Day 2 started at 3:15am for me. The alarm went off and I felt well rested having gotten close to 7 hours of sleep. An abundance of riches on a long brevet. It almost felt like I was doing it wrong by having so many hours off the bike. Usually, a long break is 5 hours. More typical is 3-4 hours. At any rate, I saw Chris getting himself ready and we chatted about the day. I went out and got breakfast which was cereal with milk and some pastry. I grabbed a couple of things from the boxes of food for taking on the bike. I had dressed for the day which was 2 pairs of shorts (double the padding to avoid bruising), a short sleeve jersey, a wool base layer, my Rapha jacket, my PBP vest, a balaclava, sun sleeves, sun knees, and long fingered gloves. I skipped wearing booties.
Day 2 travels north into Wyoming. We had a long stretch of rollers to reach the first control at mile 67. The pre-riders had warned about being too fast and arriving before 7am when the stores were expected to be open. There was no risk of that with me. Leaving at 4AM, we had ample time to reach Saratoga and find stores already open. The Garmin declared that there were 12 climbs on day 2. The cue sheet called out Snowy Range Pass (10847 feet) and Woods Landing (9194 feet). The group I was with ncluded Chris Ngo, John Nguyen, and Jeff Newberry. There were several other groups near us on the road and we got passed by speedier riders who started later than us and whizzed past us as we made the right turn towards Saratoga.
I used my Garmin radar for the first time on Day 2 and found that I liked it better in the lighter traffic. It sometimes gave false positives when it detected riders behind me rather than traffic. Wyoming is so big and quiet though, I could hear the cars long before the Garmin detected them. I think the right time to use the Garmin is when you are riding in moderately noisy places or when you have your ears covered and could use the extra help to spot danger behind. I didn't take as many photos on day 2, but here is one showing the big remote openness of Wyoming.
As we rode along, Chris complained that he was sleepy. He had taken caffeine, but was still struggling with not being able to stay awake. He sprinted ahead a couple of times to try and get his energy level up.
In Saratoga, we found lots of riders hanging out and eating food. It had been a long 67 miles and everyone needed to get fixed up because the return to the first pass climb would be windy and hilly. Jeff had some trouble finding food, but ended up finding some things he could eat. John took off early saying he wanted to reach the pass to take some photos. That would be last we would see him all day long.
As we rode towards Snowy Range, Jeff made sure to point out that we should not skip any support vehicle water stops. He expected that we might find Vernon somewhere near the top of the climb. We started climbing and I found that again I was climbing well and I left Jeff and Chris behind. Up and up I went and I started to be worried that I might run out of water. I don't usually drink as much, but with the wind and heat, I had been drinking more and trying to stay hydrated. As I got near the top of the climb, I was riding with Andrew Clayton who hails from Ohio. He was riding a bike that included panniers. At some point when the summit was still 200 feet away, I asked if he had any extra water. He said he did and he graciously shared half a bottle with me. This was all I needed to reach the summit and find the truck with the water and Coca-Cola in cans. I was so glad to get up this climb in one piece.
The descent from Snowy Range was the best of the descents I experienced. The roads were smooth without the gadunk, gadunk, gadunk of Colorado roads. The descent was layed out perfectly and there was only 1 car that passed me. I flew down the descent enjoying every second of it. It was incredible. I reached the store in Centennial and found the cafe that Jeff had been telling us about was permanently closed. I went in to the Friendly c-store and bought bean dip, Fritos, and a drink. Jeff eventually rolled in and was also disappointed by the closed restaurant. We ate the chips and bean dip and saw no sign of Chris. Other riders left the store and we eventually mounted our bikes and headed towards Laramie.
At the store, found George and I were both wearing the blue K-Hound jersey :-)
Hooray for Fritos and bean dip ($10 for this delicious meal).
Epic ride had predicted head wind, but for the first 4 miles out of Centennial, we found we had a tail wind pushing us along. All of a sudden though, we climbed a small hill and the cross head wind hit us in the face. We took turns pulling all the way to Laramie. It was on this stretch that we found out Chris Ngo had DNFed. He was in the truck with Vernon and said he had just been too tired to continue. Jeff, as always, tried to talk him out of it, but it was a done deal. I joked that to. continue, Vernon would have to haul Chris back to the top of Snowy Range (which was behind us). Ha ha!
We reached Laramie and had to go off course to find a place to eat. There was supposed to be a Subway, but we found a Sinclair first and stopped there. The store had a burrito and taco bar. Jeff ordered a veggie version of a burrito with beans, lettuce, rice, salsa, and hot peppers. I opted for a beef taco with lettuce, tomato, and salsa. I also got ice for my bottles and a bottle of chocolate milk. As it turned out, this was the worst meal of my brevet. The taco went down but was like a lump in my stomach. As we left Laramie and road toward Woods Landing, the wind was gusting at 20-25 mph and I had no power. At some point, I took a Gu and ate something which is no longer in my rando-fuzzed memory. This helped and I was at least able to hold Jeff's wheel. We reached Kyrsten with the water and cookies. She said she thought the wind would stop when we reached the climb. We had a few more miles to ride to reach the base of the climb and when we reached it, the wind was less but still channeling down the mountain in our faces.
I again climbed faster than Jeff and I reached the summit and spent time putting on warm clothes to prepare for the descent. About 20 minutes later, Jeff rolled up and he was already dressed and ready for the descent. I added my Cygo-lamp to the bike for the descent in the dark of the night. We had a safe descent followed by miles of gadunk, gadunk to reach Walden. We got in very late and I opted to skip the lasagna dinner to shower and sleep as Day 3 was, in my mind, the hardest day to prepare for.
All the photos from day 2 are here:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/LgTw83Pt8QnrZ7oi8
Full Garmin data for day 2 here:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/7129582265