The shakedown cruise continues. I have been trying the bike out on all training hills to see what it can do. No final verdict yet regarding the building until I do these same training hills with the carbon clinchers. That way I will be able to definitively know if some of the easier climbing and acceleration is due to the tubular tires or is the complete setup.

Okay, my training hills are pitiful. I will admit that. But, being a flatlander and at the bottom of the city, I really don’t have much choice in terms of what I can use for sustained climbs. I know, I know, move to somewhere that has mountains. Well, that ain’t going to happen any time soon. Just trying to figure out when to go over to Europe is a major undertaking.

So, here are the hills. The first picture is Mount Bayview. It is a nice climb of about 6% for around 700 m. That is the start of the climb and the second picture is about 150 m into it. As you can see, they are doing major construction there. It used to be easy to turn around at the bottom but from the looks of it, not anymore. In Toronto, THE CAR RULES! Piddle Pots!

The next picture is Mount Sunnybrook Stables. Now, this is where you will see me doing most of my hill training. It is a short relatively steep climb of 10 – 12 % about 300 m long. I do 25 repeats of this animal just going from the bottom to the top and turning around. Here I am trying to keep the heart rate up to simulate a longer mountain like climb (ya right, who am I trying to fool?). It seemed to have worked as I was able to lose 10 kg (22 lbs.) last summer doing this climb.

Now the next picture shows a real nasty climb, Mount Thorncliffe Park. This monster is 14 % for about 150 m. This really hurts after having done a bunch of Sunnybrook Stable climbs.

Finally, a new climb I had to introduce into the routine because of all the construction, Mount Don Mills, which is about 4% for 800 m. This is a nice hill to do a hard finish on.

A couple of other hills which are just as nice are either under construction (Pottery Road which is about 12% in spots) and Beechwood (10%) which is now hard to get to because of construction in the area used to be part of the training ride which would see me do about 10 km or so of climbing over a 50 km ride.
 
I have to admit, riding on tubulars is a much different ride than clinchers. However, I have punctured twice on the Sunnybrook Stable hill and this last time tried to use the injection sealant patch. Well, that didn't work and it was a long walk over to Enduro Sport to get a new tubular. You would have thought I would know better (obviously I don't) that I should be carrying a spare Tufo track tubular with me as that tubular saved my bacon numerous times in 2007 in Switzerland and Italy. Duh!

Tomorrow sees the final bike build with final wheels. It will be interesting to get the reaction of a local boy who is part of the pro peloton, Mike Barry. He is in town and will be out riding which a Gran Fondo group east of the city. Should be an interesting day. More on that after the ride tomorrow.

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Also, to read the original blog series, you can check them out at http://crazylight.cc