How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: How about Lance \"YouDaMan\" Armstrong?

Snake Alley is in Burlington, IA. it's listed by Ripley's Believe It Or Not as the "crookedist street in the world." It was built in the 1800's so the fire department could get to the residential area more quickly from downtown. The bricks were laid with the back edge higher then the front to provide footing for the fire horses and the cutbacks obviously make it possible to climb that steep of grade in such a short distance.

It's also the last test in driver's ed class to drive down Snake Alley. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[toddler]

Re: How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

How bout worst hill experiences? Personally, I love hills. But, five or six summers ago, when they had the NORBA races at Mount Snow I went down there with a few friends. Went mountain biking with a group of guys who were better than me for 3-4 hours, hot and humid!! Then my friend Pete and I decided to do a short road ride, and got lost. After about an hour we made a turn onto "Chimney Hill road". Don't know the grade, but the topo showed it as some like 850' of elevation in about a mile. Don't know if that's as bad in reality as it seemed that day, but my right leg cramped with the top in site. Probably the dehydration as I was over 12# lite when we did get home (meaning I was 138), but that's the first hill I've had to stop on since before high school. SUCKED!
But it got worse! Right after we crested the top, it turned to a rutted dirt drive. Not even gravel. Petey and I rode our brakes the entire way down. Punked out, no skills, but still unwilling to turn around. Found our way home 30 minutes later.

Next summer I hope to get a little more time on my bike and ride up Bolton's access road, really just for the ride down. Bolton Valley is a little ski resort here in VT.

May not happen though, since kid two is on his way. Due the last week of November, 21months after his sister. Anyone else have a worst hill?

Todd

 

[toddler]

Re: How about Lance \"YouDaMan\" Armstrong?

PS) Pete woulda made it if he hadn't stopped for me. Extra shame.

 

[RobS]

Re: How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

Sadly, here in the midwest our "worst hills" are the lack of hills. Seeing PitBulls name reminded me of a dog story though (every cyclist worth his big ring has a dog story, right?). I was in Nashville a few years back on a two week assignment. Normally flew, but for that length of time I drove so I could take my bike and various other things to pass the time (this is pre-tractor/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif). I hit the local bike shop and got some maps and some routes. Found a decent way to the plant from my hotel and began the commuting routine. Because of the hills, there aren't nearly as many route options as I am used to up here so my choices were limited. I could take the main road in the morning as traffic wasn't too bad at my time of day. The way home, I'd take the one alternate route that was convenient. I'd gotten accustomed to meeting a dog near the end of my return trip but by the time he saw me I was out of his range. On the first Saturday I decided to go for a long ride. This time I went out the normal return and the dog noticed. No big deal, again I was out of range by the time he got up. A couple of hours later I return the same route and the pooch is waiting in the middle of the road for me /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif This is a narrow road, slight uphill to an old wooden railroad overpass. The grade becomes much steeper at the overpass and makes a fairly hard left hand turn. Main road is just on the other side and the hotel is across that road. Anyway, here I am headed towards this rather large junkyard dog contemplating either taking him on or finding another route which could easily add a half hour to my trip. I go for it. Everything I've got up the hill realizing I can't carry too much speed around the corner and on to the wooden bridge. The dog is poised, my heart is pounding. We meet and I'm flying. I give him my best growl and prepare to unclip for a kick as I pass. He chases but has as much trouble with the hill as I do. I start pulling away in time to slow for the curve, barely keep the bike under me across the bridge and go ripping across the highway with barely a glance for oncoming traffic. I made it! I never looked back to see where the dog stopped, but it was somewhere before the highway. I never did another out and back on the same road, but did come by there a couple more times that trip. Some bad weather kept me in the second week but I had my rollers with me so I could ride in the hotel room. I drove by the house a few times and it was the stereo-typical redneck dive. Abandon cars and trash all over. I talked to the bike shop guys later and they knew about the dog, but apparently the authorities in the area weren't too bike friendly so they never did anything about it. Kind of exciting and a great way to work on your sprint but I suppose I'm lucky that's all the workout I got.

So that's my dog story which has a hill in it after all/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Rowski]

Re: How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

<font color=blue>since kid two is on his way. Due the last week of November, </font color=blue>

My wife and I are having out first one in the end of November too!

Derek

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

This is not our "worst hill", but it's a humm-dinger. One of our more challenging hills is Montebello Road in Cupertino, CA. Total elevation gain is 1,940' in 5.3 miles. Average grade is 6.9%, with the maximum grade at 16%. Here is a profile of the ride.

The GlueGuy

 

[Boondox]

Re: How about Lance \"YouDaMan\" Armstrong?

My worst hill experience was going downhill in a California canyon with my three buddies right behind me. Coming up the hill was a very well endowed young lady with one breast exposed. It had slipped out from her halter top and was quivering with every bump she hit. I remember being so captivated by that incredibly lovely sight that I missed a curve and left the trail at a high rate of speed. I was saved from serious injury by a thick stand of brush...as were my buddies who were likewise distracted and crashed right along with me!

Pete

www.GatewayToVermont.com

 

[fishman]

Re: How about Lance "YouDaMan" Armstrong?

Great story Boondox!

This is kinda turning into a biking story thread, so I'll have a go at one.

I "got into" cycling in the late 80's, when mountain biking was the hot new thing. Most of you guys are "roadies" it sounds like. Being out in the boonies at that time, I bought a really nice Schwinn mountain bike with Shimano SIS shifters (18 speeds!). Still have it, but it gets ridden a lot less during the hot Tejas summers! Anyway, to my story.

I had been dating a girl (now my wife /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif) for a while and went to visit her on a day off from work. She was out and about on the wildlife management area and I was supposed to meet her in parking lot x at noon for lunch. No problem, just park the truck at her house and ride the 10 miles over, right? Couldn't find the right parking lot and ended up lost in several thousand acres of wildlife habitat on a horse trail! Worse yet . . . only one water bottle, no money, and no place to spend it even. When I finally got my bearings, I was about 25 miles out and was "bonking" badly after 3 hours of technical riding. Took me 3 more hours to get back. You know the drill, ride a half mile, fall over, rest for a couple of minutes, repeat. Fuel gauge on empty! Five miles from my girlfriend's house, I came upon a vision of lovelyness. A roadside hotel, with a pool in front, and a nice young blonde in a BIKINI cleaning the pool/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Keep in mind, this is in Nowhereville, USA, population 5 at most. Unfortunately, I was too far gone to appreciate much of anything but the coke machine out front. Wait, no money!/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif Anyway, I got a free soda (Orange Crush . . . still remember!) out of the deal, and a good story.

Moral: Don't bike anywhere without adequate provisions, unless you know of an attractive blonde by the roadside that is willing to help you out.

 

[GlueGuy]

Re: How about Lance \"YouDaMan\" Armstrong?

What a hoot! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I wonder if the "thick stand of brush: was poison oak? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Actually, I did dump my (motor)bike on a back road many moons ago (I do _not_ want to talk about it). One of the strange side affects was that the bike went into a ravine that was full of poison oak. I didn't have a scratch on me (but I had ruptured my spleen) and went down the hill after it.

Next day in the hospital I was breaking out all over with PO (in addition to having a new "zipper" installed on my abdomen) /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif.

The GlueGuy

 

[MChalkley]

Re: How about Lance \"YouDaMan\" Armstrong?

Sheesh - I make one simple remark about once having had a low resting pulse rate because I rode a bike a lot, and the next thing I know I'm stuck at the back of the peloton and 10-man breakaway is out of sight...

MarkC