It was a gorgeous autumn day. The weather was supposed to be in the low 80s and nearly clear sky. It would be a criminal waste if I didn’t get on the bike… or so I thought.

So by 10:30AM I was out of the house. The plan was to do about 65-70 miles of ‘plains’ riding. That meant going east. So I went east.
From my home I took CO-42 to Baseline. Turned right on Baseline, which becomes CO-7 shortly after, and stayed on it until the intersection with US-85 about 14 miles down.

Baseline/168th/CR-2/CO-7, whichever you prefer, is mostly rolling hills. Since this was supposed to be a long ride, I decided to keep the effort moderate. Yet, thanks to the downhills, the average speed wasn’t bad at all. I also had a slight tailwind. The Look555 cruised at nearly 20-22mph for most part.

Turning left on to US-85 towards Fort Lupton brought headwinds, and naturally, I slowed down. I reached Ft. Lupton around 12:00noon. Exactly 1 hour 38 minutes and 29 miles from home.

After a short break and refilling the bottles, I turned back on to CO-52. A mile out of Ft. Lupton, turned left on to WCR-23. This is one of my favorite roads in and around Boulder. It is nearly flat and with hardly any traffic. In addition, the scenery is also pretty good. Everytime I ride on this route, I realize how much I love Colorado.

From CR-23, I turned right on to CR-6. This is a long slow uphill towards I-25. It is also one road that I am nervous about. It was on this road that a couple of years ago I was chased by a huge black dog. I still shudder at that experience. Invariably, I am always looking out for dogs on this road. Needless to say, I don’t particularly enjoy the scenery here.

Just past I-25 I turned right on to CR-7 and continued on that for several miles to Rinn road. I remembered that from a route that Ken once came up with. It was a very pretty one. One thing that amused me on this section was the presence of a new round-about or traffic circle on CR-7 just north of CO-52. I can’t imagine why they want to have a traffic circle there, with well over 70 percent of drivers not knowing how to drive around a circle! It is plain stupid.

Getting back to the ride, at the intersection of Rinn rd and CR-7, I noticed that my front wheel was low on air — a flat. But I was just half a mile short of completing 50 miles that I didn’t stop! Continued for another couple of minutes to watch the GPS crossing the 50 miles in 2 hours and 57 minutes! That was one of the fastest half-centuries of this season! I was thrilled!

But there was another little matter to take care of: the flat. There were two thorns sticking into the tyre. Replaced the tube and continued. There was one problem though: I was running low on water and there were no gas stations or grocery shops nearby.

From Rinn Rd, I turned left on to County Line Rd and later to Oxford Rd. From Oxford to CO-42. On the way, I stopped near Arapahoe and filled the bottle.

I was back home around 3:40pm. 72 miles in all. 4 hours and 20 minutes. An average speed of 16.61mph (the first fifty was at 16.94mph). Such a great ride!