https://www.strava.com/activities/2452449952
I arrived in El Paso Friday afternoon to begin preparations for PAC Tour's Elite Ridge of the Rockies tour which begins on Sunday morning. The tour covers 1,891 miles over 12 days through the Rocky Mountains and crosses through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. This promises to be a challenging but incredibly scenic tour with a number of mountain passes over 11,000 ft. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to give this one a go to see if I still have what it takes to complete all of the days' miles and finish with RAAM qualification which I was able to do 9 years prior when riding Elite PAC Tour in 2010 from San Diego to Williamsburg.
Many riders arrived on Friday with some coming in during the day Saturday. Coming out early gave me a chance to do a short ride to make sure everything was working properly and to jump start the legs a bit. I opted for an early loop ride up and over Franklin Mountain which is on the outskirts of town. I also did the obligatory ride to the border to make sure it was official that I started in Mexico. I stuck my rear wheel through the border fence (which did not require a passport). In any event, we were under the watchful eye of Border Patrol agents who already had their hands full with about 20 in custody. They did not seem phased by our presence. I suppose all of the Spandex threw them off!
Here are a few picks from the Franklin Mountain loop:
And a few from the border ride:
I got off the road by 11:00 or so. It was already in the upper 80's High 90's forecast for day 1 tomorrow so it's off to hydrate and rest for when the real work begins. We begin heading north at 6:00 am!
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