the ultimate ride

Today was a wonderful, marvelous, fantastic, superb, words-fail-me kind of bike ride. Conditions were favourable in every way: warm (22 degrees) but not too hot; mostly sunny, with enough clouds to break up the relentless glare; no wind to speak of; light traffic. In short, a cyclist's dream. 

I rode 53+ km and worked hard to keep my speed up -- at the end of the ride I was pleased to see that my average was over 26 km/hour -- this includes slowing and stopping for traffic lights and stop signs, and climbing several large and many small hills.

I began by riding up North Hill to Airport Road.

When I stopped at the turn-off to the the airport to check my speed, I was happy to see 27.8 km/hour on my GPS screen. All right!

Around the airport, the land is flat and the sky is huge:

Riding west from the airport, there are a couple of good climbs. Just after the big climb, I was passed again (4th time in 4 rides) by a skinny strong guy on a skinny, stripped-down steel-framed bike. No frills; just him and the bike. I don't think he's taken the Overtaking Middle-aged Women Etiquette course, or maybe he just hasn't yet perfected his foreign accent or thought of any good lines, because he merely gave me a friendly smile and wave as he passed. He wasn't going super fast, and once he was a safe distance ahead of me, I increased my speed in order to keep the same distance between us. This makes me feel better about getting overtaken.

After I hit the turn-around point, just before the north-south highway, I rode to Roller Coaster Road, where I engaged in some self-torture by climbing all those hills, jiggling all the while on the bumpy pavement, until I reached the top where the pavement ends. The hills here are small and steep and just as you reach the top of one, you see that there is another of the same ilk right in front of you. I haven't counted them, but there must be at least 5 or 6. 

Back down (or up and down) again, with more bone-mass-building opportunity on the rough pavement, and along Lilac Lane, where the smell from the lilac hedge is simply heavenly. 

Finally, back to North Hill, where I headed south and into town. Once, when the wind was at my back, I achieved a speed of 56.3 km/hour going down the biggest hill on this road. Today my maximum was 52.

Is it any wonder I love it so much up here?