Bear Mountain Video

The Bear Mountain ride is a pilgrimage every NY cyclist must make. It makes you forget you live in a crowded metropolis (though there are actually plenty of great choices for rides in this magnificent city). On this day, I headed out with some people from the NY Cycle Club. They were used to riding together, and a reasonably fast group – I hope I didn’t slow them down too much, though I felt like I was keeping up ok.

On this day, I found out that I don’t suck at climbing as much as I thought I did. In the scheme of things, I’m about average. Though it made me realize how much easier a climb like the final Bear Mountain climb would be without carrying the extra 20lbs that I’m carrying. Climbing challenges on the ride are Seven Lakes drive, which has some killer long slogs, and Perkins, which is the final lead up the mountain. It took me 20 minutes to do that final two mile stretch.

• bear mountain
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