I have spent the last few ride days seeking hard hills to climb in the Knobs outside of New Albany. Fortunately it does not take much looking. Last Friday in the most most oppressive heat we have seen this year I set out to right the wrong of a week’s past when navigation errors prevented me from the ascent of Blunk Knob. It is one of the longest climbs around listed at 1.6 miles. I retraced my prior route and made the correct maneuver at the junction of Budd Road and Gap Hollow. Budd Road has become one of my favorite stretches. Its quiet and scenic, not far from work and leads to the good stuff. It delivered me to Blunk Knob:
Note the solarized glare apparent even after being toned down. It was hot…the route called for 23-24 miles including this long climb. My water bottle did not make the entire trip and required a stop at a c-store for Gatorade. Considerably worse was the total failure of my bottle cage due to a weak weld. I carried it all home in the pockets of my jersey.
But back to the climb…I had a certain dread about this one but it proved unfounded. Although long and steady at 8% in the opening stages it really wasn’t too bad. As most are, it was sufficiently shaded going up and although it required some extra effort it was easily tapped. The hill led to IN Hwy 11 which entailed 5-6 miles of undulating terrain calling on the what was left from the climb. That led to my first ever Descent of the Edwardsville climb up IN Hwy 62. I have ridden up the hill more times than I could count yet never come back down. That was enjoyable.
After a weekend break I decided to head to Moser Knob hill for what I thought was a tougher climb and I have been working in as a part of what my injured riding partner Tim call “Buck’s Ride” out to St Mary’s Road. Tim’s uncle or something to that effect lives that way and the first time we rode it we managed to see him out cutting grass.
Although shorter this hill punches you in the face right out of the gate. The front end of the climb is a menace and gets you breathing heavy right off. Here is the google view which only kinda does it justice:
As I have become more familiar of its tricks I have actually improved my climbing here. I turned in my best time yet on this route averaging 17 MPH including the hill. The weather also deserves a mention here as it stormed like crazy at 10:30 leaving me certain I would be on the rollers again. 11:45 had clear skies but wet ground. I strapped on the race blades and hit it. The rain knocked a few degrees off the heat and made for semi-decent conditions. The hills up and down greeted me with cascades of water coming down the sides of each. I caught a great picture which I will post in the future.
Tuesday was Spickert Knob and tomorrow is TBD. I have crested 300 miles this month with lots of opportunities left to ride. One thing sure to be in the mix though is a nice climb…
I found a great new mag at the Barnes & Noble prior to leaving Chicago today: Bicycle Times Magazine is brought to us by the publisher of DirtRag magazine which seems to have a nice reputation in the MtB community. There was a great commentary by a San Fran hill climber complete with stories of crushing pretentious roadies on a Crosscheck and of strapping a homemade grade evaluation device to the bike….good stuff. I also picked up Cycle Sport USA to feed my growing addiction to racing…and so it goes.
