McPhilly's: BIKE - More Fun Sections and a Dose of Da-da-Danger

Ridiculously fabulous day for late September, bright, sunny and hotte

Don't look back. OK I looked back and this is what I saw.
View from the climb side —just one section of this
hair-raising descent, and (what goes down must come
back up) climb.

r — 81F — than we've had in some time. That, coupled with a huge free festival down by the water meant that every car that had air in its tyres, and maybe even license plates, was on the road.

But, since I had finally gotten the new Garmin soft strap synched up with my aging Garmin Edge 305, I decided to throw myself at "the Hill" one more time.

Would I get sustained spikes in the 200 bpms with this one? No. It worked well, although the strap is a lot more snug than the classic strap. A roughly 48" chest seems to be about as much as the adjustment will allow. (DC Rainmaker has some interesting thoughts on HR spikes)

But what was I thinking? Half of Nassau County was in their cars ... and they were right here. Now. Crowded roads with debris strewn shoulders and 35 mph descents did not make for a happy mix.

By the time I was a 1/3 of the way down, it was clear that that this was going to be interesting. I'm 200#, so when I get rolling with gravity, the speed piles up quickly. Today the 25mm tyres felt as jittery as I did.

Cars were streaming by on my right, and concentration had to be 100% on the road surface (not on the cars or whether they could see me) for grooves, potholes, bumps and twigs.

I maxxed at a rather sad

Actually the sky was blue.

Sands Point is a popular place to ride,
despite the lack of shoulder.

33 mph, leaning heavily on the brakes most of the way.

It's not so much a matter of going slow; it's a matter of how hard it is to dial it back if you let it reach 40.

I need more practice. But at least I am more confident I am not getting some weird tachycardia with a 225 bpm heart rate.

There was, however, no margin for error today with that many Sunday afternoon drivers feeling their oats. And Sunday afternoon cyclists like myself.

So, back up the hill to where I came from. Get near the top, and
turn right, to the steeper peak, and you'll encounter some rewarding
14-15% grades.

That's right, 14.4% grade. I looked down at one point

and it read 15%, right about where the pale dot

is, on Longview Rd. This hill has three peaks,

each with its own brand of torture.

About to begin the circumnavigation of the point.

So, after being nearly run off the road by a huge madam turning her minivan in an illegal spot. Yes, that really ruined the fun of the descent — normally you can let her rip in the lower segments and sustain the momentum for a long way on the sea-level flat beyond ... Unless a minivan is doing a U-turn and blocking your path.

She didn't even look. But I saw it coming and applied the brakes early. Her turning circle used the whole road, so I ran up onto the grass. Big ring, little cog.

I dismounted put it into an easier gear to start again, rode in the traffic until I could find a place to u-turn myself, and headed back up the hill.

No way was I going to try to get to Roslyn in that Festival traffic. Back to the slightly quieter roads of Sands Point.

I had to complete 15 miles today for a September Challenge, and with my neck still dodgy, some heart concerns and asthma lurking, this would indeed be a challenge.

But you know how it is with challenges; once you're in the saddle, you're going to do what you can to pull it off, even if your body is not exactly so happy with the idea anymore...especially when it ends with one final 12-14% climb for 70 feet of vertical. But that's what ride memories are made of, no?