WRAY — Buoyed by a tailwind, with a fillip of a challenge from a northern breeze, cyclists on Pedal the Plains sailed down the shoulder of U.S. 34 from Yuma to this ranching town 10 miles west of the state border.
“It’s the last ride of the season for me, and it’s been great so far,” said Robin Martin of Littleton.
On the 28-mile stretch from Yuma to Wray, she paused to have her photograph taken in front of rancher Nathan Weathers’ towering combine and its 12 rows of harvesting cones. His farm, opposite a feedlot where 90 percent of his harvest is destined, was among the educational stops where city-slicker cyclists had a chance to learn something about the country on their route.
“It’s a treat to see a geographically and culturally different part of the state,” said Jeff Brown, one of the riding medics and a veteran of Ride the Rockies, the bicycle tour that propels riders through mountains that can’t even be seen from this part of Colorado.
The crowd for the inaugural Pedal the Plains seems more mellow than the sometimes aggressive cyclists who attack the passes on Ride the Rockies, Brown observed. He liked that.
As did Martin.
“There’s all the courtesies of riders here that you don’t see on pacelines and competitive riders on other rides,” she said.
One of the mellowest cyclists on Friday’s ride was Jake Hundemann, a Boulder power-plant worker who rides a recumbent tricycle.
“This is the first multiday ride I ever did,” he said. “I was kinda hoping it would be flat, and I felt like a hero today. I was passing people! I stopped to see the combine, and I stopped in Eckley to listen to some pretty decent bluegrass music. They had a kid about 11 get up and play the fiddle, and sing ‘Turkey in the Straw,’ and he was really good.”
Ethan Tiburcio, 16, is helping the Sherpa Packers tent service company, so instead of riding, he’s putting up rows of pyramid tents, a repeat of the service he performed on this year’s Ride the Rockies. The vibe is different, he said.
“There are so many people on Ride the Rockies, and this is more of a community,” he said.
About 900 are riding Pedal the Plains, which travels from Wray to Burlington on Saturday.
