Bike riders at the 2007 Ride the Rockies will surely remember this as the Earth, Wind and Fire tour.
The earth would be the four soaring mountain passes they crossed in 7 days of cycling. The 1,000-acre wildlife blaze the cyclists passed Wednesday would be the fire.
And the micro-burst that blew down a large party tent, injuring three to five people, on Thursday at the Aspen encampment would be the wind.
Looked bad
Aspen City Attorney John Worcester told the Aspen Times that everyone was treated and released from the local hospital. He said one of the injured looked “really bad because there was a lot of blood.”
The Denver Post reported that strong gusts knocked out power to 7,200 power customers in the region during the afternoon.
The tent went down during a gust a little after 6 p.m. It had been checked out earlier by the fire marshal, but flipped over while some riders were inside. The tent was torn in places and the metal poles bent.
On Friday, the 2,000 riders on the Ride the Rockies bike tour crossed Independence Pass — at 12,095 feet the highest pass of the ride — on their 61-mile route to Leadville.
The tour ends Saturday with the 51-mile ride back to the starting point, Frisco. Only the 11,318-foot Fremont Pass stands in the way.
Blogging the way
Some of the cyclists on this year's tour are bloggers who are carrying their laptops and dutifully filing posts from the route.
Bobbies Rides the Rockies gives a good flavor for the bike tour, and includes pictures of cyclists cooling off in ponds and smoke from the wildfire. Blog the Rockies writes about his nasty fall on chip-and-seal at 25 mph earlier in the week, among other stuff. Team Bizzo also is filing pictures and write-ups from the tour.
Also, you can hear Rocky Riders podcasts.
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