First ride of the spring: Proveysieux

I took my road bike out for the first time this year. It is quite amazing how different of an experience it is from my commuter bike: it stops well, handles really well and generally does exactly what you ask it to, regardless of how misguided or stupid that may be. For that reason, I imagine making the switch is a little like driving all winter in a Yugo and then getting into an M3: if you're not very careful you're going to end up picking limestone pebbles out of your chin at the bottom of a ravine. However, the handling part of it didn't really come into it until later. My first concern was that my back was aching on the climb up. As expected, my easiest gear really did not feel adequately easy, either. I rode up past Proveysieux and thought about descending via Quaix, but remembered how pebbly and steep it is and nixed the idea. I think next time I'll ride up via Quaix, as the descent through Proveysieux is really a lot nicer. And speaking of descents: it was totally harrowing. 34 mph felt like I was at warp speed and VERY twitchy. My hands were cramping from riding the brakes and sweat was streaming into my eyes from the climb. I didn't have an altimeter, but according to mapmyride, it is something like 450 or so meters of climbing from my house. I had the power meter on to motivate me to get back in cycling shape:



A word about this ride: while hardly a blip by local standards, I find it quite hard: longish sections of >10% gradients, with some 13% sections and ~1500 feet of elevation gain.