Tell us about your weekend ride

Three weekends in Colorado:

1. Headed over to Boulder, I know the route now which feels nice and it was great to tip the bike into the turns without having to check the Garmin. Stopped for a coffee, popped into Vecchio's for a chat and then started up Flagstaff:
   
   

This is a climb from the alluvial plain which makes up all of Colorado that isn't the Rockies, into the front range of the Rockies.

It's one of my favourites as it goes directly out of town and the contrast is always enjoyable.

Colorado is very, very dry in the summer.

If you go over the top of Flagstaff mountain you get to Gross Dam - guess what the name means?

At this point the tarmac stops and it's exclusively dirt road (gravel, highly compacted earth).

This is fun, but on Sprinter Gatorskins cornering and braking is a little nervous, climbing out of the saddle isn't an option either as the rear wheel spins.

This section of the route dips, then climbs up onto the Peak to Peak highway, which is starting to get high (2,400 meters), and the next section is a long sweeping descent down Coal Creek.

This is a lot of fun, until this happens:

I changed to the spare tub and then tried to keep the speed down to 50Km/h on the rest of the roll home - this requires massive self control down this road.

At least I got to check that my corks where ok when I glued the spare on when I got home: