A MOUNTAIN CLIMB SEEMED TO BE NEXT

GRUELING CLIMB SWITCHES BACK WITH SPECTACULAR VIEWS

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

One upon a time, it seems so long ago now, I went on a 6.20 hour cycling tour.

The only real road cycling challenge left this summer that was within reason was a mountain climb.

The north side from Downtown Vancouver has three mountain climbs for cycling in the summer that are the three alpine hills for skiing and snowboarding in the winter. I completed all three climbs in one summer, the summer prior to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Grouse Mountain presents a decent climb, but the steepest part of the alpine hill is accessed by a gondola, so the cycling climb is limited.

Mount Seymour Parkway is the most grueling cycling climb as a slow grinding ascent over several switchbacks. The parkway makes for a psychological challenge because the road goes through a tree canopy with no city views. So, cyclists have little to look at other than the pavement and the road lines.

The Cypress Mountain Parkway presents as a kind of unhappy compromise of the three mountain climbs. And I chose the Cypress climb for my next challenge.

I tossed and turned all night. Even though I had completed the Cypress ascent a few years ago, I was still rather anxious about the physical and psychological challenge. 

I decided to forgo breakfast and I instead had an energy bar and two bananas after a couple of espressos to wake my body up. I also travelled light with just two water bottles, a small, light-weight plastic air pump, a tire repair kit, an iPhone, a photo ID and a credit card.

I got an early start at 8 am, and meandered to the entrance to the Cypress Parkway from the West End of Vancouver in about 55 minutes.

I had been hill climbing on the Horseshoe Bay run, as I grind through the West Vancouver subdivisions to get to Highway 1, and then descend down into Horseshoe Bay Village. Also, the tour to Squamish is basically an up and down hill climb in both directions.

The difficulty in a mountain climb is that the entire challenge of the long grinding climb is not to stop and take breaks along the way. You have to kind of agree before you begin, not to stop and take a break no matter how much the climb hurts your mind and body.

The other problem is that the climb is quite popular for cyclists on the weekends and so any thoughts of turning around put into action would be witnessed by your peers.

I was all alone as a cyclist for about 15 minutes, which I thought was quite odd, because during the previous ascent I found the tour quite popular with a steady line of cyclist along the road shoulder. 

I must have hit a blind spot in the day because as I approached the official viewpoint overlooking Downtown Vancouver the cyclists started appearing in front of me and coming up behind me.

You can tell the regulars by the size of their calve muscles. If the cyclists’ lower leg is like a tree trunk, you know not to bother keeping up with them because the Cypress Climb is a recurring ordeal for them.

I do not have climbing gears on my bike, so many cyclists are able to pass me on a long ascent, and even on short hill bursts as well. I was passed by an older man and his daughter. I could tell the two were related because they had the same calve muscles. I then passed a family of four: three men and one woman. I could tell the cyclists were all from the same family because all four family members had the same shapely calve muscles.

I managed to get to the viewpoint in about 30 minutes from the Highway 1 overpass.

I then was passed by three cyclists, but I was so emboldened as to be able to then pass five or six cyclists, but not the three that had passed me.

The Cypress ascent is not so much a race, but when you pass another cyclist, you get that boost as if you are racing. When I get passed, I always look at their gears, to confirm that they have climbing gears, whereas I have more sprint gears, which makes even the shortest ascents very physically and mentally rushing for me.

I reached the Cypress Mountain chalet at about 70 minutes from the Highway 1 overpass. I took a micro break and ate an energy bar and drank a bit more water than usual. By the end of my break, my cycling jersey was pretty wet. So, I unzipped the front of the jersey in the hope that everything would dry off before the descent really got underway.

The whole trick with a mountain climb is to use the steep descent as a reward, and enjoy. So being comfortable is the first step.

The Cypress Mountain descent took just 19 minutes from the chalet to the Highway 1 overpass.

One cyclist passed me pedaling wildly on a slow section even with the substantial speeds achieved in just gliding. I did not realize the descent was a race until he passed me, thinking obviously wrong headedly that surviving the excessive speeds on a road cycle mountain descent was the main issue in front of me, not beating everyone to the bottom.

I have been home for about one hour now, and my arms are really getting tired. The real trick to mountain descents is being able to hold onto your bike and stay on the bike with the wind in your face and the road sometimes giving way to some unexpected dips and bumps. I remember my arms feeling fatigued about halfway down, but I was able to shake that off. Similarly to the ascent, part of the challenge during the descent is not to stop and not to slow down until the very bottom.

I was able to finish the mountain tour in 3 hours and 30 minutes round trip, which is a happy compromise between the 2 hour ride I now do on a regular daily basis and the once in a summer 6 hour 20 minute tour.