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Grand Junction – I passed the last night before leaving for my first year of college by packing meticulously, pacing aimlessly, sleeping intermittently and cursing furiously. Thursday night was not much different as the hours waned before leaving for my first Ride The Rockies bicycle tour.

I awoke yesterday morning throttled by eerily similar anxieties. Would I meet any nice people? Would the not-so-nice ones make fun of my clothes? Would I get lost? And if I did get lost, would anybody bother to notice?

Allaying my nerves was a pleasant greeting from Ride The Rockies tour director Paul Balaguer, who must’ve sensed the despair of a guy trying to simultaneously fasten his big-boy britches and remember what dark recess of the conspicuously new Eagle Crest extra-large cargo duffel was reserved for insect repellant.

In the parking lot of The Denver Post’s Fox Street printing facility, Paul conducted a rhapsody in organized chaos, which included frenetic activity surrounding eight Dodge Caravans, seven Chevy TrailBlazers, four Ford Explorers, four Ford pickups and four Ryder trucks. Yet this master juggler found a moment to notice me, make me feel like I was expected, then pointed me to my ride for Grand Junction, where The Denver Post’s annual bicycle tour, now in its 20th year, begins this weekend with a 45-mile spin through Colorado National Monument.

HACK ATTRACTS FEEDBACK

Ann Sparks, Conifer, Colo. You won’t be alone. From what I can ascertain, there are hundreds like you (and me) who are going solo. For me, it’s a challenge physically and mentally (can I deal with fretting about my aching back or waking up in the middle of the night in my tent alone without the incredible support system that I have here at home?). You would think, at age 41, I would be over this kind of thing. I guess we shall see. … About 30 miles into each ride, my lower back goes into these incredible spasms. I thought it was because I wasn’t used to riding my bike (a road bike that I purchased in February), and that it would go away, but it seems to only get worse as the mileage and training goes on. I’m carrying — and I’m not kidding here — in my CamelBak each day: 1. At least 20 Advil, of which I take four tablets every four hours. … My poor liver; 2. Ben Gay – The kind with no scent so as not to offend my fellow cyclists; 3. Icy Hot lower-back patches.; 4. Possibly, my copy of several pages of “Stretches for Cyclists.” I hope that will ease at least some of the pain, especially on Day 2. Remember to eat a lot of carbs these last days. (I ate an entire Safeway white cake a few weeks ago, by myself.) And have a safe ride to Grand Junction. See you at the ride!

Upon the roll call, replete with inside humor and a last-minute arrival, Paul announced the beginning of the 2005 RTR for roughly 40 officials and volunteers in an understated fashion met with genuine jubilance:

“OK, let’s go put on a bike tour.”

At 9:40 a.m. yesterday, my first-ever RTR began in the passenger seat of Garet Hickman’s No. 10 vehicle. Garet, a 37-year-old director of communications for St. Anthony Hospitals’ Flight for Life program, is a radio- and medical-support volunteer. It’s Garet’s 19th Ride The Rockies tour. He missed only the inaugural event. And while he’s never cycled an RTR, there’s no visible end to his desire to roam the course’s descents, to treat “road rash” or to load a greenhorn’s bike to a roof rack.

“No doubt, I’m gonna go on it ’til Paul gets out of it,” said Garet as we cruised westward on Interstate 70, calling attention to the “master of organization” and the Herculean effort behind directing 2,000 cyclists representing 48 states and eight foreign nations along 405 Rocky Mountain miles.

Garet went on to rattle off some other names of folks who’ve been volunteering at RTR for years — like Leon Siefken, whose No. 9 vehicle we followed most of the cross-state route. Leon is 20-for-20 at Ride The Rockies. This might be his last hurrah, however, if you’re to believe what’s spoken over fries at a Burger King in Glenwood Springs.

This Manitoba model from Nishiki (c.1997) was secured atop Ride The Rockies vehicle No. 10 on Friday morning, compliments of RTR volunteer Garet Hickman.

Leon alluded to some other developments in his life since last year’s Ride, and I excused myself to let the two confide while I visited the 7-Eleven and picked up the 39 items I forgot to pack. En route it occurred to me that — at least this first day — it’s like a family reunion for many of these returning volunteers. In exchange for a week of their lives each summer to keep cyclists fed, safe and happy, as well as expose another batch of newcomers to scenery that Theodore Roosevelt once said “bankrupts the English language,” these RTR volunteers get to catch up on each other’s lives and enjoy the laughs and laments grounded in years of shared experience.

In the case of Garet and Leon, the esprit de corps is in its 19th and potentially final year.

In my case, on the eve of RTR registration, I can only hope that the spirit among cyclists turns out to be as … well … collegial.

DenverPost.com sports producer Bryan Boyle is participating in the — his first bike ride of any kind beyond the occasional wee-hour visit to a convenience market. His series runs on DenverPost.com each day of the June 18-25 event, which follows a 405-mile course from Grand Junction to Breckenridge.

To share any RTR-related experiences, fears, advice or yarns, send an e-mail to Bryan at bboyle@denverpost.com.