Mike's Bike Blog

Thursday (07/09/2009) morning I woke up at 5am and got ready to drive over to Port Angeles to ride the 17 miles up to Hurricane Ridge. As I was driving up to the Olympic National Park visitor center I noticed that the ascent actually started in Port Angeles. I turned around and drove back into Port Angeles and parked next to some tennis courts and started off. I got a block away and remembered I didn't lock the car so I turned around. Locked the car and rode off again, got to about the same spot and realized I forgot my water bottles in the car! I turned around again and got them. After this unorthodoxed warmup I was ready to go. For whatever reason the first 5 miles were the most difficult. Right before the pay station is the only down hill section of the 17 miles. It was at this point that I started to feel good and after paying the $5 entry fee I was able to get into a good groove and the next 12 miles were a breeze.

I was a little worried about fog as I didn't have any lights or blinkies, but I left early enough that traffic up was not an issue. There was a section in the middle that was foggy, but it didn't prove to be any problem at all. Since I wasn't sure what was going to be around the next curve in the road I rode up very conservatively. I averaged 9 mph & 223 watts up to the observatory at the top of Hurricane Ridge. The Motobecane was equipped with a triple chainring, but I'm happy to say I didn't get into the granny gear at all on the climb. The views on the way up were breathtaking and the route was lined with numerous waterfalls and trickles. There was even a section of 3 tunnels. When I stopped to take a few pictures a guy walked over and asked me how long it took me and how far it was. When I told him it took me 2 hours and 13 minutes to ride up the 19 miles (remember I parked further down and had 2 false starts) he was impressed and said I should be riding in France. He talked a bit about Lance Armstrong and I got a good chuckle out of it. I then headed down the mountain.

The decent down the mountain was a blast I got into the 53x11 and into the drops and for the most part just let gravity do it's thing. Since this was the most miles the Motobecane had seen the breaks had loosened up, something I really hadn't noticed till this point. When I applied the breaks they weren't grabbing like they should. I had to pull them all the way back, the back break lever was touching the drops! There were only a couple sharp turns or sections where I got going too fast for my own comfort level. Close to the bottom there is a long straight section where I worked the pedals and then got into a tuck. During this section I reached an all time high speed, 69.7 mph! I only held this speed for a few seconds before I wussed out and breaked down to 59 mph. Through the winding roads I averaged 38-40 mph. What took me 2 hours to ride up took me only 39 minutes to get down!

Riding up Hurricane Ridge topped off a week of great riding. If you plan on riding this route do as I did and get out there are the crack of dawn to beat the traffic up. When I was going up I was passed by about 5 cars total. On the way down there was a steady stream of cars going up. I also passed 4 other cyclists going up as well. I wish I would have had more time to go back up again as I definetly could have made it up again with no problem.

Entire workout (190 watts):
    Duration:      2:51:46 (3:14:04)
    Work:          1953 kJ
    TSS:           169.1 (intensity factor 0.769)
    Norm Power:    224
    VI:            1.18
    Distance:      38.166 mi
    Elevation Gain:        6232 ft
    Elevation Loss:       6199 ft
            Min    Max    Avg
    Power:           0    673    190     watts
    Heart Rate:      79    161    142     bpm
    Cadence:         31    212    67     rpm
    Speed:           0    69.7    13.3     mph