Durango Dirty Century

best views anywhere!

more hike-a-bike

Finishing off my week of vacation I headed to Durango for the DDC. This was a Colorado Endurance series event. Long, self suported and free. I like that in an event! There were aid stations, but I wanted to race this self supported, carrying all the food I needed for the day and filtering all my own water. Opting for the "A" route, I was in for a long day of riding and hike-a-biking! A few downfalls and 20-30 snowbanks made the race slower than the previous year and I had no idea how long I was going to take... hoping for under 15hrs.. Starting with a ride up Hermosa Creek, which I had done a couple of times before, I knew the start and took it easy.. When the trail ended at Bolam Pass the climb up to the Colorado trail began. Riding my pace and feeling a little fatigued from the effort of last weekend it took me a little longer to get up the road than I wanted but I hit the Co trail and got ready for a long day above 10,000 feet. Up the trail, over the snowbank.. repeat. It was here that I started to catch a few other riders.. Running into Jeff Kerkove at about mile 50 we rode the rest of the day within a few minutes of each other and finished the last 30 or so together. It was fun for me to be able to ride a little with him! Riding in with a friend is always a bonus!

spot me in the right bottom corner

Riding the last 50 miles or so of the CTR  was amazing, and an eye opener of what to expect at the end of that 500 mile race.. Hoping to show up for the start of the CTR next summer and a little more knowledge is always a good thing!
So all in all I had a great race and felt  pretty good throughout the 13hrs it took me to finish. Faster than I expected and a very tough event! Thanks for the photos Jeff!
 My GPS download of the race is here

finishing with Jeff

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