Climbs are made to be eaten

It's actually surprising that I felt lethargic at the start of this morning's ride, and even thought about calling the whole thing off. I'm glad I went ahead with it now. The intention was to do the old Three hill ride over Springbrook, Numinbah Gap and Tomewin in reverse, meaning I'd be climbing all those passes via the steep side -- each having gradient's exceeding 14%, and one pinch on Springbrook reaching 24%. Fortunately, I started to feel a little better once I got into the ride, and once I got into Currumbin Valley to start the first climb, I was ready.



Tomewin fell first, and I seemed to coast over it comfortably, if not massively quickly. I actually passed four other cyclists on the descent that I hadn't seen on the climb, so either my descending is improving, or everyone else is getting worse. A flat section through the pretty Tweed Valley followed, before I lined up the next climb over Numinbah Gap. Today was actually going to be the first time I've done this climb from the southern side when it's been dry. The two previous occasions I've done this have been in the wet. Still, the rain from the storms earlier in the week left plenty of water lying around.



I reached the top with more ease than I had expected, even if I did feel the effort for a few kilometres afterward. The thing with these really steep climbs seems to be to just hang on and let the altitude steadily increase. The downhill from the pass into Numinbah Valley is quite a long one, and now the wind was behind me, so I made fast time here. The hardest climb of the day awaited, it was also going to be the third pass of the day, so I took a no-nonsense approach here, using a low gear and winching myself up the steep sections (the second of which reaches 24%). I felt really good when the mountain cracked and I reached the summit of the pass. Too good in fact, so I decided on one more climb before the day was over.



For years Mt Nimmel was a nemesis of mine. It took me nine years to climb it successfully. Today I was going to put it right in it's place, do it as the FOURTH pass today. It was a steep climb and put up some resistance, but now I had too much momentum, and knew it was just a matter of time. I crested the climb, took in the sweeping views, then headed back to the coast. My legs did have some complaints about the rolling hills near Mudgeeraba, but I managed to silence them long enough to get through it.

I have the Alpine Classic coming up in three weeks. This was the perfect way to tune up a few things, but I have something much bigger planned next weekend.