# Colorado flat land ride.



## theBreeze (Jan 7, 2002)

Okay I know this weird, but has anyone done a tour in eastern Colorado? Yeah sure Colorado is know for it's mountains, and everyone and their uncle's half-brother has ridden those passes, including me. But I look at the map and I see all these highways heading east from Denver and Fort Collins and Colorado Springs and I wonder what kind of route I could put together.

One could follow the Platte River (too thick to drink, too thick to plow) to Sterling and beyond, turn south towards Burlington and Cheyenne Wells (great name!). And then down south there is Las Animas, La Junta and the Comanche National Grasslands.

So has anyone ever ridden these straight highways and right angle turns?


----------



## MikeBiker (Mar 9, 2003)

theBreeze said:


> Okay I know this weird, but has anyone done a tour in eastern Colorado? Yeah sure Colorado is know for it's mountains, and everyone and their uncle's half-brother has ridden those passes, including me. But I look at the map and I see all these highways heading east from Denver and Fort Collins and Colorado Springs and I wonder what kind of route I could put together.
> 
> One could follow the Platte River (too thick to drink, too thick to plow) to Sterling and beyond, turn south towards Burlington and Cheyenne Wells (great name!). And then down south there is Las Animas, La Junta and the Comanche National Grasslands.
> 
> So has anyone ever ridden these straight highways and right angle turns?


 For an easterly ride you could do the Last Chance 1200 http://www.rmccrides.com/lastchance.htm

It goes east from Boulder to Kansas and back.


----------



## stlutz (Jan 6, 2005)

The book Road Biking Colorado lists several tours you can do. The roads tend to be constant rollers. The plains are beautiful, but scenery doesn't change much. An alternative to consider is to put a day or two of this on the start or end of your tour.


----------



## MDGColorado (Nov 9, 2004)

The Adventury Cycling Trans-am route covers Towner on the KS border to Pueblo. It's pretty nice riding, can be brutal heading west though. 

On one of those 30-mph-westerly-wind days I'd just love to ride east all day just to see hw far I could get.


----------



## ovalmasterofmydomain (Feb 3, 2004)

MDGColorado said:


> The Adventury Cycling Trans-am route covers Towner on the KS border to Pueblo. It's pretty nice riding, can be brutal heading west though.
> 
> On one of those 30-mph-westerly-wind days I'd just love to ride east all day just to see hw far I could get.


You could go West to East, and take a train back to your starting point. Not sure how Amtrak is in Colorado, but out here on the west coast they seem to be doing their best to make it impossible to plan a bike trip that uses Amtrak: some cars have a spot to store a couple of bikes, but not all; bike storage is first come, first serve for cars that have it. So you basically can't be assured of have a place to put your bike unless you're willing to dissassemble it and have it placed with the baggage.


----------



## theBreeze (Jan 7, 2002)

*Bike/train rides*



ovalmasterofmydomain said:


> You could go West to East, and take a train back to your starting point. Not sure how Amtrak is in Colorado, but out here on the west coast they seem to be doing their best to make it impossible to plan a bike trip that uses Amtrak: some cars have a spot to store a couple of bikes, but not all; bike storage is first come, first serve for cars that have it. So you basically can't be assured of have a place to put your bike unless you're willing to dissassemble it and have it placed with the baggage.


Last summer I met a couple guys from Oklahoma City who did something like that. On really windy days they would ride the train west for 50 miles or so, then ride back to the city with a tailwind. Kind of fun.


----------

