Yesterday while at the office I found out that a new road to a housing development had been paved. I have been looking forward to climbing this road for a while so I immediately became excited. I finished my work day then went and met a couple of my riding buddies after work.

Once we got there I told them there was a new climb that we were going to try. One of them just shook his head and told me that he had done every climb around, there was nothing he hadn't climbed at least twice. The other guy (polish postal) knew that we were in for a nice climb since I hinted to it earlier in the day.

We started our ride and rode about six miles to the climb. It started off sort of rough, I was in my 39/26 within the first 100 feet. Unfortunately that was my easiest gear.

The climb was manageable for about the first 200 yards, then it made a turn and got steep. According to my buddy with the garmin 305 it hit 25% at one point before he started zig zagging. However, once downloaded it showed that a good portion of it was about 21%. I know it was steep enough that PolishPostal had difficulties keeping his front wheel on the ground when seated.

I ended up zig zagging about 1/3 of the climb and still wasn't sure if I was going to make it at times. This only riding once every two weeks and gaining five pounds isn't doing much for my fitness. By the time I made it to the top I thought I was going to lose my lunch, either that or have a heart attack. Once the other two guys made it to the top they felt the exact same way. That climb freaking hurt, it was definitely the hardest (short distance) climb I have ever done. In 1/2 mile we climbed approximately 700 feet.

Once we got to the top the view was awesome. We hung around for a few minutes to let it all soak in then talk about how much the climb hurt us then it was time to head back down. The ride down was pretty difficult as well. By the time I got to the bottom all you could smell was my brakes. That downhill did some serious damage to the zipp pads I am running. There was quite a bit of brake pad just hanging off the back of the pads by the time it was all said and done.

I'm not sure what the point of this post was, all I know is that I made it. Now I can't wait to take some other buddies up it.