YTD – 657.75
MTD – 175.97
Today – 17.22
I set out on a new path this morning to check out a different portion of Floyd’s Knobs. The big question is how to travel through New Albany Proper to get to the hills. I settled on Riding most of Green Valley Road. It is definitely the most obvious path. Unfortunately it made for poor riding especially from about mile 3 to mile 5. Heavy traffic and shitty roads do not make a good ride. I was also dealing with a steady incline that you can’t really see but its there. By the time I headed up the hill I was panting and feeling the stress of the traffic.
I knew Moser Knob was a significant climb, it is listed in a 100 Steep Climbs List that Tim pointed to. It was an absolute bear of a climb. It brought me to me knees, well off of the bike at least. It took me several climb/walk cycles to get to the top. By the time I reached the summit of the Knob I was bushed. I had some flat land to recoup on and headed on. Here’s were it got a little funny, I almost never have directions with me but today I printed a cue sheet from MapMyRide. I ended up missing a turn on to South Skyline. I ended up on Campion Road which turned out to be Instant Karma from the nasty hill. Between the beautiful weather, flat land, nearby stream it was just perfect. My head cleared and I really enjoyed that stretch.
There really is much to be said about unencumbered riding on empty country roads.
As I mentioned I was lost, but not really too bad. My internal compass and general idea of where I was and what roads came out of this area had me feeling fine. Sure enough after about two extra mile I picked Spickert Knob Road back up and had the way back to work under control. I took the picture above just before beginning the descent back to New Albany. I have been watching you bike bloggers so I took the picture with the bike on display. It was a fast run to the bottom and once again that is a place you can really feel the speed in that bike. I came to the portion of Green Valley that gave me such grief before and said “screw it” and took the sidewalk until I got closer to my left turn. I properly and assertively merged into traffic and signaled to turn left. It is a liberating thing to do. Heading up Daisy Lane I hit a substantial bumb and heard a loud noise. I thought for sure I had blown the back tire. I pulled off of the road and felt it – all was good. I thought well I’m stopped how about some water – hey where is my water bottle? At least the loud noise mystery was solved. I ran back to get it before a car hit it. I rushed back to work running about 10 minutes late. 15 miles turned into to 17 but man it was great ride.
