Some hill climbing

Well, I slept in today. Drat, I did it again. Last week was the same, so I guess my body is telling me something. At any rate, when I woke at 6:10 AM, mad as heck as I realized my cycling group, Le Peloton , had already left for the mountains. I grabbed my riding gear, filled two water bottles and headed out to try to find them.

Burrard Inlet, viewed from Dollarton Highway on the way to Deep Cove--->

<--Deep Cove, at the head of Indian Arm Inlet

By the time I reached Deep Cove, however, it was clear I'd never catch my cycling friends. With the group averaging 30 kilometers/hour ( 18-19 mph) when riding in a pack like that, it's pretty hard to make up for lost time, at least for me. So I headed up that gruesome 13% grade hill at the start of Mt. Seymour Parkway on my own. I decided that if I'm going to encounter a few hills on the way to the Canadian Rockies, I'd better be prepared, so I started up Mount Seymour road, leading to the ski area. An hour later, I was flying back down the mountain at nearly 70 kpm (43 mph) after reaching the top in a personal best time. Number one hill done.

While riding up, I passed a young guy (on a much heavier bike, I have to confess!!) who caught up with me while I was enjoying a brief rest at the top. We exchanged taking photos then continued to ride together for the rest of the day. A commerce student at UBC's Sauder School of Business, Chris had only just taken up cycling a couple of years ago. We were well matched. He was young and strong, but I had a light carbon fibre bike and a third 'grandpa' gear especially well suited for climbing hills. At my age, 52, I need all the help I can get!

<-- Above the snow line at the top of Mount Seymour

The morning was spectacular. We dropped back down to sea level, then crossed over to Fell Street (another brutal but thankfully short hill) heading to Edgemont Village in North Vancouver. From there, we continued to climb up Capilano Road, reaching the top of Grouse Mountain's gondola station at around 10:00 AM. Then, another quick descent to the Cleveland dam, across the British Properties with thier magnificent homes, and finally to my old nemesis, Cypress Mountain, our third mountain of the day. By that time, the sun was beating down on us, but, with the end in sight, it wasn't long before we were cycling into the ski area, the future site of Olympic Freestyle events in 2010.

At the top of Cypress. The Olympic Freestyle ski run is in the distance (there's only a few patches of snow there this time of year)--->

All in all, it was a GREAT day. By the time I rolled into the garage, I had clicked over 142 km (88 miles), and had done three mountains, something I'm usually not ready for until the end of a summer of riding. So, as long as I don't do anything silly over the next few weeks (like injure myself from over-training), I think I'll be ready for the big ride. That broken right ankle of mine is really doing well. What a relief!

Next weekend, I'll be in Montreal, so will have to carry on with training there in gyms, etc. In the mantime, my old faithful Trek 5200 is going to have a complete tune-up at the local bike shop, with a few more gizmos and gadgets added. If all goes well, I'll manage to do at least one more 'shakedown' Saturday ride before we start on the 20th.