Ride Guide- August 2021 Special Edition

This special edition newsletter below will contain details needed leading up to the 2021 Tour des Trees. We are grateful to you for joining us.

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Upcoming reminders:

It is crunch time for training and fundraising. Keep up the good work riders! Our totals for both of these are increasing every day. Be sure to share your personal fundraising page with everyone you can via www.tourdestrees.org. Every little bit helps!

Reminder for riders:

Make your travel arrangements! - See our Participant Resources page for details and look up the Ride Itinerary for details on where we will be and when. It is being constantly updated with new stop locations and timelines.

Tour Stops:

Community outreach has always been an important part of the ride and even though there are still a few limitations regarding gathering in groups in certain areas, we are still committed to showing the public the good that the tree industry does.

We will have five main outreach sessions during this year’s ride that we will need rider volunteers to help with. Take a look at these, plan ahead, and let us know which events you’d like to help with.

Sunday: Beaver mitigation project in Commerce City (5-10 volunteers needed)

Sunday: Tree planting in Golden. (4-6 volunteers needed)

Tuesday: Tree planting at Colorado State University in Fort Collins (4-6 volunteers needed)

Wednesday: Prof. Pricklethorn presentation at Loveland Public Library (3-4 volunteers needed)

Thursday: Tree planting in Denver (4-6 volunteers needed)

A Note From The Tour Director:

Hello Friends,

I was recently out in the great state of Colorado doing a little recon work, enjoying the beautiful MTB trails in Salida and Crested Butte, as well as testing my mettle on the high elevation trails of the iconic Leadville Stage Race. Along the way, I picked up a few lessons about Colorado and cycling at elevation:

As I mentioned in the previous Ride Guide, there is simply no way around it; breathing is more difficult in a high altitude environment. Since there is considerably less oxygen, you will simply have to reduce the power/force/pace that you can typically sustain to survive. And while acclimating sounds like a good idea, it doesn’t affect the amount of oxygen available. So, even for those who may have a higher concentration of red blood cells, riding at altitudes above 7,000 ft is difficult. I spent 2 days at 5,000 ft, 2 days at 7,000 feet and stayed at 9,000 ft (cycling between 9,000 and 10,500 for 10+ days) before heading to Leadville, where I spent the next 3 days riding between 10,000 and 12,500+. I’m not going to lie, it was hard and I had to significantly reduce my sustainable pace.

Another personal observation is that it is very important to be mindful of your respiration rate. It is easy to get caught shallow breathing or even hyperventilating if you aren’t paying attention. I found myself often struggling to breathe and had to constantly remind myself to relax my diaphragm and breathe deeply and fully.

Colorado is a state blessed with lots of sunshine and at altitude the UV intensity is significant. As a general rule there is a 6% increase in the UV intensity per 1,000 feet above sea level. So if you're coming from less than a 1,000 ft and riding to 7,000 to 9,000 feet you will experience a 40% - 50% increase in the intensity of the sun's rays. You must be diligent in your application of sunscreen and shielding your skin!
It is vital to stay on top of your hydration at altitude. Altitude affects hydration in a number of ways, most notably is the higher respiration rate you will have during exercise, but also the increased frequency of urination and the drier air at elevation. These factors add up to approximately a 50% increase in the required fluid intake that you would employ at lower elevations.
During the time that I was in Colorado, the state was experiencing their summer Monsoon season. While I am not sure how the “monsoon” season will affect the Front Range in SW Colorado, it rained pretty much every afternoon and on a few of those evenings there was associated lighting. We’ll have to keep an eye out for the forecast during the Tour, but in general we'll want to be off the road in the early afternoon if at all possible.

I’ll have another addition to my Notes from CO after my final recon trip next week!

Ride On!

Oh, and by the way, I was able to just come in under the 11 hour cut off to win the coveted Leadville belt buckle.

Paul Wood