# Triple Bypass - how was it 2012?



## MerlinAma

Any ride reports?


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## King Arthur

Started out at about 5 a.m. in morning. Nice skies and low to no wind. Cops were out in force checking bracelets. Why 10 ft up the road the volunteers were checking bike stickers is a conundrum to me.
The climbing was great, and the motorists were very respectful. The aid station volunteers were great, and all those folks at the sketchy intersections were great.
A few problems with fellow riders telling me not to ride so much to the left (kind of hard when at 9,000 feet and there is no guard rail (the descent from this point is 1000 ft straight down.)
After descending down loveland pass, big head wind and cross wind occurred. Hail followed and then the drenching of rain began. It rained the entired way to the Summit High School rest stop. Decided to call it a day there. 80 miles not to bad, but a bit sad that I was not able to finish due to the sketchy weather. 
Spoke with several volunteers (as I was sagging the queen on her day in this event), and they mentioned many folks braved the weather but suffered incredibly. Many cases of hypothermia were seen and treated. By the way, many folks were without the mandatory rain capes, or leggings. Many other folks had nothing more than jersey, shorts and pittards on. The descents were very chilly and some folks were doing 45-50 mph (me, more of a sedate 30 mph).
I do need to mention several things; the mechanics at each of the big rest stops were great (had a problem with a bent deraillure hanger and the gentlemen fixed it right away). Plenty of food, warm smiles, patience, and not much waiting to get what you needed and get on the way. The course was marked fairly well (it would be just a suggestio,n to mark how many miles one has until the top of the climb (again just a suggestion). Loved the fact that pot holes, divots and ripples in the road were marked with paint (please mention this on the web site though). Also anyone doing this ride, please bring your i.d. (you can't your packet to ride without it). The email printout is not enough (this was the first ride where I needed to show an I.D., an inconvenience, but certainly not a show stopper.)
Alll things considered, would look forward to doing this again and finishing it. The folks were great, only problem was the weather (not team evergreens fault.)


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## Dray3573

Started at around 6:30. Got to the top of Loveland Pass before getting drenched. The decent down Loveland was miserable. Couldn't wait for Swan Mountain Road so I could start climbing again to start warming back up. Almost called it a day at the school aid station at the bottom of Swan Mtn., but decided to press on. Everything was dry to the summit of Vail. Then 15 miles before the finish the rains returned in full force. However with a bit of a tail wind I was able to cover those 15 miles at around 25mph. This was the third year and I wasn't gonna let this ride beat this Texas boy. Aside from the weather going from almost 90 in Georgetown to around 50 at Loveland it was another awesome ride. I have always felt that this ride is one of the best organized rides I have participated in. Point to point rides like this can be a little tough logistically for riders without a supporting family of friend who is willing to meet you at the end.


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## Rokh On

To the gentleman and fellow rider that lives on the route in Keystone and gave us shelter and some hot tea on Sat. a HUGE thank you. Probably saved one from abandoning. Hypothermia was a distinct possibility. He was shaking so bad he had some diffculty keeping his bike steady. A sincere thank you.

Lesson learned. $$$$ lightweight Specialized rain jacket will not cut it on a cold rainy mountain ride. It did not keep the rain/wet out in the hard rain.


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## sandan

Rode the Triple Bypass yesterday (June 15). GPS said 123 miles, 10,600' of climbing. Avon to Evergreen. Some rain storms a little bit of hail, but luckily dry descents. One of the best parts was the bike path from Silver Plume to Georgetown continuing onto frontage road into Idaho Springs where the riders were going at least twice as fast as the autos. I saw a guy on the highway right before Georgetown. I finished the ride had something to eat changed and saw him again when I got onto the highway to go home. About 4 hours.
Loveland Pass was tough, raining really hard, but Juniper Pass was a killer. That's where the rain and hail was. I think there was only 30 miles of rain compared to 55 on Saturday. And of course the storm from Juniper Pass hit Evergreen as soon as I had a plate of food ready, oh well.
Took me 10 hours, stops included, total time. Legs and lungs kinda hammered, my a$$ was killing me. A good way to spend a Sunday.
As previously stated kudos to ALL the support people; police, organizers, volunteers, sag folk (for having a real pump), mechanics (one of whom lent me a pair of gloves) everyone.


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## arkitect

I did the Double Triple

Day One: Great weather and not too much of a crowd on the road. Rain started at Swan Mountain, along with hail (ouch). Cleared up again until I summited Vail Pass at which time the skies opened and torrential rains started. I decided to keep going West as I was already wet and cold. By the time I got to Vail, it was beautiful but the last 10 miles going into Avon it was a downpour. Signage was not real good going into Avon and for a few minutes I thought I was on the wrong road as there was nobody around!

Day Two: Tough first hour getting the legs loose in a cold headwind. Loveland Pass the rain started and then for the next hour, a downpour. At the Idaho Springs aid station things got sunny and stayed that way until about 6 miles before the summit when it rained again! Summited in dry weather but got rain showers and high winds the last 10 miles into Evergreen.

Check the double off the bucket list!


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## r.shoemaker78

I rode the Sunday ride East. It was my first time riding the TBD. I left the start around 6:15 and it was cool but not bad. Realized on the start of the steep section of Vail pass that I could really use one more gear LOL. Loveland pass was brutal and I didn't mind the rain on the way up. Once I hit the top the sun came out and the views were amazing. I absolutely bombed down Loveland, passing riders and cars all the way...GPS registered 74.3 mph LOL!!! At one point I passed a Suburban on the way down, they caught up on the flat portion into the lunch stop and said I passed them when they were going just over 60 mph like a missile. My patellar tendonitis decided to flair up on the last climb, fought through it, got absolutely pored on before I could get my rain gear on so I just rode on. Got my second wind about half way up and did my best climbing of the day, finished with another nutty decent and a loud yeehaw on they way down.


Me after finishing the ride.


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## Rokh On

arkitect said:


> Day One: Great weather and not too much of a crowd on the road.


I'm curious. What time did you start? Glad you missed the hail/lightning/heavy rain heading down Loveland on Sat.


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## markguy

I did this ride for the first time -- Sunday, Avon to Evergreen. It was tougher than I had expected, but I had also spent a week beforehand getting acclimated, riding some 300+ miles, including Mt. Evans from Idaho Springs. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed it. Organization was very good, and it was amazing seeing all the people doing the double. My hats off to these people, especially having heard how had the weather was on Saturday.

I left about 6am. The ride up Vail was more of a grind than it appeared on the elevation profile. I really enjoyed seeing all the graffiti on the road from previous Pro stages. My favorite was "Schleck2". I don't remember much of the descent other than it started with some wicked curves on the bikepath.

The climb up Loveland seemed like it would be the easiest, being the shortest, but it was the toughest for me. The sun was out in full force and I was getting very warm. The sound of the river along side US-6 helped. The views were spectacular as I got closer to the summit thanks to the switchbacks. The summit was crazy, lots of activity there. This descent was the best of the three. I really let loose and a couple of cars waved me by. I topped out at 45mph, just about what I'm comfortable with, not being a serious cyclist. The second half of this descent was along a very nice bike path where you could really cook until at some point it dumped back onto the frontage road.

The climb up Juniper/Squaw was long, and warm in the beginning, until it started to sprinkle. That was very welcome and towards Echo Lake it started to rain steadily. By the time I got over Loveland it had stopped and the descent from Squaw was thankfully dry. The middle part of this descent was a mess with the roughest part of the entire ride. Never got passed on the way down, then sat at the light before the finish line for what seemed like 10 minutes. Dead tired at the end.

Great ride, great organization, great jersey, great challenge. I'm really happy I did it.
I'm really glad I wasn't on the single speed like two crazy guys that I saw a few times.


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## arkitect

Rokh On said:


> I'm curious. What time did you start? Glad you missed the hail/lightning/heavy rain heading down Loveland on Sat.


Rolled out of Evergreen at 5:45 am. Lot's of people started at around the same time. If I do it again, I will leave right at 5:00 to try to beat the crowds and the weather! 

Sunday I left at 6:15 am


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## OldChipper

First time riding the Triple. I've done most of the other organized one-day rides in the state and figured I should finally do this one. I decided rather late and bought a transfer on Craigslist. Also turned out I had to be at sea level for business for 2 of the 3 weeks leading up to the event plus had a medical issue that kept me from riding one of the weekends before. Soooo... not as prepared as I would normally be for such a ride. 

Left Bergen Park about 5:50. I really think the ride has outgrown the start venue and they need to find a place with all the parking etc. in the same place. I had to park a couple of miles from the packet pickup tent and ride my bike there and back in the dark (fortunately had my blinky lights in my cycling bag). Climb up Squaw and Juniper was cool and calm and not as boring/interminable as I remembered. Good rest stop there riders and volunteers very friendly/helpful. I did the climb in arm and knee warmers and had a medium-weight Pearl-Izumi jacket, toe-covers, ear band, and long-finger gloves in a stuff sack strapped under my saddle. 

The descent into Idaho Springs was fun and fast. I consider myself to be a pretty fast/aggressive descender, but there were lots of people blowing past me - presumably they knew the descent better than I do. The ride from Idaho Springs to Georgetown was fun and I managed to hook up with a couple of pace-lines in this section. I was blown-away by the number of personal sags parked along the route in Idaho Springs. 

The bike path from Georgetown to Loveland Basin, in a word, sucked - for me anyway. Lots of short-steep climbs that really took it out of my legs and really narrow. Probably if I'd had more time to train appropriately, this wouldn't have been as much of an issue. I'd spent most of the Spring training for time trialing (i.e. long, consistent hard efforts) rather than doing lots of sprints. Lesson learned. 

The ham and turkey sandwiches at the Loveland aid station were very welcome and tasty. The food line was a bit long, but moved quickly. 

The climb up to Loveland Pass and most of the descent was fun/good but the rain started just before the turn onto Swan Mountain road. Wasn't too bad and you can only get so wet!  When I got to the aid station at the school I was about ready to call it a day. I was pretty soaked and not looking forward to climbing up to Vail Pass while wet. Fortunately, the sun was out a bit and I was able to find a warm rock to sit down on for a while. Equally as fortunate, my wife, whom I'd called to come save my sorry butt, was stuck in horrible I-70 traffic. So the decision was sit around in Frisco for a couple of hours, or make my way over to Vail. I opted to continue and started down the bike path to Frisco as the light rain returned. 

Fortunately, by the time I got to Copper Mountain, the rain had abated and the climb up to Vail Pass was dry (and MUCH easier than I'd remembered). The Vail Pass rest area was welcome and dry and I spent only enough time to refill my bottles and grab a quick snack as I knew it was downhill from there. On the descent, I managed to tag onto a local female pro (not part of the event) and make much better time on the descent than I would have otherwise by matching her speed and line through the tight curves. By about mid-Vail the torrential rains began and it was fairly miserable but fortunately downhill so was able to ride into Avon at a 20--30mph pace thus minimizing the time in the rain. Finished the ride in 8:09 riding time and about 10 hrs overall (most time spent at the rest stop between Breck and Frisco)

Unfortunately, in Avon the rain was very heavy and the winds began to pick up. My wife hadn't quite navigated all the traffic so I had to sit around a while in the open-sided tent. Was really surprised I didn't get hypothermic. I was about ready to go looking for a hotel room to get a hot shower and dry off when I got a call from my wife that she'd arrived. 

Also a bit of a hassle finding out where to unite rider and drivers at the end of the event. The people at the "Information" table had no clue about this nor did the people yelling at my wife "YOU CAN'T PARK HERE!" We worked it out however and headed home. 

Probably need a large, indoor venue for the end of the event too. It ends at a school and it seems like they should at least be able to get access to the gym and locker rooms so folks could get out of the wind/rain and change into dry clothes. From what I understand from others, rain is not uncommon for this event. Hot drinks (coffee, tea, hot chocolate) would also have been welcome at the higher aid stations and at the end. 

All in all a good event that I would do again although, as noted, it seems like it's got some growing pains. A good bunch of riders and the volunteers were all awesome. I didn't have the issues with the course marking that some have mentioned, but I'm very familiar with all the roads. Also a much higher percentage of very fit riders (as I would expect for such an event) than most one-day events in the state. Recommended.


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## King Arthur

I have to second old chipper recommendations. Seems while the support was great, the start and finish line venue need some revisiting. I am certain that there are some places that can be closed off, and provide adequate parking for the folks at start and end. Not certain if this will ever make it to team evergreen, but who knows.


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## indianhillsted

The start is a bit crazy. Although I've always had my packet on that morning so I've never had to do any waiting the morning of the ride. My biggest complaint for the end is lack of SHADE. It's been a few years since I've done it but last time there wasn't a cloud in the sky at the end and all I wanted was out of the sun.

The start/finish has been the same over the past 8 years I've ridden. I wouldn't expect those to change. There is a rec center near by that you could have used to get warm. I know many people shower there waiting for their rides. The new bag transfer service from TE would make this easier too....but I suppose if I used this I would have had to wait at the start.

One thing we started doing as we did this ride more often is to park a car up there on Thursday or Friday. My wife was never very fond of coming to get me!

I'l get back there some year.


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