Mike's Bike Blog

If you follow me on twitter than you probably already know where I was last week. If not I was up around the Olympic Penninsula area of Washington state visiting my family. The whole gang from Austin hopped on a plane to Seattle. I debated taking my bike but the day before we left I opted to forgo bringing the whole bike. I was going to rent a bike box from Spin City Cycling but I was leary of any additional baggage fees plus what if my bike was lost or damaged. Instead I planned on borrowing bikes from my brothers. My brother Doug had a mountain bike he said I could use and my other brother Mark said he had a road bike I could borrow as well. Instead of bringing my whole bike I brought my mountain bike pedals and a set of road pedals, Garmin Edge 705, helmet and my powertap wheel. I found a shop online in Sequim where my parents live that rented road bikes. The plan with the powertap wheel was to use it with Mark's road bike and rent a decent road bike for a day to ride up Hurricane Ridge. Riding up Hurricane Ridge has been a goal of mine for the past 2 years since I was last up visiting family and seeing others riding up it. During that trip I was not able to get out for any rides, a mistake I vowed not to make this time around.


Doug and his wife Janet live outside of Silverdale/Bremerton in an area that offers some really good cycling.  Janet is preparing for her first triathlon next month so she took me out our first morning on a 10 mile route around their lake. The route offered long climbs with an average grade of 4%. When I say long they were in the 3 mile range, a lot longer than the 1 mile climbs we have around Austin. When Janet and me got back Jennifer was ready for a run so I took her out for another 5 miles. She ran and I rode infront leading the way.

Worthwhile Stats:
Distance:      15.452 mi
Elevation Gain:        1775 ft
Elevation Loss:       1771 ft

Later in the day before dinner I got out for a 16 mile ride around Doug's place, this time going down by the bay. When we drove through Seabeck earlier enroute into Bremerton the tide was out and the bald eagles were out clamming. Just outside of Seabeck a roadie passes me on the start of a hill. When he goes by he is out of the saddle really working it. I don't accelerate after him but I keep it consistent knowing that by the looks of him that it had taken all his energy to pass me in the first place. As I suspected a minute later I had totally eliminated any gap between us that he had. I didn't want to suck his wheel so I sat back a bike and a half length. As we reached the top he looked back to check traffic as he was going to turn left and he was shocked to see me back there and did a double take. I can only imagine the surprise to see a guy on a mountain bike that he previously passed that close behind him. I know I would have been if it was me in his situation. After this warmup hill  the road starts to climb again with a 4 mile ascent. This was the highlight of riding around my brother's place. I completed the 16 miles in 1 hour, surprising everyone that I returned back to the house so soon.

Ride Stats:
Duration:      1:01:42 (1:01:51)
Distance:      16.231 mi
Elevation Gain:        1724 ft
Elevation Loss:       1719 ft

The change of terrain was great. Every place I rode offered long climbs, most that I could stay in the large ring and just power up. Another welcome change from Texas was the weather. There was only 1 day of rain, the rest were beautiful with the temperature in the 70-80's.