It’s time to start working on a different style of climbing than my norm, given that my trip to France is just a few weeks away and the Bike Fridays my son and I will be using don’t lend themselves to the sort of “violent” climbing style that I’m known for, standing hard on the pedals, turning pretty big gears pretty slowly. The minimalistic frame design and smaller wheels on the Bike Friday would feel like they were getting twisted in half if I treated it like that, and besides, it’s much better for video to not have the bike rocking back & forth so much!

So today I forced myself to remain in the saddle almost the entire ride. I thought that was going to be an impossible mission, but it worked out much better than I thought. It probably helped that most of the group was riding pretty casually up Kings today; only Kevin (my son, not the pilot) was pushing the pace a bit up the hill, but not so hard that I wasn’t able to hang with him.

I’m feeling pretty good about my riding right now, thinking I won’t be repeating last year’s debacles on the Tourmalet, and the next day on the Peyresourde, where, as they say, my wheels came off. Climbs where I actually had to stop and take a rest for a bit. And it doesn’t hurt my confidence that I’m 2-3 pounds lighter than last year too.