Highwood Pass

I finally did the Highwood Pass today. It's almost a must for any cyclist living close to it since it's the highest paved road in Canada, or so I'm told. It's where Lance Armstrong rides when he's in the area and it's been on my to do list for some time.

Crankmasters organized a group ride today to tackle the pass. About 30 riders started from the Ribbon Creek area near Kananaskis Village and would need to cover 45 km and climb 800 vertical metres to get to the pass. I started out with the lead group but as the road started to climb right away, I decided not to burn myself out and dropped back. Two riders came up behind me and I fell in with them. Brad (I think) did a great job of doing long pulls and I did quite a bit of work too but our third was just hanging in. A few more riders came up behind us and we also swept up a few who couldn't keep up with the front group. We stopped for a short rest at the gate which closes off the Highwood Pass. The road really starts to go up at this point so I was off the back of my group and spent my time to the top chasing Brad. It was a tough climb for me and the 7% grade for 2 km slowed me down to about 10 km/h. Just before we reached the top, all the riders in front of me started down.

Brad and I took a short rest at the parking lot and then started back down. Our speed definitely increased which is why I didn't see a small pothole and suffered a pinch-flat. Together, we were able to change my tire which was super-tough for me alone in the Spring. I think the tire might have stretched a tiny bit. I also got to try out my CO2 pump for the first time. I got a cool refresher in thermodynamics when the temperature of the canister dropped quickly as the pressure inside dropped. We found out later that three riders just ahead of where we changed my tire had a young, male grizzly bear run out just behind them. I'll have to keep this in mind as I plan to return close to the area next weekend for some backpacking. The rest of the ride back was fast but tough. My legs really were suffering as this was the longest ride I've done all year and had a ton of climbing.

According to my GPS, I covered 91.69 km in 3:17:07 (plus 23 minutes of resting and tire changing) for an average moving speed of 27.1 km/h and a maximum of 67.5 km/h. It was a social ride but with lots of climbing so I averaged 159 bpm with a maximum of 180 bpm. My GPS also totalled up 1100 m of climbing during the day.