Once again we got an early start, on the road by 7:15 AM. Today’s ride is relatively short (88.3 miles). We donned our cool weather gear as the temperature was in the mid 50s. The first 40 miles of the ride was flat as we rode on the high plateau. The mountains ranges ran on both sides providing a great view during the ride. At the 40 mile mark, we started a 17 mile-2,800 foot climb. The grades were in the 5% to 7% range, far less than yesterday’s climb. Except 
for the road work a mile and a half from the summit, Matt and I rode to the top without stopping, but not together. My only hope was that when I reached the summit, Matt would still be in Wyoming.
The road work took one mile from our ride. Matt arrived at the road work area first (surprise) and that allowed me time to catch up. He asked the flag person if bikes could go through. She said yes and when Matt clipped in to proceed through, she clarified her statement…and said “in the back of a truck”.
Larry transported us t
hrough the road work zone and we rode the last half mile to the summit – the Continental Divide – 9,658 foot elevation. As you can see from the pictures Larry took, there was a considerable amount of snow on the ground. It took us about an hour and 20 miles to cover the last 31 miles into Dubois, a small town of 960 people.
With today’s ride, our total miles traveled exceeded the 1,000 mile mark (1,085). The other significant accomplishment today was that after reaching the summit, we have only one big climb day left – and that occurs on the second to last day of the trip.
Larry continues to refine his support skills (I’m starting to think he will be applying for a support position in the Tour de France someday). Since we did not stop on the climb today, we would hand our empty to water bottles to Larry, he would drive ahead of us, refill our bo
ttles, run along side of us and hand us full water bottles or what ever else we needed – just like they do in the Tour, except they use cars.
Tomorrow we will continue our descent from 6,900 foot elevation to just under 5,000 feet. Total climb – just over 300 feet.
