Due to a hectic travel schedule, today was my first opportunity to take Mira (my new Yaqui Ocotillo) out on a climbing ride. I didn’t hit any of the local mountains, as SAC just wanted me to work on small to medium sized hills - but I did hit some of the steepest shit Vancouver has to offer as well as the hill @ Spanish Banks - a pretty standard benchmark climb for me.
Damn dude, I can climb! I can climb like a mofo! Okay, so I won’t be taking Ace’s slot on the Discovery tour team, and Floyd hasn’t called seeking support for Phonak either - but I went up Spanish easier than I’ve ever gone before, and likely faster (didn’t time it). The steep shit was painful as always - but not as hard as it has been in the past.
On my way home, I was LOOKING for hills. Any time I crossed a road that went up, I turned. And I hammerred up them all.
Maybe I’ll take SimpleS up on his offer to climb Grouse with the team after all…
Going up that’s where the fun is. Going down that’s cool too, I hate the flatlands. Waiting to hear from Gerard if R2.5s are now discontinued, if not I look forward to riding mine around the USB course with you in the future.
There must be something about those damn Yaquis, had my butt kicked today by Linda on Cypress!
Hey its Wed night up Cypress from now on. If you are interested in trying it out will give you the route to get up there from the Bread Garden. We start at 6/30 which is probably too early for you, but if interested get in touch and I will give you Larry Z contact as its his group.
Did you get in the 4hrs today, what route did you do?
LOL - thanks for the vote of confidence! The new bike is 53x39, 11-23/650, while the roadie is 50x34, 12-25/700 - but I’m almost never racked out on that hill unless I’m blown from something else.
I’m guessing that it was part “New Bike Syndrome”, and partly the bike/position. I went up the same hill on my roadie today, slower, and with a greater level of effort. The tests are a far cry from scientific though as my climbing technique was different on the two bikes, and I could have been residually tired from yesterday today. I know if I tried to do that ride again tomorrow, I’d be slow on anything but a CBR!
18:30… that might be possible - I’ll have to run it by the SAC first.
Went out and did pretty close to your “A” option - Marpole to Kits to Spanish/UBC, Iona, Steveston, River Road, over the Queensborough and back home along Marine. Just over 4hrs, little over 100k. My legs are toast! That merge to the left hand lane on the Queensborough is a bitch, too.
Not sure its in SAC plans for you as these arent hills for the sake of riding hills, there are specific workouts every week. This Wed its 2min seated spin, 10s acclerations, 10s recovery 10s acclerations and repeat until you see the fast guys come down the hill then the workout is over. Fries me every week! Definitely not base riding and gordo type IM training.
However, you do end up going faster! I think Larry does some drop in deal as some of the group dont get full coaching from him. There are a couple of IM guys there as well, one is a guy called Mark Shorter a bit of a local legend.
Yeah I dislike going to Queensb bridge I tend to turn around at the end of River Rd and head back to the dykes. Good place to test Mira, I benchmark my tri bike v rd bike on parts of that route (either 5 or river Road) , not very scientific but every time its the same result - tri bike is faster.
Look on the bright side - Looks may be dime-a-dozen over on that side of the pond, but here the same is true for Trek & Cervelo over here. Looks are a fairly rare breed 'round these parts.
Today I was with Juliette - Mira’s day in the sun was yesterday. I seem to climb better with Mira though, which is somewhat confusing to me. More testing is obviously required.
I need to work out my neck or something though - cramped up on me a couple of times today, which was NOT cool.
The main reason I went over the QB was because I needed more distance, and figured if I just turned it around @ River I’d be tempted to cut it short and go home. This worked out perfectly timewise.
I’ll talk to SAC and see what he has planned for me. I don’t want to show up on Saturday with fried legs!
La Bicc is a Look dealer so that might help but then again they dont sell many so might not have the attention of Look when it comes to solving a problem.
That’s good to know, just the small fact that I couldn’t find La Bicc when I was looking over Christmas time. I will have to get directions from you in August.
But when SAC give you the green light to head up to the hills there is a route on 13th/15th just off Marine that will get you up to the highway and then the base of the mountain pretty fast. get in touch if you need the details.
