Hopkins 4K for Cancer

June 28, 2006

Wiggins, CO
This morning we woke up in beds in the houses of our gracious hosts in Yuma, CO. Thanks again for putting us up and feeding us this morning. It’s exciting to think that today is our last flat day of the trip, because tomorrow we will be in the Rockies! Some of us are nervous for tomorrow, aka “The Boulder Challenge,” which will be 83 miles from Wiggins to Boulder followed by a 17 mile climb into the foothills. Personally, I am looking forward to being in the mountains. Today I wanted to kind of take it easy so that I would be physically ready for the century into Boulder.

One highlight of the day is Ersin’s turquoise outfit, which he bought at a bike shop near the park where we ate lunch. He found this cool looking pair of bib shorts, which was on sale. It wasn’t until the end of the day that we informed him it was a women’s outfit! Check out the picture on the website.

We were greeted and fed by very generous hosts who prepared an array of good food. After dinner, we walked across the street to the main church, where we gave our presentation. Raffi introduced himself as Marf for the first time, and the name stuck. After the presentation, our hosts drove us to a spot overlooking the highway, from where you could see the snowcaps of the Rocky Mountains glistening in the sunset. It was definitely one of the most memorable moments of the summer.

When we got back to the church, we had a rider meeting to discuss the logistics of the Boulder Challenge. We would be waking up at 4 am so that everyone would have enough time to complete the climb by dark. In addition to all this excitement, we turned on the DVD of the 2004 Tour de France to get pumped! I plan on rocking the Boulder Challenge like Lance Armstrong rocked l’Alpe de Huez!

-David