Brentani’s Cycling Blog

I started thinking about this a couple weeks ago after riding with Casey. We rode up Burlingame (he smoked me, btw) and he mentioned that Burlingame was the first tough hill he rode after coming to Providence, and that therefore it was something of a benchmark for him. Both for how his training was going and for judging the difficulty of other hills. For me, that hill was Wilbur. Other than the east side hills, that was the first real climb that I found in the area, and I still consider it one of the most difficult. (I just bumped it from 3 to 4 in my list, displaced by Woonsocket Hill Road.)

But the hill that really occupies a special place in my heart is Wayne Hill in Traverse City, MI (my home town.) I’m pretty sure that if it were plunked down in Rhode Island, it would probably be number 1 on the list. (Bowen might still be harder, but only because of the cobbles…) I’ve done plenty of harder hills in my life (especially some of the big mountain climbs – Monadnock, Brasstown Bald – and Flemish cobbled climbs like the Koppenberg and the Muur) but I always rank new hills in some sense by whether it is harder or easier than Wayne Hill. The most difficult way to ascend it is to take a right when you get to the top of the first section. While it seems that this gives you a break and flattens out for a few meters, it quickly kicks up to 14-15%, and stays that way almost for the rest of the way to the top. Here’s a gradient map:

So, for all the dedicated readers of this blog (how many of you are there, actually?), post a comment with your benchmark hill, and if you’re lucky (and if you provide enough info on where to find it) I’ll post a gradient map for it.

Doug Jansen divides New England climbs into two categories (or three actually): “above 1000 feet,” “between 500 and 1000 feet,” and “not worthy of mention” (oh and then there’s also Gap and Notch climbs that he keeps separate from hillclimbs like Washington, even if some of them, like Lincoln Gap, are just as difficult.) Living in Rhode Island, I don’t have the luxury of not mentioning climbs below 500 feet, since that’s all we have. But it strikes me that there is one other distinction in the 500-1000 range that is more aesthetic than anything else (and roughly equivalent to the difference between a hillclimb and a gap.) That is, there are regular old hills, like Pead Hill (in NH) that are essentially just like any climb in Rhode Island, just longer steeper and with more elevation gain. The other type of mid-range climb is what I’m calling (per the wordpress tagging system) a “baby mountain.” These climbs look and feel like climbing one of the larger mountains, in that they are usually dead ends, often in parks (sometimes charging tolls to enter) and usually have spectacular views from the top. West Peak in Meridan, Mount Tom, and Mount Holyoke would all be examples of this sort of climb. This is also the category into which Mount Battie falls. It’s a lot of fun to climb, has two sustained steep sections, and you’re rewarded with an incredible view of the Maine Coast and Camden when you get to the top. I rode in the 34-25 for most of the steep sections, but kept up a reasonable cadence (for me) of about 70 (according to Mike Sherman’s calculator), since I was going about 7.5 mph through most of those sections.

here are some hills that I’ve been meaning to add for a while:

1. Iron Mine Hill Road. Tough hill. I usually end up going down it, but its worth rerouting once in a while to go up this one.

2. Sayles Hill. This is the other side of Iron Mine Hill. While it looks pretty tough, it crosses rt. 146 right in the middle, and it’s almost impossible to get across without getting stuck at the light. (In fact if you don’t have another car behind you trying to cross, you may end up dodging traffic since the light uses a sensor that bikes don’t seem to set off.) So it would be a nice hill if it weren’t for 146.

3. Tunk Hill. This is the biggest hill on the roads that circle the Scituate Reservoir. It’s really two hills – a short one followed by a little descent and then a longer hill. Nothing too difficult, though I always seem to be riding this one with Mark G, who can big ring it on a good day and leave me gasping for air.

4. Tourtellot. This road goes from 44 to Snake Hill Road. It’s not very steep but it seems to go on forever.

5. Log Road. I’ve never really thought of Log Road as a hill…it always felt more like a series of rolling hills that forgot to roll downward. Riding north on Log Road is a tiring experience all around, but it’s also one of the nicest roads in Rhode Island. Below is the hardest individual section, but keep in mind there are more rolling hills on either side of this one:

I’m off to Maine later today. I’m hoping to drive up to the Camden area while I’m there. (Really, it’s just past Wiscasset…) This is the route I’ve planned out, which includes Mt. Battie and Mt. Dodge. I’ve driven up Mt. Battie before, and it seems pretty comparable to West Peak in Meridan, and Mt. Dodge also looks tough.

View Larger Map

and here’s another ride I’ll do while I’m up there.

I decided to scrap my original plan for today, which was to go ride up Mt. Tom and Mt. Holyoke, primarily because rain was forecasted and descending Mt. Tom looks sketchy on a good day. So instead I announced a long (60ish) mile ride. Being that it was mid-week, and I seem to be the only one without gainful employment around here right now, I didn’t have high hopes that anyone would show up. After waiting a couple minutes at De Pasquale Square, I headed on my merry way. Can I say, btw, that for being the end of May, the weather here really sucks. I wore knickers, base layer, long sleeve jersey, wind-breaker and long finger gloves. And it was still chilly, though comfortable. A little over half way, it started to drizzle, but I convinced myself to press on. I basically did the 3-state loop, but turned off on Buck Hill Road instead of going all the way to Elmwood Hill (on Quaddick Farm Road). That was a good choice. Buck Hill kicks up immediately after you turn onto it (headed east) from Quaddick Farm. I had heard reports that it was really tough, and maybe even the hardest hill in RI. After I got to the top, there was no evidence to support that claim. It’s moderately long and has a couple steepish sections but nothing horrible. Here’s the veloroutes map, and the gradient map:

then you go down a steep hill…this one seems roughly comparable to something like waterman. not too long, but pretty steep:

So then I thought it was over, and Buck Hill was mostly hype, when the road suddenly shoots up again. Of the three hills on Buck Hill Road, this one is definitely the hardest. It’s an average gradient of 6.3% and has a stretch of 12% in there, and it’s almost a kilometer long. Still not the hardest in the area, but definitely not one to be taken lightly, especially since you will also have just completed the first Buck Hill, and the descent of the second isn’t quite enough time to recover fully. Here’s the gradient map for the third one:

After Buck Hill, I ended up on Jackson Schoolhouse Road. I had never taken this road, so when it turned to dirt, I almost turned around. Thankfully I didn’t. For one thing the dirt is nicely packed without many rocks, and the dirt section doesn’t last very long. Not too far after the dirt, you come to a huge clearing where you can see across the valley (where rt 44 runs below). I figured there should be a big hill around, but there wasn’t any sign of it. Not too fat later, Jackson Schoolhouse starts going down. It seemed like it went down forever. Going the reverse direction (which I plan to do soon) the hill would be 1.3 miles long. The average gradient is only 3.2%, but there are some steep sections in there, which promise to make it a tough climb.

All done. Now I don’t have to do anything except write a dissertation and raise a kid for the next 2 years. How hard can that be?

Browsing on veloroutes in “Terrain” mode yesterday, I found what looked to be a pretty difficult climb, Woonsocket Hill Road. The climb starts just as you cross over Rt. 146 and packs a brutal punch right at the bottom. The first part of the climb is probably about a 1/2 mile long followed by a short flat section. Then you turn onto Brentwood. It looks like there won’t be any more climbing and the road even dips down a bit, but then the road swings to the left and gives you something that seems roughly comparable view of the area (You can see the water tower at the top of Mt. St. Charles) This one is tough.

Yesterday I drove to Middletown, CT to meet with a professor at Wesleyan. I decided that I would bring the bike (the Gazelle) with me and ride the road up to West Peak in Meriden. According to Doug Jansen’s site, it gains about 600 feet over 1.7 miles for an average grade of 6.6%. The middle section is pretty tough, being a pretty consistent (probably) 8 or 9 percent, for close to mile. It got to me and I put it in the granny gear (which yesterday was a very easy 30-26) for a bit to recover. I really wish we had something similar in Rhode Island to train on. If I could ride a hill like that on a regular basis and do hill-repeats, I’d have a much better chance of getting myself in shape for climbs like Mt. Washington. Doug also recently posted about his trip to Mount Tom in Springfield, MA. That one looks truly maniacal. Doug writes: “The grade is heinous, 16% for 0.9 miles. That’s average. I’m betting sustained sections exceed 20% with one bit at 25-30% right at the top. I nearly wheelied over backwards on that.”

I had many reasons to not do Blue Hills today: the whole bottom bracket fiasco, the chain-skip on the Gazelle, it was raining and cold, I got maybe 2 hours of sleep last night (not for lack of trying…), and being my first race of the year, I really had little to no expectations. So, after deciding to ditch my glasses (couldn’t see shit with them on, but kept getting water and debris in my eyes with them off…) I lined up near the back of the cat 4 field. There were 75 preregistered, but clearly many had opted to stay in their warm beds. Refunds Now had a pretty strong showing: Graham, Casey, Radu, Mark G., Michael, Tony and myself. I felt pretty unsure of my form and my ability to stay upright in the rain, so I took it easy at or near the back of the pack for the first couple laps. It really didn’t present me many problems. I actually wondered if we were in a neutral start well after the race had started. Radu was off the front for much of the first lap, with Michael keeping the pace under control at the front. The hill was definitely over-hyped…I only knew we were on it because some people started struggling. (I stayed in the big ring the whole day…) I looked over at one rider just in front of me and noticed he had a triple. That made me a little happy to see that I wasn’t the only one. But then he shifted INTO his granny ring. Clearly not his day. He also sounded like he was having a heart attack. I felt really good on the climb and started reevaluating my potential performance (my goal all along was to not get dropped and finish with the pack). On the second time up the climb, a few more people got ditched, and I moved up mid-field. I didn’t work very hard to maintain my position and was back a the back of the pack (which was a bit smaller) when we hit the climb for the third time. Again, really felt very good on the climb, and started watching the proceedings a bit more carefully. Sometime about then, the downpour started. The last lap was absolutely soaking. When the final climb started I moved up as quickly as possible so that I was probably only 10 riders back as we came to what I thought was the last part of the climb (and I knew there was still about 500 feet or so from the top of the climb to the finish). Graham was up in front of me, Radu was behind me, and Casey was, I think somewhere near me. I felt fidgety and almost jumped myself. Then a rider jumped from one of the first three positions. I think that all of us in this front group were feeling pretty fresh. Graham led the chase, and I was able to respond for a bit, but ran out of gas – this is where a little more interval training and top-end would have help immensely. (If I had jumped when I thought about it, I probably would have finished a few places higher, but still wouldn’t have placed top-ten.) Radu nipped me just before the line probably at about 20th or so, Graham placed top-10, and Casey placed just behind Graham. Michael and Mark weren’t too far behind in the next group. I think I was essentially right at the back of the decisive split, and I’m pretty happy with that, for my first race of the year.

On another note, I don’t think that the Gazelle is responsible for the sudden crap-out on the Circle A’s bottom bracket (see Khalid’s comment yesterday…) I think that the Circle A must have some sort of weather forecasting ability and decided to crap out all on its own so that it could sit this one out in the nice warm comfort of the house, while the Gazelle and I went out for a thorough soaking.

So, about a month ago, I started hearing a faint little “tink” coming from somewhere near my bottom bracket, cranks, or chainrings. About a 2 weeks ago I stopped by Circle A to have Brian tune up the rear derailleur. He of course asked how the bike was riding and I mentioned the little clink, but said it was probably nothing. He said to come back by if it got worse or anything. A week later, it was definitely worse. lots of clinks, not particularly associated with putting a lot of torque on the system. So I headed out for a ride and stopped at Circle A. Brian took apart the BB, which was strangely corroded and nasty looking. The threads were all eaten up, but still functional. But we were pretty sure the clinking was coming from the bottom bracket. He put it back together and tightened down the cranks. Ouch. they barely moved. So for the ride, he loosened them a bit and warned me to be sure to check them frequently to make sure they weren’t about to fall off. Out on the ride, the clinking progressed from occasional to frequent and then to more of a crunching which I could feel through the pedals.

Next step…Brian ordered a BB, which came in the today (the next day). Put it on, put on the crank, but when he tightened it all the way, it felt like it was packed in mud. I took it down to caster’s where they had a go. They’re pretty convinced that it’s a faulty crank, which means there’s not really any chance I’ll have a crank on the circle A in time for racing Blue Hills on Sunday. Thankfully, Reed loaned me a newer 9-speed cassette to put on the Gazelle, and that seems to have stopped the chain-skip problem. But anyway, at this point I’m fed up with the FSA crank. It always felt pretty sluggish. I.E. when I put the veloce crank on the Gazelle, you spin it and it just spins and spins and spins…no drag. The FSA has never done more than just go half a turn and stop. Now the poor Circle A is just sitting in the corner looking sad.