CRESTED BUTTE — On the fifth day, they rested. Most of them, anyway.
For Ride the Rockies bicyclists, Thursday brought the chance to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and soak up this former mining town’s charms for a full day. It seemed to make Wednesday’s 92 miles worth the agony.
“Anything that doesn’t have to do with being on the saddle,” first-time rider Marc Ferguson, 50, said of his plans for the day. “Need to let the bottom side heal.”
Ferguson, of Longmont, was on the road for more than 10 hours Wednesday, and toward the end he nearly yielded to the urge to flag down a sag wagon. Thursday morning, he smiled as he gazed up at the brilliant blue sky and the snow-covered paradise divide northwest of town.
“Absolutely marvelous — the high altitude, the cool breeze,” he said. “And there’s so much available to do here.”
Some bikers went rafting. Some went sightseeing in the nearby ghost town of Gothic. Many took free chairlift rides up Mount Crested Butte.
But sticking around town seemed to suit most people. The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame reported brisk business. At midmorning, all the restaurants and cafes up and down Elk Avenue had waiting lines, and the sidewalks were bustling with people wearing their wristband bicyclist IDs. In the evening, there would be a pig roast and live music.
At Crested Butte Community School, headquarters for the ride during its stop here, 22 masseurs and masseuses worked the kinks out of aching legs, arms, necks and shoulders. They expected to handle more than 300 customers.
On this rest day at 8,885 feet, not everyone shared Ferguson’s philosophy of bike-seat avoidance. At 9:30 a.m., Kevin Gabos of San Antonio and John Smail of Colorado Springs had their biking gear and sunblock on and were about to set off on a two-hour, 40-mile sprint ride — just to stay limbered up.
They would be done by noon. And after that?
“Kick back a little, have a beer and listen to the music,” Gabos said.
