A picture from a while ago. It shows White Lane, and the steep last part of the climb.
Yes, disappointed with myself. Matt was on holiday last weekend so it was a lone cycling two days. I tend to ride the road bike when I'm on my own. It rarely gets ridden and it's faster. But how much faster?
As I cycled a slightly off road route on Saturday I decided to find out. It would be Saturday on the mountain bike. Sunday on the road bike. I'd have to choose a route on Sunday that was similar to Saturday's without the off road bit.
I use cyclemeter on my phone to record my rides. Distance, ascents and descents, speed etc are all recorded. The route would include White Lane. It is a very steep hill Matt and I don't often climb. I had conquered it on both road and mountain bikes before. It is tough, but doable.
The mountain bike climb was harder than I remembered. I couldn't get the lowest gear, it stuck during the down change. But I made it.
On the road bike the next day I had started talking myself out of climbing the hill way before I got there. As approached the steepest part, I slowed almost to a walking pace. And finally admitted defeat, got off the bike, and walked the rest. Ever since then I have wanted to get back on the bike and make another attempt. It is very rare that I give up during a climb. I've been beating myself about it. I'm not cycling next weekend. After that I will be with Matt. So the road bike will remain in the garage. White Lane will have to wait.
How much faster, even with the walking, was the road bike? Twenty minutes over a 17 mile ride.
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20 minutes faster? Not sure whether that's good or bad. Still, it's 20 minutes, almost half an hour, but I knew you'd have trouble climbing White Lane on the racing bike, it's bad enough on a mountain bike. Know what you mean about not liking it when you fail to climb a hill, although I thought you'd have gone back and tried again! Last week I went to Woodmansterne Green Saturday and Sunday. Can't ride this weekend, see text. See you next weekend. Oh, love that caff in Blackpool you visited.
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