Copper Triangle

Kate & I did the Copper Triangle today on the Tandem. After 3 major passes, and one extra climb that was much bigger than it looked on the profile we still felt OK.

Kate was amazing. Considering just a couple of years ago she struggled with asthma with even small rides, seeing her hammer up mountain passes over 11,000 feet and enjoying it was amazing. The last climb of the day was from Minturn to the top of Vail pass. bottom to top was over 3,000 feet. As we got higher and higher and the grade was getting steeper there were people all over the road massaging out cramps and revisiting their breakfast and there was Kate behind me hammer away. Not a single extra rest on any of the climbs.

The Copper Triangle was also a fantastic route. The rest stops were really well placed and well stocked with good food & drink. The roads were for the most part great. The views were amazing. The Tandem handled really well. The new disk brake held up really well. People kept telling us of their stories of high speed blow-outs from braking too hard on a tandem. It made me feel great about that disk brake on the back. We hit a high speed of 51.7 mph on the descent from Fremont pass... There was one part going up Vail pass that was probably about a 14% grade - although hearing the fearful stories of other riders it was described as 18%, 20% or even 24% - we had enough gearing to get up without too much difficulty.

More pictures can be found at here.