Central Ave/Central Pike stops on either side of the Scituate Reservoir. Coming from Providence, Central Ave. is a long uphill drag–good for training, but not particularly worth including on this site. Riding east from 94 towards 102, however, makes for a challenging hill. I’ve done it a few times, but it isn’t very convenient for most of my rides. It will feature prominently in my newly created ride on the rides page (“The Mother of All Providence Rides”). Here’s the gradient map:
I ended up back on Mountaindale again today. This time we took the southern approach. It is quite a bit longer, but, predictably, much less steep. Here’s the gradient map for that one:
Then we went down Walter Carey Road, which is another route up to the same point (shorter and steeper):
I did the Burlingame-Douglas Hook ride today, except I rode up Mann School Road instead of Burlingame. There are two other climbs of note on the route, which are as follows:
Mountaindale – This one starts off quite steep, though the 26% on the gradient map is definitely bogus. I’d guess a max of 13 or 14 percent in that section. The hill looks pretty imposing as you approach it, and coming near the end of the ride, it was pretty tough.
Farnum – this one is kind of funny. I didn’t think it looked all that bad, or very steep. But it felt steep, and I definitely rode up fairly slowly. Thankfully, the gradient map matches how I felt on the climb, and it is apparently steeper and longer than it looked. I would have guessed it was 7 or 8 percent at its steepest, but it actually appears to be closer to 12-14 in those sections.
on another note, I’m thinking about trying to come up with a less arbitrary method of ranking hills in the area. My subjective method isn’t really satisfactory, because how difficult the hill feels on a given day is so dependent on other factors like wind, training, motivation, whether you’re riding with someone who pushes you, etc. There are a few ranking systems out there, so I might try to use one of those, or just work on my own…suggestions are welcome…