An Epic Ride!

What an amazing ride. After a nice breakfast back at the hotel it was off for a ride with we forgot how many mountain passes. The day started on the 11 km climb out of Kas. At the top of the climb we turned right heading to Elmali.

After a short descent the climbing started immediately. And what a climb it was With temperatures starting the mid 70's, it continued to drop as we climbed. The climb was long, over 30 kilometers. The temperatures dropped to 32 degrees as we climbed above the snow line. It appeared never ending. The views were breathtaking. At one point we were adjacent to the snow caps. You could almost touch them.

It was a time to celebrate as we reach the top of the climb at 1560 meters (that's 4680 feet). After that is was a short descent to Sinekcibeli for lunch and some excellent kabaps. The local kids got out of school as we were eating and had fun looking at our bikes. The each introduced themselves and talked with us with whatever english they knew.

After lunch we continued to climb and descent over 4 mountain passes until reaching Kalkan. The second to last climb might have been the toughest of the day. There were many switchbacks and with over 70 kilometers in our legs, almost anything uphill would have seemed hard.

With the exception of Corey, we all ended our ride at the top of the final climb before descending into Kalkan. Corey was much farther ahead of us so he continued to ride beyond Kalkan. As we caught up with him he was motoring his way to Kas. We enjoyed as we watching him time trial his way up and down the rollers. Nothing like watching a pro show us how it was done.

We were so exhausted by the time we returned, we were pretty focused on eating and getting some rest. Hence the delay in this posting. Enjoy the pictures. We'll see what our legs have in store for us tomorrow.