I Kept Trying to Will One More Gear Into Existence But My Summons Fell Short

What a day! I thought I'd throw some summit photos up however and just mention that It's incredibly beautiful in Colorado at 12,000 ft! We were joined by the Brick Oven/Avery team as we hauled ourselves up and over Cottonwood Pass from Buena Vista to Crested Butte. Thanks for the hospitatlity at Brick Oven Pizza!

Loveland Pass, Elevation 11,990'

Hoosier Pass, Elvation 11,542'

The 20 mile climb up Cottonwood Pass ended with us crossing the Continental Divide once again,

Elevation  12,126'

The Brick Oven/Avery Brewing team made today's ride with us from Buena Vista to Crested Butte, obviously leading the charge

Here's us, we're what you'd call "Way Behind"

Adam's Dumb Idea (and my dumber response)

The phone rang at Ska and it was Adam Avery of Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado.

"We had this crazy idea that we should ride our bikes from our brewery to yours and we're hoping you could do a fundraiser and maybe tap a special keg when we arrive," Avery said.

We always open our home to our fellow brewers, and I was about to reply that 'of course, we'd love to' when something ridiculous spewed out of my mouth instead. "We want to ride, too."

That was a couple of months ago, and honestly, I thought that by the time the third week of July rolled around, I would be in shape, or better yet, the idea would simply have faded away. Well, the idea didn't fade away, and now the portentous day is here. Although I'm in better shape than I was, I can't stop thinking that we're about to ride 426 miles over 9 of Colorado's high mountain passes, and I'm a fatty. Somehow, with few words, my friend Jon Bailey at the Durango Cyclery put a much better spin on it. "Dude, you're riding your bike all day and then drinking beer."

Adam's dumb idea evolved into a collaborative beer, the Wheelsucker Wheat Mountainous 7.2%. Bavarian-style Hefeweizen, and a charity fundraiser at a different Colorado brewery each night of the ride. The beauty here is the beer part, the beast is of course, the bike. If we were doing a ride like this with non-brewing road bikers at least we would have a professionally hung-over leg up on them. Not the case, the Avery boys are good. Note the photo above--this was taken July 1st when they came down to Ska to brew the Wheelsucker. Ska Head Brewer Thomas Larsen simply dilly dally's while the Avery crew (Adam, Orli, and Breeze) work their asses off.

So with that Arlo Grammatica (Ska's Barroom Hero) and I are off to spend the week picking up all manner of road bike guy fashion tips from the Avery boys, and maybe a couple of brewing tips as well...