Brentani’s Cycling Blog

For anyone following my benchmarks on the climbing circuit, you’ll know that 52:18 is a personal record by a pretty comfortable margine. My most recent attempt, the first with the Garmin, was 54:00 on the nose. That, in turn was about 15 seconds shy of my best ever time. But here’s the thing: today’s ride was a two-up TT with Aaron. So shaving a mere 1:30 off my best time, with the help of someone who is one of the best time-trialists on our team, and (currently anyway) about as good as I am on the climbs was not the blistering pace I was hoping for. We were both hoping to finish just under 50 minutes, and we were well off that, even if you use the moving time, which was 51:49. (Average speed was 19.7; average moving speed was 19.9.)

But all the same, I like what this says about the strength of my previous solo runs. Especially because we picked up almost all of the advantage before we hit Cullen Hill Road. At the base of Cullen, we had somewhere in the order of 1:30-1:45 over the 54:00 minute run, and that’s almost exactly where we finished. We managed to bring it up over 2:00 minutes on the descent after Wilbur Hill, but lost most of that when we were stopped at the light at 116. When we turned onto 116, I took a long pull, and when I moved over to let Aaron take over, I realized he wasn’t on my wheel. He had had a chain issue just after the turn and was fighting to get back. I slowed up a little until he was back on my wheel and managed a pretty hard pull up the small hill on 116. I usually use the little ring for that hill, but today cranked it out in the big ring. After that, we went down Harris. Aaron took one pull, and then I went as fast as I could for the second part of the descent, back to Route 7. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I descended that. We then had a little over 2:00 minutes advantage again. On the final stretch, Aaron took the lead, telling me to go all out on Whipple, and not to wait for him. Unfortunately, we were already almost there, but Aaron had still managed to cook himself, so I was on my own for all of Whipple. I apparently climbed it slower than I had my previous time, because the advantage dipped back to only 1:45 or so by the top. Aaron finished a few seconds back.

A fun experiment in any case. Here’s the Garmin Readout.

A couple things to catch up on:

Tuesday. Only four of us showed up for the Smack Down (me, aaron, curtis s., and syl) so we decided to mix things up a bit. Instead of the usual route, we went north and did my climbing circuit. I was not terribly surprised, but happy nonetheless, that we were only able to post a time of 58 minutes and change. My most recent time was 54:00 going solo. Aaron is going to try to beat it sometime soon riding solo now that he knows the route. I expect he’ll beat my time pretty easily. We’re pretty close to each other on the climbs, and he’s definitely a faster descender and better time-trialist. But it will be interesting nonetheless. Rundown on the hills: I won Cullen Hill. Aaron, Syl and I finished Wilbur all together, with Curtis just behind. Aaron put in a huge attack at the bottom of Whipple, Curtis clawed him back, with me in tow, I dropped Curtis, Aaron recovered and came out of nowhere to take the hill, followed by Syl after I cracked.

The bit of info that everyone, or at least Khalid, has been waiting for, the verdict on running a force rear derailleur with Campy shifters: no problem. I made the switch 2 nights ago, but didn’t shorten the chain enough. I took the bike into Caster’s to have them shorten the chain and true the new open pro wheel. They were more than a little skeptical, and noted that it shifted “ok” in the lower gears, but the top 3 or so were a little off. When I got home I took the bike for a spin around the block and noted the same thing. not great. Nothing too horrible, but somewhat disappointing all the same. But I wasn’t going to make a final verdict until I had ridden it under real riding conditions. I put it back on the stand and played with the adjustment. This morning I went out and did my Greenville Loop. No problems whatsoever. Shifts perfectly. On the stand, I had a little trouble getting it into the 28, but that might have more to do with the limit stops anyway. Since I didn’t need the 28 out riding, I’m not sure if that’s resolved or not. To answer a Khalid’s other questions about the Force RD, 1. compact crank + 11-28 cassette is right about at the limit of the system’s capacity, so using the Force RD with a compact and a mountain cassette isn’t going to work. moreover, you really couldn’t go any bigger than a 28 without the derailleur jamming into the cassette in the back either. I just barely squeaked out beating my best time for the route, as well.

Equinox race report from Saturday, Aug. 7 is coming…

Just when I thought I had all hills in the Providence area mapped out…I found another one today. I was just finishing moderately difficult 30 mile ride. I had planned on going back via the Blackstone bike path, but ice diverted me elsewhere. So I decided to check out a little hill I had seen a while back. It’s right next to Whipple. There’s a little dead-end street named Hill Street, and I’d noticed a little path or driveway going up at the end. Not knowing whether it was a street or just a driveway, I’d always left it to investigate another day. Approaching it, I still wasn’t sure, but I asked a guy sitting on his porch and he assured me it was a “road” and I could go up it. It’s no wider than a bike path and only fits one car. Surface is pretty bad, but not bad enough to affect climbing. It’s also pretty short and just comes to an unsatisfying dead end. It kicks up steeply at the beginning, but really isn’t very difficult. The map below is my best guess. Veloroutes was showing something like 25% for the first section of Hill St, which is definitely wrong, so I just left if off. it might be 5% at most.

After two attempts I finally managed to do Harmony Hill. I had high hopes for this one, which were eventually completely dashed. According to the “similar hills” function on brentacol, Harmony Hill should be just slightly harder than Waterman (see comparison), which is a fairly difficult hill. According to Google Maps, Harmony Hill Road runs between Douglas Hook and Absoloma Hill Road. On Monday I rode down Douglas Hook before I finally realized that I had passed Harmony Hill a long ways back, and that it was an unmarked dirt road. Great, I thought. Maybe this is finally the difficult dirt road hill I’ve been looking for. So I came back today, turned onto the road. It is not really appropriate for a road bike. Lots of soft dirt and ruts. I ended up walking quite a bit and turned back after maybe a mile. (It would be pretty nice on a cyclocross bike.) From there, I went back to Absoloma Hill Road and figured I’d just start from that end, which is the top of the climb. At that end, it turns out Harmony Hill Road is actually just an entryway into Harmony Hill School. It might be possible to find the dirt road on the other side of the school, but I wasn’t in the mood to find out. So I turned around and went back up the “hill.” I know a hill in a city center will always seem steeper than a comparable one in the country, but I’d say there’s no way that Harmony Hill Road is as difficult as Waterman, and the 20% shown at the beginning is definitely wrong. And of course, the climb is paved, so you don’t even get that added challenge. Oh well.

A few days ago, a reader of the blog alerted me to a new hill, southwest of Providence. He said it was 12% average gradient for a whole mile. that turned out not to be true (if it had been true, that would make it harder than Blue Hill by a lot, so I was skeptical from the beginning), but it is a very respectable hill, and maybe even the hardest in Rhode Island. Here it is:

as you can see, there’s a lot of extended 10%+ in there and it’s a consistent climb (none of this up/down/ramping shit). That in itself is a rare occurrence in the Providence area for hills of this length. (The only other hills I can think of that are consistent and a mile long are Tourtellot and Chopmist, both of which are under 5% average grade.) So, this hill wins the “meanest mile” competition for RI hands down. But is it the hardest hill? According to BRENTACOL, the only hill that beats it is Woonsocket Hill Road. However, I’m inclined to think that the long flat/downhill section that interrupts the two steep parts of that climb makes it much easier than it would be if those two sections happened consecutively. I will probably be amending the formula to subtract points for hills that have long interruptions. And then there’s Bowen, which I think is still the hardest hill in RI. But that is hardest on an entirely different scale: is there a strong possibility that you won’t make it up, or will fall over sideways attempting? Bowen, yes. Every other hill in the area, no.

And like any good ride in a new area to find a new hill, I found a couple others along the way. First up, Sand Hill, which starts steeply, but doesn’t last too long:

Next, Flat River Road, aka 117, is long but very gradual:

and last, I came down the hill on Harkney Hill Road (118), which is a very fast descent.

And one last tidbit…last weekend I rode in Connecticut and did my usual route in reverse. Since I didn’t need to go up Mile Hill Road, or Fish and Game – two of my usual hills – I took a different route back to Tunnel Road. As a result I came down Hatch Hill Road. OMFG. That hill is for real. Especially if you come up from Valley Falls Road (the dip in the middle is a quick left on Bolton Road, followed by a right onto Hatch HIll). 11.6% AVERAGE.

Mike and I went out and did a new loop this morning. Really hard loop. I vote it the hardest 50 miles in RI. I suppose you could jimmy a few extra hills into the loop, but this is really quite sufficient. It includes three of the hardest hills, excluding the East Side hills. The hills, in order of appearance are: 1. Smithfield/Ridge Road, 2. Iron Mine Hill, 3. Manville Hill, 4. West Wrenthem, 5. Tower Hill, 6. Mt. St. Charles, 7. Woonsocket HIll, 8. Burlingame, 9. Mountaindale, 10. Pine Hill. Mike got the better of everything except Tower Hill. For that one, I attacked in one of the downhill/flat sections and gapped Mike before the last uphill section. A little bit slimy, but I’ll take it.


View Larger Map

And then, at the top of Woonsocket Hill, I finally remembered to look for the road up to the summit. Brentwood is a little subdivision that gets almost there (with a nasty bit of 20% gradient), but I had noticed that there was another unnamed road on google maps. The verdict is: not possible on a road bike. there’s a layer of soft dusty sand, covered with golfball sized gravel. Here I am giving it a try. I’ll try to get my cyclocross bike back in working order and try it again.

I haven’t checked in in a while, so there’ll be a lot of somewhat unrelated things in this post. First of all, I did Ascutney back on July 18, and posted a report here. The next day, I drove up and did a loop around Lincoln Gap and App Gap. For Ascutney, I (with help from Brian, of course) set up the Circle A as a single front chainring of 26. Matched that with a 13-29 in the back. The gears felt just about right. I spun out on the brief down-hill/flat section at mile 2.5, but otherwise was fine. I spent a lot of time in the 26/29, but never felt like I wanted to downshift, and was able to shift up and down pretty smoothly as the pitch changed. (Contrast that w/ okemo where I was firmly stuck in the 34/29 from bottom to top.) For Lincoln, I of course needed some bigger gears (for the flat and descents), but also needed the low gears. I used the Gazelle for that, which, if you don’t remember, has a compact triple (46-36-24, w/ a 13-26 in the back). The 46/13 is a little easier to spin out on flats than you might want, but otherwise the gearing was also pretty good.

Ascutney Setup

Lincoln Gap…starts out with a short steep section. Nothing to worry about. It levels off and gives you some extended false flats, which eventually become dirt. When the pavement returns, that’s when the fun starts. The transition from 36 to 24 is pretty hairy, so I stopped and shifted into the 24 right at that point, since I didn’t want to mess with it once the gradients really picked up. The next section is very steep, probably mid-teens. At a certain point, you turn a corner and see an immense section of over 20%. That part is going to hurt anyone, probably no matter what gears you bring. I did it in the 24/26. Once you get up that and turn the corner, it “eases up” to about 18%. It was at this point that I stopped for a breather. I couldn’t tell what would happen around the next corner, and the Gazelle doesn’t have a computer, so I didn’t know how far I had gone. Turns out if I had just perservered another little bit, I would have been at the top. Oh  well.

Next Item: Carrie went to a wedding a month or so back, and google maps inexplicably sent her on some back road on her way up to Burriville. Turns out it was a hill, and she asked if I had done it, which I had not. I went out on tuesday to give it a try. The road in question is Brayton, and is right near Burlingame. Nothing too difficult, but definitely worth knowing about. There’s another road (Rogler Farm) that also goes up to the same point. Here they are:

This is one I’ve passed several times on my way in and out of town on High Service. It looks pretty hard looking downhill from High Service, and there are a few others in the same area that are of roughly the same difficulty, although Sherman is definitely the hardest. When I rode them before (although I’m not sure I actually did Sherman) I wasn’t terribly impressed. However, last week I took Jude out for a meandering ride though residential streets near my house and ended up there. (I’m not yet willing to take him on the main roads that would be required to bring the trailer to either my normal routes or to one of the local bike paths.) Towing a 23-pound baby in a 10 pound trailer, Sherman is pretty tough. I actually shifted into the 24 (front chainring) on the Gazelle. Of course I was trying to take it easy that day, but still…here’s the gradient map:

Just north of the intersection with Branch Ave, there are some steep little hills on the eastern side of Charles St. (Only about 1/2 mile north of Circle A.) I pass these hills frequently on the way back from the Blackstone River Bikeway. Looking at them as I rode by, however, never really encouraged me to try them. Sure they looked pretty steep, but they also looked short and I was pretty sure the didn’t go anywhere. Brian mentioned to me that he had driven up Christoper St. and it had given his car some trouble. So I went up Sunday afternoon and gave it a closer look.

It’s actually slightly longer than it appears looking up from Charles. That is mostly because the 7.2% section in the map above can’t be seen because the initial section is so steep. Anyway, it’s roughly comparable to one of the east side hills. It’s just long enough that sprinting up it feels long, but short enough to not really cause any difficulties. However, once you get to the top, you then realize that you’re sitting on top of a rather impressive little geological feature. Running for maybe a mile between Charles and Smithfield Ave (126) is this little bump, which actually seems to be almost as high in elevation as the East Side. Looking east you realize how high up you are, and you have a pretty nice view of the East Side hills. The nicest climbs, however, are down the eastern side of the bump. Smart Street may be the hardest of them, but Seneca and Toledo which run parallel are also pretty nice. Here’s Smart Street:

That 20% section at the top is for real. It tops off at over 25%, but only for a few meters. All in all, the cluster of hills in this area are worth the trip, especially if you combine with doing the East Side hills, as I did this morning.

Finally made it out for a decent ride this afternoon. With the recent ice and snow, I figured the back roads to the west would be a bit dodgy, so I took the easy option and just rode over to the east side and did some loops on Blackstone. Just when it was becoming unbearable, I remembered that I had been meaning to try out Anglewood, a hill just off 44 in Smithfield (or maybe it’s Johnston at that point). It’s right next to Pine Hill Road, and is a dead end street. I see it every time I drive to Target in Smithfield, and it always looks steep but short. I wasn’t sure if it might keep going past what is visible from 44, so I always had it in the back of my head to try it sometime. (For future reference, riding out 44 duing rush hour when there is sand, snow and ice on the side of the road isn’t really a pleasant experience.) Today seemed like a good day, since I’d already gotten my workout and was looking for something else to do before heading home. So…the hill does not really keep going after the initial section. It flattens out for a while and then there is one more bump, but not really enough to make it seem like a continuation of the first part. The first part, however, is STEEP. The veloroutes elevation data was screwy, so I’m not bothering posting a gradient map. I’m guessing 15-17% sustained, but only for about a tenth of a mile. That makes it on par with the second part of Jenckes (which has a few sections of higher gradient, but a lower average) or George St. in Worcester. It felt really hard, and I was mashing the lowest gear I was willing to use. (I had the Gazelle, so that was 36-26, since I wasn’t going to let myself shift into the 24). Unfortunately, because the hill is in a pretty awkward spot, and a dead-end street, it probably isn’t going to become a regular fixture on my riding routes. The descent is a little frightening as well, since the hill ends right at 44, so you have to come to a dead stop on a 17% slope or run into traffic.