Dave and I headed to Copper Colorado in mid-July to participate in the Courage Classic. This is a fund-raising road ride to benefit sick children at Children's Hospital. It's a beautiful setting. The ride was a three day ride, though the best day was day one: The Copper Triangle. This leaves from Copper, goes over Freemont Pass, then Tennessee Pass, then Battle Mtn, then finally Vail Pass. The triangle is 80 miles total with 5k or 6k in elevation gain (I've already forgotten).
This first photo is of the top of Freemont Pass. Dave took it when he arrived. Nice environment to be riding in for sure!
The forecast was marginal. We'd already accepted the fact that we'd be riding in the cold rain for quite a bit of the tour. Happily though, the forecast was wrong! There was not so much as a hit of rain our entire time there! Unhappily, the afternoons were broiling hot! Riding Vail in the sun and heat was a "treat" (not). :)
Being the faster rider, Dave hit the passes earlier than I did. We kept in touch with a few text messages during the day which was fun. He didn't get a photo at the top of Freemont - I managed to. Then I wandered over in the huge crowd of riders and ran into the message marker board... 
Pretty fun to see Dave's message for me!
You can see (first photo) that Dave got a summit photo on Tennessee. You can see how close I got to the same sign when I topped out - so many riders!
Neither of us have photos on Battle Mtn (no one stopped!), the lunch area, or Vail. Suffice it to say it was pretty, it was hot, and it was a great ride!
Day two was shorter (50? miles) and meandered around Lake Dillion and places south of Copper. It was nice, and it was mostly on bike trails. This was fun, but there were just too darn many riders on the trails (plus marathon of delirious over-heated over-work women staggering around). Not really safe. We kicked back and just enjoyed the ride versus trying to power through and get done. 
At one rest area, there were some cut out kids we couldn't resist harassing. :)
Dave give little Joey a push. :) 
Forgot the name of this location, but it is over Lake Dillon I believe. It's a good grade getting to the top and a fun zoom back down. We ended up at a high school where I stayed on the Bike Tour of Co two years ago. This was the lunch destination. 
Lunch was amazing. Fajitas, fruit, candy, and more food than 10x the people would need. It was a nice (but hot) venue to enjoy lunch, look at other riding wear, and chill. We were really close to Copper so there wasn't much riding left to be done.
The lunch venue. I did eventually take my helmet off for eating. I felt pretty confident I wouldn't take a nose dive then. 
And off we go back to the resort! 
We shared the condo with several other people - all of whom were new to us except Karla and Thom. Karla arranged the entire thing and it was awesome! I look forward to our team members to gather again next year and do the ride again! 
A view of Copper Mtn - where we stayed and where the rides started and finished. Very nice. And the hot tub was welcome at the end of the day!
Our team - American Racing - gathered on Sunday evening for team photos. Here we are waiting for everyone. Then we headed out to Breckenridge for a delicious dinner provided by our sponsor. Yum! 
My favorite team. :) 
There was some fun to be had in the Copper Mtn Village. We found it. :) 
This was taken at dinner in Breckenridge. Beautiful venue. We had such an amazing time. I can't wait to do it again next year!!
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