Stéphane's Adventures in Hawai'i. Ride #1

[stephane]

After arriving in Waikoloa on the west side of the "Big Island" of Hawai'i on Friday, I picked up my rental bike on Sunday from Bike Works here in Waikoloa. I got an alu Specialized Allez Comp with 11-speed 105. A decent, solid bike that gets me where I need to go. The dudes at Bike Works were super-friendly, and they had me set-up and rolling in no time. Although the weather has been warm here, it has been cloudy and windy, but can I really complain about being in Hawai'i? Not really. Yesterday I got a day-pass from the family to go riding, so I took advantage and planned a long route with lots of climbing, which is not hard to find here! There is a highway with that goes along the west coast of the island and is pretty flat, but as soon as you head inland you start climbing. The first section of my planned route took me north along the coastal highway for 14k...head-on into a block headwind. It was a bit of a slog, but a good warm-up none the less. As I had been off the bike for a week, I wasn't sure how my legs would be for the first real test: a 16km climb at 5%. The type of climb where you can hold Geoff Homer's wheel for maybe 1km before he rides away from you... The grade was comfortably constant, so I was able to settle into a decent, steady tempo all the way into the town of Waimea at the top. The Big Island has several distinct climate zones, so after the desolate lava fields along the highway the climb took me through dry scrubland into lush tropical foliage. at 800m elevation the temperature was also 9 degrees colder than at sea-level! With a light misting rain I got a little chilly, but this was Hawai'i-chilly, not Victoria-chilly, I I did the whole ride without gloves or any arm or leg-warmers and was never freezing. After a pit-stop in Waimea, I was feeling fresh and hit the 3rd major section of the ride: a flat, straight, fast plateau. When I say fast, I mean super-fast: I easily held 37km/h solo on the corresponding Strava segment. I shudder to think what ARuss and TMac would have done to a group-ride on this road. I was having so much fun, I missed my turn-off to the next climb and at one point, I hit a rock and though I would get a pinch-flat, but I was able to ride on. After getting my bearings again, I turned left up the next big climb: 15km at 6%. This climb was tougher for a number of reasons: I was 60km into the ride, the grade was a little steeper, it was colder (14 degrees) and also that pinch flat caught up to me. My rear tire had been very slowly deflating over the the previous 25 minutes! After I repaired the flat, I finished the last 5km of the climb and turned off the main road to descend 1600m back to Waikoloa. As you can imagine, the descent was amazing, but the combination of a rough road, alu frame and slighty overinflated rear tire made for a teeth-chattering ride at times and I wasn't able to got into as nice a flow as I would have liked. Still, it was a great way to end the day. 120km*, close to 5 hours in the saddle and 1900m of elevation. One of best rides my life. Wish you were all here!

*Accidentally reset my Garmin 13kms into the ride, so my Strava file only say 106km.

[marc]

I saw that ride on Strava. Man alive that looks like that was a good day in the saddle!

[trevor]

Rad. Jealous Stéphane. Keep it coming.

[stephane]

After a rest/family day on Monday, we had our first sunny day since our arrival and I decided to drop into a local club ride that, conveniently enough, was meeting up only a few minutes from where we are staying. At the meeting point, I did what we all do at a new ride: I tried to suss out who the fast guys are. An expensive bike and kit do not always translate into a strong rider, but shaved legs, that lean racer look and especially a powermeter are pretty reliable indicators of a ride-shredder. Luckily, I only spotted one: a cat. 3 racer from Spokane, WA, who was prety chill, but definitely the strongest guy on the ride. There were about 12 riders in all, and the group was a 50/50 mix of locals and off-island vactioners. Apart from the tropical locale, it was reminiscent of a Sunday OBB or Tripleshot ride: a diverse group heading out from the shop for a semi-relaxed ride.
We headed south down the highway with a fantastic tailwind and soon enough a front group of 5 riders formed and we had a smooth paceline going, we averaged 48 km/h for one 10-minute stretch. After a short climb at the halfway point, we headed off the highway to the ocean for a short break/regroup before heading back north (photos below). The same chain gang of 5 formed on the way back, and even with a headwind we averaged close to 40km/h for most of the way back. The highway is fast, whichever direction you take and I would imagine that a large, fit group could complete this 50km route in about an hour. could After the group ride was over, I continued north a bit with the racer from Spokane for some more climbing (and descending) before I had to rejoin the family for lunch and an afternoon on snorkeling and lounging on the beach. #Paradise.

I wanted to represent, but it was too darn hot for a black kit today.

Hawaiicycling2jpg.jpg (85.24KiB)Viewed 2092 times

Not quite the same scenery as Sidney:

Hawaiicycling3.jpg (64.85KiB)Viewed 2092 times