Needles Road Ride

 Here is a quick post of my extra Friday ride on Needles Highway, Route 87. It was supposed to be a nice out and back ride to see the tunnels I knew I couldn’t drive with my van. The tunnels are height restricted to 9’8”, I am probably right at 10’ tall. I don’t want to knock off my solar panels. So I had to add a ride after our daily gravel ride. I took it a little easier on the first ride so I felt fine for another ride. I had a good lunch at my van and jumped on my road bike for I thought was going to be a 30 mile ride.

I climbed up to the tunnels, took some pictures and as I was about to go back down the way I came up a couple bike racer types came through the tunnel. As they passed I looked into my GoPro and said “ Look someone to PLAY with “. They started down hill following cars, I jumped on their wheel and we started passing all the cars through the winding hairpin turns. I stayed third wheel as I did not want to get in their way as I just joined their ride. I had to ride my brakes pretty hard because if there’s one thing I can do well it’s descend. I must say that they were picking some pretty crappy lines through the turns but I stayed in the back. The road went up some and I knew I was not going to be able to climb well since I already had 70 miles in my legs for the day. I crested the hill a bit behind them but immediately caught them on the descent. I rolled up next to the faster guy and said hi. He looked at me like? Who the heck are you? And didn’t say a word. Idiot bike racers. I was willing to pull thru to help keep the pace high on the flat but they didn’t seem willing to let me in so I just stayed in the back. The next hill was longer and they were gone. I had so much fun. I even have the whole thing on video when I figure out how to post it. 

Now I’m on the other side of where I want to be and have to figure out how to get back to my van. After 52 miles, struggling on the hills, about to run out of water and fighting day light I made it back to my van. Over a combined 100 miles for the day, I got a burger from DQ, got a shower and went straight to bed. 

Very fun day.