Pbville day 2--Back for more!

The bikes loaded up again, heading back to mecca.

For the last 2 years or so, I have been following the LT 100 forum on yahoo. I have come to realize the advice offered by one Charles "Art" Fleming always seems to be spot on. So when Big Dave and I finished up our ride on Saturday, we went on a mission to find him. I remembered from the forum that he stays at the Leadville Hostel, so we stopped by to see if he was in. Big Dave thought this was a little weird, so he stayed in the truck until he was sure that the weirdness had passed.  Sure enough, Art was in and he couldn't have been any nicer.  He invited us to sit on the porch and we talked about everything Leadville for about an hour or so.  He is an absolute wealth of knowledge.  We ended our chat by making plans for us to join him on his regular 9 am Leadville ride, or shall I call it an information-fest? 

 

The lower part of the Powerline is a real monster--unless you are Mr. Weins or Mr. Armstrong, it is much more efficient to walk.  Art shared with us his technique of short quick steps that doesn't torture the legs any more than necessary.  It works, try it.

Art and Big Dave practicing the "quick steps"

Art working Big Dave near the top of the second false summit. 

With the exception of the section I mentioned above, the rest of the climb is rideable, at least today it was--we'll see how it goes on race day with 80 miles in our legs.

This is at the top of St. Kevins after we turned off the paved road.  I believe it was nearing the first little steep section--again Art is putting the wood to Big Dave. I'm not going to tell you how old Art is, I'll let him do that, but he is a beast compared to someone half his age--we were so impressed with his fitness and skill .

At the top of St. Kevin's--I do believe this is one of Big Dave's "No Talk Zones."

We finished up as it was getting ready to storm--a prime example of how fickle the weather up here can be.  

Aerial view--click on it.  We rode this route counterclockwise on Saturday and clockwise on Sunday.

This is today's ride profile--reverse it for yesterday's profile.  If the weather is cooperative, the plan is to ride an out-and-back of this route on Tuesday.