Just how flat Florida is.
 

I’m putting this in the over 50 forum for the other snowbirds — Looking at how flat Florida is: In SE Florida for 3½ months (January thru mid-April), 1506 miles of road riding, I accumulated a whopping 5121 feet of elevation gain. And that’s frequently doing extra…such as doubling back over bridges across the Intracoastal from time to time. Back in coastal Rhode Island…we have some hills, but it’s by no means mountainous…in just ten days (five rides), 142 miles of riding, I’ve reached 9947 feet of elevation for the year. In the first few miles of my next ride I’ll get the 295 feet to surpass 10,242 for the year…doubling the elevation that I achieved in Florida.

Dan

Yeah, that's pretty flat. I only have to ride 125 miles to get that much elevation gain/loss. (5121 ft)

Having to seek out bridges to get some climbing in shows desperation for trying to rid the boredom. <grin> Are these those little drawbridges for boats going in and out along the canals and such?

Some are the those small bridges. The SE 17th St causeway bridge adjacent to Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale is quite a big bigger. I occasionally ride to it and just do several laps back-and-forth over it. I’ve actually encountered others doing the same thing. And, there are a couple overpasses up by Boca that are larger. Those bridges show up on the ride’s elevation profile like a blip on a radar screen.

Dan

The highest point in the state is 345 ft/105meters, Britton Hill up in the panhandle near the Alabama border. Its a public park so you can go there if you want to start visiting state highpoints. I bet a lot of skyscrapers are higher than that in Florida. My local MUP goes inland from the beach for 26 miles before there's a break in the pavement where its 356 ft above sea level, and I consider that a 'flat' ride.

When cycling in Florida, especially near the coast, it's not the hills, i.e. bridges that get you...It's the wind -- the all-day freakin' headwinds:mad:






:)

When I lived in Coconut Grove as a runner, I would head up to the Key Biscane causeway and do up and over repeats. A cyclist from NorCal who lived across the street did the same. Crazy Flat.

Central Illinois isn't known for much variation in the terrain. It's not uncommon to navigate from water tower to water tower....

https://live.staticflickr.com/1397/1...bb5bbd_b_d.jpg

but we do have spots where you can get more ups and downs than you really want. These tend to be closer to the rivers, though....
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...af641b_b_d.jpg

The wind here is not really my friend. On the worst days, I'll go ride the hills just to have the wind blocked. Winter and spring are when the wind is the strongest.

Steve in Peoria

2020 SW FL my 70th Birthday Ride statistics >> Distance of 141.25 miles Moving time of 8:29:20 -- with Elevation of 164 ft ,----- https://www.strava.com/activities/3741404995

Drove to Ga. a few times to ride Six Gap - 103 miles and 11,000' climbing.

Treasure Coast here. That's Martin & St. Lucie Counties... about 2- 2.5 hour drive north of Miami. Yeah, it's pretty flat. We have two causeway bridges together in Stuart and one in Jensen Beach (about 3 miles north of Stuart). I've done many a Saturday morning bridge repeats of between 25-35 bridges. And the elevation gain is never what I thought it should be. When training for 6 Gap three or four years ago, I'd drive 2.5 hours up to Clermont to do hill repeats. I have an 11-mile there and back route that provides 1,100ft of elevation which includes Sugarloaf Mountain Rd. When doing it, I get 3-5 repeats depending on how early I wake up, how in shape I am and how hot it is. I need to get off the bike by 10:30 AM in the summer in central Florida. It's hotter than those of us on the coast and there's no wind at all.

For those of you who want to extend their event schedule beyond the fall, come join us here in Florida for the Horrible Hundred. It's usually just before Thanksgiving and has 4,800feet of climbing over the century ride. That may not seem much for many of you, but I've talked to some of you "Northerners" who were surprised how challenging it was.

I participated in the Pedal Hilton Head charity ride. Talk about flat! :) My average speed jumped by about 5 MPH, and I was barely pushing any watts.
The one climb on the route was up and over a bridge. About 1/4 mile long, and a 6% grade. It was funny hearing the "locals" complain about including the bridge on the route as I was passing them. Riding in the Upstate where flat roads are few and far between (and not very long) the bridge was a piece of cake.

It's the lowest highest point of any state in the union. Delaware is second, with a highest point of 449'. Believe it or not, though, there are some very steep hills in DE.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...s_by_elevation

Reminds me of this that I shot in a relatively flat part of Montana.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...55b66f644.jpeg

Crossed IL while riding across the country back in '99. Entered from Davenport, IA and Rock Island. I'd have to pull my maps to see the exact route, but I do have this photo. Three of us stopped at a school because we were desperate for water during a 100 mile day that ended near Streator. It was so hot that the tar used to fill road cracks was splattering on our down tubes, which resulted in tiny gravel sticking to them. This was on a Saturday. The kids were there for some sort of extracurricular learning. The teacher asked us to speak to the class about our trip so that they could see that there were so many things in the world outside of their rural farming community. We first declined to because of the heat and the ground still left to cover, but she begged us, so we agreed. She took this photo before we left. When we arrived in Bowling Green, OH for our next rest day there was a big envelope waiting for us in General Delivery mail. It contained a few copies of the photo and thanks you notes from each of the students. Sadly, a couple of them seemed functionally illiterate.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...84f48693ed.jpg