Unsuspecting you ever dragged into a hard climbfest ride? What happened?
07-01-20, 08:23 AM
#26
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 3,843
Bikes: Trek Domane SL6 Gen 3, Soma Fog Cutter, Focus Mares AL, Detroit Bikes Sparrow FG, Volae Team, Nimbus MUni
Mentioned: 11 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 896 Post(s)
Liked 2,063 Times
in
1,081 Posts
I used to live in southern Indiana, on the edge of the Knobstone escarpment; pancake flat North of us, wrinkly with short sharp rollers south. The Tuesday night group, the fast guys, typically headed north, and their normal ride was a series of hard accelerations intended to drop, ending in a sprint finish.
The first time I showed up on my recumbent instead of my vintage Motobecane, we went south. I thought nothing of it until some weeks later I choose the bent again, and again we went south. Game on. My bent was my rando bike, and I always left my large seatback bag on, with spare tubes, tire, spare bits, and tools. That came off, as did the second water bottle. Also brought some attitude and willingness to suffer. I've climbed mountains on that bike, ridden 24 Hour races, and know how to suffer. People underestimated the importance of willingness to suffer. I also know how to work rollers. They could definitely out climb me, but I could make up for it on the descents and flats. My favorite moment was when they were closing on me near the top of a climb and I could hear their labored breathing, and someone said "****" as he heard my rear derailleur say "thunk" because I had crested. Bastards didn't ever catch me. It was a double win for me, as I went to PBP that year in the best shape of my life.
The first time I showed up on my recumbent instead of my vintage Motobecane, we went south. I thought nothing of it until some weeks later I choose the bent again, and again we went south. Game on. My bent was my rando bike, and I always left my large seatback bag on, with spare tubes, tire, spare bits, and tools. That came off, as did the second water bottle. Also brought some attitude and willingness to suffer. I've climbed mountains on that bike, ridden 24 Hour races, and know how to suffer. People underestimated the importance of willingness to suffer. I also know how to work rollers. They could definitely out climb me, but I could make up for it on the descents and flats. My favorite moment was when they were closing on me near the top of a climb and I could hear their labored breathing, and someone said "****" as he heard my rear derailleur say "thunk" because I had crested. Bastards didn't ever catch me. It was a double win for me, as I went to PBP that year in the best shape of my life.
07-01-20, 08:51 AM
#27
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: South shore, L.I., NY
Posts: 6,882
Bikes: Flyxii FR322, Cannondale Topstone, Miyata City Liner, Specialized Chisel, Specialized Epic Evo
Mentioned: 18 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3238 Post(s)
Liked 2,085 Times
in
1,181 Posts
Yesterday
Visiting a buddy who rides in Northern Westchester, north of NYC. I live on flat Long Island and even though I've got great mileage this year have ZERO hill mileage. So my buddy drags me on a sufferfest of 42 miles and 2400+ ft of elevation gain. That's about what I do on a LONG week back home. As well he sucks at route planning as he rides solo, so has us on a bunch of roads for about 12-15 miles that have no shoulders and high speed truck traffic. I mean it sucked. He even knew it sucked. We bagged onto the local bike path for 14 just to get away from traffic. Then he doesn't tell me that about 1/3 of the route is dirt/gravel roads so of course I'm not riding my gravel wheels, I'm on the road wheels. They're 32's so it wasn't terrible, but a bit of communication is needed.
Visiting a buddy who rides in Northern Westchester, north of NYC. I live on flat Long Island and even though I've got great mileage this year have ZERO hill mileage. So my buddy drags me on a sufferfest of 42 miles and 2400+ ft of elevation gain. That's about what I do on a LONG week back home. As well he sucks at route planning as he rides solo, so has us on a bunch of roads for about 12-15 miles that have no shoulders and high speed truck traffic. I mean it sucked. He even knew it sucked. We bagged onto the local bike path for 14 just to get away from traffic. Then he doesn't tell me that about 1/3 of the route is dirt/gravel roads so of course I'm not riding my gravel wheels, I'm on the road wheels. They're 32's so it wasn't terrible, but a bit of communication is needed.
07-01-20, 10:45 AM
#28
Duke Ulysses
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Southern California
Posts: 800
Bikes: An old orange one for dirt, and for the other stuff: a white one, a kinda mint green one, and a black one.
Mentioned: 0 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 165 Post(s)
Liked 175 Times
in
86 Posts
Yes.
One morning, as a Cat 5, I met my coach to do flat, low gear, high rpm intervals. Plans changed after a phone call. We went to meet a couple of other guys to "do a little climbing".
My coach, and the other guys were all active Cat 1 racers at the time. One rode for a high profile (at the time) continental team.
35 miles, and 3,400 feet later, I got pushed up a 6% incline by a guy who I outweighed by 40 lbs. These guys were just floating up the mountain, talking, laughing, and getting smaller as the minutes passed. I was a total mess. Coach dropped back, grinning, rode beside me, put his hand on my back, and just launched me past everyone.
I use the humiliation as fuel. I want to say it burns clean, but I'm not sure.
One morning, as a Cat 5, I met my coach to do flat, low gear, high rpm intervals. Plans changed after a phone call. We went to meet a couple of other guys to "do a little climbing".
My coach, and the other guys were all active Cat 1 racers at the time. One rode for a high profile (at the time) continental team.
35 miles, and 3,400 feet later, I got pushed up a 6% incline by a guy who I outweighed by 40 lbs. These guys were just floating up the mountain, talking, laughing, and getting smaller as the minutes passed. I was a total mess. Coach dropped back, grinning, rode beside me, put his hand on my back, and just launched me past everyone.
I use the humiliation as fuel. I want to say it burns clean, but I'm not sure.
Last edited by growlerdinky; 07-01-20 at 04:03 PM.
07-01-20, 12:26 PM
#29
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Toronto, CANADA
Posts: 6,204
Bikes: ...a few.
Mentioned: 47 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 2012 Post(s)
Liked 409 Times
in
235 Posts
I was sucked into that one time by a buddy who's super strong. Easy pace/recovery pace...but no. One climb after another, people getting dropped, and at one point I was hammering on the hills and dropping people as well, but really wasn't what I was looking for on that particular day. So, since he's been slowly trying to gain back his credibility when it comes to 'easy pace/recovery rides'.
