Paris Mountain

This past Saturday/Sunday, I went down to Greenville, SC to see a friend (Hank) and, of course, I brought my bike with me (I think it lives in the backseat of my car now). Hank suggested that I go give Paris Mountain a try Sunday afternoon before I left for home....So I did...

We started on the "easier climb" side, up, over & down the "hard climb" side in the car so I could get a feel for the climb. Saw a couple other cyclist climbing as we went down to the start. Parked the car, got the bike out, rode down the road for, maybe a minute, then started the climb. Hank followed me in the car, telling me how I was doing and encouraging me along the way.

Of course, Start Fast To Finish Slow wolfpack did just that. *roll eyes* I knew I was starting too fast, but I felt good and it wasn't extremely hard at the beginning. If I *knew* I was starting too fast, why did I not change the way I was climbing? Who knows? Anyways, there were some great views on the climb, wish I had had the camera, but Hank had it taking pictures of me as i rode. There were a couple sections before the crest that were hard, but I pushed on through. Then towards the end, Hank drove on up ahead to wait on me and tell me to keep going - that I was doing great.

It's a good thing he did because this last little section was a bit hard. IIRC, the garmin had 12-16% grades for that last section. Finally made it to the top - 18min later. I guess not a bad time considering how I started and the first time doing the climb. Set a new PR for 20min power (well, guess it's actually 18min, but I could've went for another 2min to get an actual 20min power) - it was 224/218w. Took a little rest time once at the top, then a screaming descent!

It was an awesome climb, even awesomer descent - garmin shows a max speed of 51mph! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :)

A couple of pictures of me before, during, after the climb. (hmmm, seems i can't add the photos while at work...will do this evening...)