That part of easy enough (the uphill) but the long false flat uphill slog back to Leadville in the mid-day heat almost killed me (.http://ridewithgps.com/routes/2844500) Ran out of H2O about 2 miles before hitting the finish and boy do you ever get dry mouth quickly in this climate. Too much for a wet coast boy like myself. Things got off to a good start, fast gradual downhill run to Twin Lakes throigh the Arkansas River headwaters in early morning fresh air. About 5 miles out of town I noticed by seat was slightly low (suspected seat post slippage). Fortunately I came across John from finishlinecycling.com who was taking a couple from Conneticut up Independence (met them yesterday at Mt Evans). He had allen keys in his van to fix the problem before the climb. John seems like a fun guy and clearly got a good gig going. The climb was easy enough as some here had said already; managed to put in some extra gas near the summit. Superfast downhill and then really fun rollers in the valley back to Twin Lakes. That's where the torture began. Only 25k back to Leadville but boy did it seem to last an eternity. And that seat came back down, fixed the problem in motel and gave it an extra bit of torque so hopefully problem solved for tomorrow.