a 75-mile day into the town of Montrose and another 3100 feet of climb.  I doubt we'll get lucky again tomorrow with the winds.