Up the Backside

I took out the road bike for a long shake down ride.

1st time up the backside of Mountain Lake this year. This is the Cat 0 hill that Lance Armstrong broke away from in the last Tour DuPont many years ago. It is also the finish of the Mountains of Misery century.

It is a bear. Switchbacks right out of a Euro grand tour. I had to try so hard to force myself to grab a harder gear when standing up. Standing up in the granny is the kiss of death, cause when you sit back down it's not pretty.

I had a 39/27 as my lowest gear. If I do this century next year I'm going to go with a 32 in the rear or consider a compact crankset.

The first switchback hurt and I was fearing for my life, but it got better and it wasn't so bad. But this was 25miles into a ride, and not 97 miles into a ride like the MOM.

The two other climbs on the way home, Brush and Gap, felt like a walk in the park.

The bike rode awesome. I just need to fix a few creaks/rattles. Coming down the front side I was working on my handling. This bike corners really nice. It was a lot of fun. I was trying to corner it like a mountain bike. Out of the saddle with the bike leaned over and the saddle touching the inner thigh of the inside leg.