Congratulations to Andy & Kami White for becoming the first tandem to earn the Colorado Triple Crown! This accolade required qualifying for and completing three of the four RMCC sanctioned double century series, in one season, within aggressive time cutoffs. These double centuries include some of the very hardest courses in the country, at high altitude, including daunting ascents.
“After aligning ourselves with Paketa a few years ago, we discovered the goals we formulated had to be a step above anything we had thought possible. The performance of the tandem was inspiring and brought the impossible within reach.”
After setting a tandem course record on the 225 mile Death Ride with 16,000 feet of climbing, the next in the series was the Cripple Creek Crippler. The Crippler is arguably the hardest double century in the country, and the least tandem friendly course with nearly 20,000 feet of climbing, very tight time cut offs often at the tops of climbs, and this year finished with 4 hours of rain. Andy and Kami had an amazing day finishing in 18:15 in spite of both the rain and mechanic problems during the final 90 miles. It is likely they will be the only tandem couple to complete this event for a very, very long time!
“The team at Paketa deserves credit as an inexhaustible reservoir of technical experience and support. They helped us upgrading, tweaking and customizing the tandem for the extraordinary technical challenge and brutal conditions of this accomplishment.”
Andy and Kami completed the final course, the Grand Loop, topping over 12,000 feet Trail Ridge Road, in 16:04, the fastest known time of any mixed tandem couple to complete this challenging ride! By completing the Grand Loop, they become the first couple to ever complete the Colorado Triple Crown on a tandem, and set tandem course records on all three courses they completed! This is truly an amazing feat as an unfortunate DNF in the final 15 miles of the easiest event, Denver-to-Aspen, meant they had to complete the series by riding the three most difficult events of the series: Congratulations to both of you!!!
“After riding tandem for 20 years, we spent the last three years training for this level of riding. Developing fitness and mental toughness was such a rich experience. The mental skills we’ve built thru years, often rising before dawn for training, working thru hardships on these events, 2am race starts, weather and fatigue; taught us a lot about each other and serves us as a couple every day. The accomplishment means most to us as a representation of our successful relationship.”