The Universal Sports‘ coverage of the Giro is great! The best cycling coverage I’ve seen in awhile, if not ever. I did my first 200k last weekend. Actually I rode about 210k because I wasn’t sure of my route and I wanted to get in at least 200k. I was feeling pretty good about myself until I took a look at the Giro route. Stage 6: 248km, Stage 7: 244km, Stage 8: 209km. That’s just three stages of a 21 stage race. Makes my 210km look pretty unremarkable.
I needed to get in a long ride and didn’t have a lot of daylight left after driving from Longmont to Pueblo. The “route” I chose was pretty awful. Using “route” loosely, because I only had a vague idea of where I was going and spent a fair amount of time riding around in circles getting the mileage in. The weather was decent though, dry and overcast with mild wind.
The “bike trail” at the Pueblo reservoir is paved, but in such poor condition that it is unrideable except on a mountain bike. The road surface is not much better. Really the main road around the reservoir is in absolutely terrible condition. Many drivers are not polite and two yelled at me to get on the bike path. There was one excellent part of the road, the spur to Osprey lookout. Nice pavement and the testosterone level of the drivers seemed much lower in that part of the park … away from the reservoir. I rode Route 96 for a few miles west of the reservoir. It has a decent size shoulder, but is in nearly as bad condition as the reservoir road. It is covered with sand and has cracks every few yards, each supporting a good crop of weeds. I came home with two thorns in my front tire. One was causing a slow leak. I was lucky to make it back to my car just before dark without having to change the tube.
My route covered these roads and trail, though obviously some them were ridden more than once to get to 130+ miles. Other than the road conditions, it was a nice, easy ride.