I thought I’d be at a new, higher platform of fitness after the tour. So I started sprinting up 212 like Lancette. Unfortunately, before I got to the penultimate stair-step, I pooped out. How bad? I had to get off the bike and sit by the side of the ditch until I could get my breathing back under control.

“Mark ‘Improve my bicycle hill climbing’ as complete?” I thought to myself. “What a joke!”

But this evening, after riding first to a barbecue and not heading home late, I decided to take the most direct way home from the event, which was up 24th. This is another side of multi-deity hill. The grade is 11.3%, and very steady, unlike the deity route which is a stair step of very steep, and then not-so-steep. Anyway, I made it to the top without difficulty, so who knows what was up this morning.