2020_09_17 Pikes Peak: Leon Matz and Scott Wagar

 Author:  Leon Matz

I was real excited to have my first (hopefully of many ) Cyclopath visitor to Colorado Springs, Scott Wagar.  Scott was arriving in the area on Tuesday and wanted to ride on Wednesday and Saturday.  We knew that there would be much less traffic going up Pikes Peak on a weekday, so Wednesday was the day.  As most of you know, Scott is not shy about taking on a challenge.  Climbing to the top of the second highest paved road in the US (14,100 ft) with less than a day to get used to the  altitude was more than a little ambitious. 

Scott drove to my house a little before 7 am.  We, then, drove to the town of Cascade to meet one of my new cycling friends, Al; and we began our ride from there.

The forecast was for the day to be sunny but cool.  It was 45 degrees when we started, so I had multiple layers on for the climb and probably more important for the descent as the temperature at the top was 33 degrees when we started with an high expected between 41-45.

The climb almost immediately hit 10%.  We stopped at the gate a mile into the climb to pay (the road to the top of Pikes Peak is a toll road).  Again, the climb was consistently 9-10% for the next 5-6 miles.  The pace Scott and I were doing was a little fast for Al, so he dropped back as Scott and I continued on.  Both of us were feeling pretty good; but it became clear that the weather forecast was off, because we were both sweating a fair amount.  There was no sign of Scott having trouble with the altitude which surprised me. 

We were about 13 miles through the 19 mile climb when I started having cramping issues.  I ingested some salt and some Rolaids and increased my consumption of Powerade.  Instead of riding side by side, Scott now rode up the road where he would, periodically, wait for me.  Unfortunately, the cramps persisted.  My stomach started feeling queasy, and I started feeling dizzy!  With 4 miles left and 1,600 feet to climb, I made the decision to head down.  Considering the cramps and the dizziness, continuing on the final portion of the climb wasn’t worth risking a crash.  It was very hard making that decision, because I wanted to summit with Scott.  I descended a 1,000 feet and tried to start climbing again, but the cramps returned (even though my dizziness had disappeared).  

I headed all the way down to the car.  Scott and Al made it to the summit and showed up about an hour later.

I'm not sure why I had all those issues. Three weeks before this ride I road to the top of Mt Evans (14,200') with none of those issues.

Pikes Peak is much steeper than Mt Evans; but...some days you have “it”, and some days you don’t. For Scott to be able to ride to the top of Pikes Peak (considered to be the second toughest climb in the US) with no time for his body to adjust to altitude was pretty amazing !