Cottonwood Pass to Buena Vista

The "big" news in Colorado is their preparedness for the US Pro Cycling Challenge that will take place August 22 to the 28th.  Not since the late 1980's (Coors Classic) has Colorado hosted such a large bike race.  We are lucky that we will be here when Stage 1 (Salida to Mt. Crested Butte) comes through Gunnison on the 23rd and Stage 2 (Gunnison to Aspen) starts here on the 24th.  The top three cyclists from the Tour de France will be riding as well as many well-known American pro-cyclists of the likes of  Tom Danielson, Levi Leipheimer, and George Hincapie.  They claim this will be the biggest spectator viewing event in Colorado's history.

Stage 2 (Gunnison to Aspen) will take them over two 12,000+ foot mountains:  Cottonwood Pass and Independence Pass.  We recall Independence Pass when we drove over it in 1990.  At that time, we were dually impressed at the endurance and skill shown by the cyclists going up the pass from the Aspen side and then going down with all the hairpins turns. The cyclists for this race will go up the hairpin turn side and down in to Aspen.  Wow, that is going to be some epic riding.  Remember, these guys will be racing and not out for a leisurely ride.

As we are relatively close to Cottonwood Pass, we thought we would take the drive over the pass and down into Buena Vista as we have never been there.  Also, we had learned that the climb to Cottonwood Pass (14 miles to the summit) will be done on a dirt/gravel road.  Have you ever noticed the skinny tires that road bikes have?  Wow, that is going to be some challenge.  The drive from Gunnison up through the Taylor Canyon is very pretty and won't offer too much of a challenge to the pro-cyclists until they leave the pavement and have to go 14 miles on dirt/gravel.  Road work is being done on the road but it will still be very bumpy and lumpy in places and it winds up, up, up to the summit at the Continental Divide.

We found there was still some snow along the ridge line.

 

Taylor Reservoir (from hence we came) can be seen up against the back mountain range.

We estimate that it may take the cyclists an hour or so to make the summit but once they do, they will then be back on pavement and then the technical part of the ride will begin.  The road has lots of twists and turns and at one point, there are warnings about a 10 percent decent.  They will be going down faster on their bikes than we would dare go down in a vehicle.

Here we are at the summit.  What a beautiful view behind us.

We ventured down in to Buena Vista and with the help of  my Yelp app, we found a place to have lunch.  We ate at Eddyline Restaurant & Brewery.  Lunch was very good albeit a bit pricey.  We don't drink beer, so I can't say if their brews were any good or not.  Other than rafting and a couple of hot springs, I don't think there is too much to do in Buena Vista.  We did not care for the terrain (high desert valley) so it is unlikely that we would ever return there. 

Instead of going back the way we came (less miles), we decided to make a loop out of our trip and headed south to Poncha Springs and up and over Monarch Pass (so much easier not pulling the trailer behind us) and back to Gunnison.

If you are interested in learning more about Colorado's big bike race, click here: US Pro Cycling Challenge.  Versus will have daily coverage and NBC will give condensed coverage on Sunday, August 28.