Patty's Potter Valley

On Wednesday evening, I grabbed my camera and headed down to Potter Valley Road to watch members of the bike club race up that beast. It's only 1.9 miles from top to bottom, but the road climbs 660 vertical feet over that distance.

I ride it often this time of year in an effort to lose winter flab and get back in shape, so I thought it might be fun to see what it looks like when fast riders climb. (In case you were wondering, it looks a lot better when they do it.)

There were all sorts of riders climbing at a variety of speeds, but the real contenders looked the part. They were lean, well-muscled, decked out in team kits and shaved legs, and riding beautiful bikes. But I didn't know until the next morning—when I read race coverage in the Daily News—that I left too early and missed my chance to shoot photos of the coolest and toughest rider on the hill: a 58-year-old woman who finished last.

Four years ago, Patty Ginsburg was trying to survive lung cancer. The treatments that saved her left a lot of damage, and doctors told the former marathon runner that her lungs would never been the same again. Now she rides to push herself, and to see how much she can do.

Wednesday night, she was pedaling the first road bike she has owned in 30 years, and beat her personal goal of 25 minutes when she finished in 23:19. She was dead last, and very much alive.

It's funny how we always think we're supposed to watch the rider at the front of a race.

It's a shame when we miss the best part because we don't know we should be watching the rider at the back.

Roll out the skinny tires

The road bikes are finally hitting the pavement. They were all over town this weekend. The last time mine touched the ground was when I rode it across my brother’s driveway in Kansas City after a week of riding last October. I took it off the trainer Friday night and then spent the weekend reminding myself how fat I got this winter.

After a 27-miler with Ken and Heather on Saturday, I did a solo ride up Potter Valley Road on Sunday. And I didn’t let myself time the climb. Some things are best left unknown this early in the season.

The great thing about cycling is that progress comes quickly. A few more rides and I might start feeling good again.

Oh, hell, who am I kidding? The best thing about cycling is that it’s fun even when you suck.

I was about a quarter of the way up Potter Valley when I allowed myself to think, “Hey, this doesn’t hurt that bad.” Then a guy on a Cervelo cruised up beside me, said, “How ya doin?” and left me eating dust as he shot up the hill.

I reeled him in and beat him to the top, of course. (Good thing he stopped to chat with his friends at the halfway point.)

It was a beautiful ride: The sun was shining, the air was a warm 50 degrees, my heart didn’t explode out of my chest, and I got the first hill climb of the season out of the way.

They all get easier from here ... right?

GPiSsed

My mother-in-law is visiting right now, and she asked if I’ve been using the Garmin Edge 205 she sent me for Christmas. I told her I don’t fully understand all the things it can do, because I mostly use it just to put squiggly lines on Google Earth photos so that I can see where I've ridden.

This image of Potter Valley Road is a good example. The road is very popular with local cyclists who climb it—often several times in a single session—for springtime workouts. I’ve been riding it quite a bit this year, so one night a couple of weeks ago, I reset the 205 at the bottom of the hill and then stopped it at the end of the pavement so I could get all the pertinent numbers on the climb.

I can gasp my way up this climb in a little less than 14 minutes (way slower than the people who actually race up it). It is 1.89 miles from the bottom to the top, which involves 621 feet of elevation gain. The grades run as steep as 11 percent. I know this because I was dumb enough to include that information among the fields of data displayed on the screen.

I’m still not sure if there is any good reason to know, at the moment one is grinding up an 11-percent grade, that the hill is actually that steep. It can sort of make a person want to head-butt his bike computer with his helmet. I don’t dare try this, of course, because in my oxygen-deprived state I’d be more likely to slam into my stem and suffer disfiguring facial trauma.

But it sure makes a neat squiggly line on the satellite photo, though, doesn’t it?