Day 28: Denver to Colorado Springs

Today is the last day in the so called front range megalopolis. We were riding with a number of pi alphas (guys who have done a Summer event before) and some guys from KRG capital. One of the guys we rode with was Bruce Rogers, who in 1987 rode his bike by himself across the United States for Push America. His trip evolved into the Journey of Hope. Bruce is somewhat of a legend, and I was excited that he rode in my paceline.

The team had made this guy out to be a living god, but he was really cool, and a great guy to ride with. It was pretty awesome when he told me I had a good pull, and we were able to joke around with him all day and talk to him about the first time he cycled across the U.S.

There was a massive headwind today, and for the second time this Summer, we were not able to make it to arrival on time, so we racked the bikes to the Colorado Olympic Training Facility. Bruce said it was the strongest headwind he had seen in twenty years of riding with Journey of Hope teams. I’m not sure if he was serious or just trying to make us feel better, but either way, it was nice to hear.

We took a tour of the Olympic Training facility and had lunch there. It was really cool to see where some of the best athletes in the world train. At lunch I met a guy from Truman State who graduated in 2005 who was training for weightlifting. I was pretty surprised to see someone from Truman, but I think my team members were even more surprised and kept joking that I’m not really the only person who goes there.

After the tour we went to Colorado College where we are staying for the evening. The dean had us over dinner at his house and it was great. I met a guy who just got his masters degree at University of Alabama, and he had some good things to say about their graduate programs. He also recommended a restraint called City Café in Northport. I also talked to the dean about Truman State. Apparently he had been there before was familiar with Kirksville. Considering I haven’t met a single person this trip who had even heard of Truman, I was pretty excited to talk to two people about it today.

We have a 5:30 wake up tomorrow. It’s a half hour early than it was supposed to be because we were late getting out of lodging today. The team wasn’t very happy about this, but I guess it just means we’ll get to Pueblo a little faster tomorrow.