Twin Peaks

Last Saturday (16th), I joined 4 other cyclists from the greater Vancouver area in a ride that is called among local roadies as the Twin Peaks. The ride is located in North Vancouver and consist of climbing Cypress and Seymour mountains, which are located on both side of the north shore:

As the ride was starting from Stanley Park, I rode from home to it as a way to get warmed-up for the ride, which bring my total odometer for the day to 153km (instead of riding back home, I rode to a Skytrain station to took a train back home). 

The ride is my longest one in time with just above 5 hours on the saddle. It was my first time climbing Seymour and my second time doing Cypress. IMHO, Seymour is a little harder than Cypress (Seymour climb is about 15km for an elevation of 955m, while Cypress is 11.17km long for 694m of elevation).

Thanks to my low weight-race, I was able to finish second on both climbs :) Since I don't do bunch ride much (if ever), I had some trouble staying with the group initially and dropped them a couple of time while riding up-front in aero position (I used my Kuota that day) :D

Nutrition wise, I carried my usual energy bites with 800ml of my energy drink. At the end of the ride all I had left was a single date (carried four for bonking emergency).

Labour day long ride

For today ride, I headed out to climb Cypress Mountain in North Vancouver (technically, it's in West Vancouver). This is a pretty popular climb for local cyclists with about 910 meters of climbs from the shore (Marine Dr). Since I was going to leave from home, I knew it was going to be a relatively long ride ... and it was with a moving time clocking at just over 4 hours:

I wasn't disappointed by the ride, it was pretty nice. The Cypress' climb was easier than I was expecting and while it is somewhat long, it's a pretty constant grade. In fact, I though the climb from Marine Drive to the Highway (on 21st street) was a lot harder than the actual climb. Passing trough downtown on the way back was a bit less fun since the traffic had picked-up in the couple of hours since I had gone in on my way up north. The temperature was pretty constantly dropping as I climbed and it was clearly chilly at the top. The downhill was pretty fun (with a top speed of 75kph, wheeeez!) albeit freezing (I was dressed warmly for the late season). 

Here's a few shots I took (on the way down):

To fuel myself, I prepared my usual energy drink and packed 10 dates. I didn't have any eating schedule in mind and just snacked on some of the dates here and there. At no point in the ride did I felt low on energy not did I feel any digestive issue. I made sure to drink some of my drink each time I had dates. Since I had gotten-up to close to the start of the ride (5:30am wake-up time) I didn't eat anything before starting the ride. Probably not optimal, but I have an hard time eating so close to a ride (or run).