I’m doing this via phone, so my recap of BTC 2014 isn’t going to be incredibly wordy (pictures speak 1000 words anyway, right?). So about a month ago, myself and about 10 teammates drove from Houston, TX to Colorado for the annual Bicycle Tour of Colorado. This is a 7-day, 400+ mile ride with close to 30,000 feet of climbing. Definitely a challenge for a bunch of kids used to riding in flat, humid conditions at sea level! But it was a blast!!!

We drove about 22 hours to the starting town, Gunnison, and set up camp with about 800 other cyclists.

Our first night we spent exploring the area and hitting up a swingset. I swear on all of my bike trips I become like a little kid again 🙂

That first night (and every night to come) was FREEZING. We came from weather in the high nineties to camping in the 30s. Haha. But I think everyone slept pretty well considering we were exhausted from the road trip.

Our morning routine was waking up around 5:30am, packing up ALL of our stuff (tents, sleeping bags, duffel bags, etc) and throwing them in a Penske, and then getting on our bikes. Our first ride was from Gunnison to Montrose (about 65 miles). This was actually considered to be the easiest day, but it was still kind of rough since we were trying to adjust to the altitude and…. Umm, mountains. Haha

Day 2 was a shorter day, from Montrose to Ouray and only about 35 miles, but all uphill. It actually wasn’t bad at all though, just really windy!!

Although BTC offers a “meal plan,” we all opted to explore the towns each night via bike and eat at the local places.

Day 3 was from Ouray to Durango.

Day 4 was Durango to Pagosa Springs, where we also had our rest day (yay!).

Day 6 was to Creede, then 7 was back to Gunnison.

The trip was amazing and one I’ll never forget. I think most of us will definitely be back next year!!