A Layover in Colorado

I greeted Michael last Friday (the 4th) at about noon in Denver, CO. He'd ridden fast (the others arrived about 4.5 hours after he did) and was caked in salt and sweat. He promptly was ushered into the shower and then helped me make food for the rest of the group. We had black bean lasagna, watermelon, salad, and ice cream to celebrate. Then the group rode off to see fireworks at various places around Denver. From a building you could see all along the front range and the various shows going on in different towns.

On Sunday he and I drove up to Ft. Collins so I could go to work the next day and the rest of the crew headed to Boulder to hang out. Colorado is very bike friendly, so I think they all enjoyed the bicycle lanes in the cities and general outdoor culture. At one point riding around Ft. Collins Michael told me that he thought it was cool that there were so many people out riding to downtown, for commuting, and just for fun or to get around, but it made him feel less special for riding his bike. You sure don't stick out riding a bike here, but I think riding across the country is something to make you stick out!

After spending nearly a week in Colorado Michael has started the rest of his journey west. He left today from Fort Collins, CO and is spending the night with Claire, Calum, and Trevor in Laramie, WY in the backyard of a writer for Velo News. Those three had ridden through Ft. Collins a day before in order to get an earlier start and feel less rushed. Today was a hard day due to hills, wind, and some of the hottest weather we've had yet this summer. Plus he was starting a long day after many days' break. I'm sure he'll fall into the rhythm again soon enough. I could tell that he was throughly enjoying himself and by the last night he was itching to be back on the road and complete the trip. The rest of the crew hasn't found the willpower to leave Boulder yet, so hopefully they will follow tomorrow or the next day and they won't fall too far behind.

Yesterday Michael and I, along with the rest of my fellow summer interns, went to New Belgium Brewery here in Fort Collins. They do brewery tours and give free sampling of their beers and I think they give you around 1.5 pints of legitimately good beer in total (I'm not a huge beer fan and I liked them quite a lot). They are also a very sustainable company and have invested in renewable energy, very good recycling of their products and waste in processing, they build energy efficient buildings, and they encourage bicycling. Their emblem and most popular beer is Fat Tire (a bicycle theme) and each employee gets a free New Belgium cruiser bicycle on their first anniversary of working for the company. The company is employee owned and the employees all get a free case of beer each week. With that much beer I think they just end up bartering it with friends for other things. Anyway, Michael enjoyed it a lot and I've added a slide show of the few pictures from there below.