Brentani’s Cycling Blog

If you’re wondering why there haven’t been any posts recently, it is because I haven’t been outside on my bike in a while. Just a few sessions on the rollers. This is mostly because Providence deems it unnecessary to plow their streets, and, as a result, the roads around here are covered with snow and ice much longer than they should be. Today the roads and the weather were finally such that a ride seemed like a good idea. That is, it would have been if I didn’t have a mild hangover from last night. For future reference, riding a bike is a sure way to make a mild hangover a craptaculous hangover. I was planning on doing the Douglas Hook-Burlingame loop, but after a few minutes I started thinking of ways to shorten the ride, until, finally, I felt dizzy and decided it best to just turn around and go home. Maybe tomorrow I’ll finally get back to Capron.

I went out and did Douglas Hook today. It’s a tough climb…roughly on par with 102. Except it doesn’t suit me as well, because the gradient is pretty inconsistent.

I did also find one new hill, and decided that one old hill (I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually done it) is worth cataloging. The new one is Capron Street, which runs between Stillwater and 104. It looks quite hard to me, but as usual I’ll reserve final judgement until I try it out (I just went down it today):

And the other one is Mann School Road, which goes up to the same point as Burlingame. I think it doesn’t look quite as difficult as Burlingame, but the gradient map does show some very steep sections. (I think 23% is way too high, but there are definitely some stretches in the mid-to-upper teens.)

Against my better judgment, I decided to head out for a cold ride – it was still 22 degrees when I walked out the door. But I didn’t figure it was much of a commitment, since what were the odds that Mark N. would show up? But show up he did, and we tried out his new Refunds Now Loop (here’s a link to what I remember the route to be). It’s a very nice loop, and we ended up on Douglas Hook (headed West). We went down the following hill, which is quite long and has some steep sections. All in all, looks to be a very tough hill. I won’t rank it until I get back to try it out.

Here are two hills that I’m never particularly happy to do. Woodward is usually about 1 mile into any rides that head out to the north, and Waterman is the street I end up using to get up the East Side any time I ride with the Brown team or head out to Massachusetts (a rarity unless I’m with the Brown team). Woodward is longish and has a couple steep section. Waterman is short and steep, but not as bad as many of the other hills on the east side.

Woodward:

Waterman: