God, I'm getting later
and later with these blog posts. Sorry about that, all will become
clear before long and no, I haven't given up on the 100 Climbs just
been stupidly busy with other things in my life.
Anyway, casting my mind
all the way back to the 21st June the third climb of the
day I tackled was Oxnop Scar. The climb was swarming with touring
cyclists as I drove up to the top to find a suitable place to park
the car (there weren't many options if you are thinking of taking the
same approach). Given that the climb starts with a series of 25%
hairpin bends I had to admire their tenacity at trying to get up the
climb with full panniers. As I was soon to discover the initial
hairpins, with their rough surface demand respect. Once on the bike
at the bottom I did have the feeling that I was about to attempt to
ride up a wall. The day, which had started quite chilly was heating
up quite nicely and its fair to say I got fairly warm tackling the
first part of the slope. At the speed I was doing there was no
cooling breeze.
The view from the top. I was fast down and a hell of a lot slower getting back up
Once past the first few
bends the climb eases off in terms of gradient and changes in
character quite dramatically; it becomes a nice rolling ride along
the edge of the hill with lots of gentle climbs and descents to
enjoy. In the little black book of pain Simon Warren talks about
using this section to push hard and get a good time to the top. Two
climbs into the day and with my left and right knees both starting to
grumble a bit I decided to enjoy the view and use the gentler
sections to save some energy for the final ramp up to the finish. As
a result the mid section of the climb took a while to ride but as it
was a nice day and the road was quiet I wasn't complaining and it was
good to enjoy the scenery with no traffic noise to mar the moment.
After a lot of gentle
undulations the character of the hill changed again with the
impressive rock formation of Oxnop Scar coming into view. From this
point the view became more restrictive and the road started to
steepen through the increasingly bleak terrain as I slowly winched my
way up to the top. Not much more to say about this one really; I
enjoyed the ride but was pretty slow so its hardly my most dramatic
effort to date.
It was a relief to get to the top as my left knee was really starting to get sore towards the top. Its ususally my wonky right knee that gives me grief but it was performing pretty much as expected. I still had one more climb to do and the pain eminating from behind my left knee cap suggested that spending a morning spinning increasingly low gears up long steep climbs had found my knees limit of endurance. Getting into the car was a bit painful and knowing that I still had The Stang to ride before calling it quits for the day was slightly troubling. That video is still being edited but stay tuned if you are a fan of ultra slow uphill riding as it was a sufferfest from start to finish.
That'll be the Scar of Oxnop fame then...much bigger and more impressive in real life
It was a relief to get to the top as my left knee was really starting to get sore towards the top. Its ususally my wonky right knee that gives me grief but it was performing pretty much as expected. I still had one more climb to do and the pain eminating from behind my left knee cap suggested that spending a morning spinning increasingly low gears up long steep climbs had found my knees limit of endurance. Getting into the car was a bit painful and knowing that I still had The Stang to ride before calling it quits for the day was slightly troubling. That video is still being edited but stay tuned if you are a fan of ultra slow uphill riding as it was a sufferfest from start to finish.
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