After days like the past two, with steep, long climbs, scorching heat, piercing rain and wind, and dangerously close lightning, today was the perfect day for a 27-mile recovery ride to Crested Butte. There was a little wind at the start, no rain, lots of sunshine, and the very gradual climb to Crested Butte. And, of course, beautiful Colorado scenery.

The hill out of Crested Butte sticks out the most in the memories of the start of RTR 2011

But today (and a bit of yesterday) was not so much about the awesome views and a recovery day for me, it was about revisiting memories from the past. Yesterday brought back the pain I felt the first day of my first RTR in 2012, the pain of going up and down the seemingly never-ending rollers throughout the entire day to Hotchkiss, and memories of people telling me it was “all downhill from here” when there were 30 more miles of rollers! Today, memories of my mom’s first RTR in 2011 (which started in Crested Butte), and all of the cyclists pounding up the hill out of Crested Butte (which we came down today), and the first thoughts, inspired by my mom, to do the ride my mom was doing, and was told “some other year.” And here I am now, at the roots of how I got into doing RTR.

See you out on the ride! Good luck getting over Cottonwood Pass tomorrow!