Arlington’s toughest hills list

[Dirt]

It was awesome riding with you, Will. I agree… that path up to 26th street near Marymount was a definite highlight. That was new for this loop. I hadn’t really told anyone that this was being added in.

[jabberwocky]

@vvill 8967 wrote:

– Tim and Chris racing each other up one of the climbs

Haha! Yeah, the 24th St/N Upton St climb. Tim beat me, but not by a whole lot. I very quickly realized that I wasn’t going to complete the ride if I kept racing up the climbs though.

It was nice meeting you (and everyone else) on the ride. We had a super group. Things went amazingly smoothly.

[tuba_transport]

@jabberwocky 8970 wrote:

Tim beat me, but not by a whole lot. I very quickly realized that I wasn’t going to complete the ride if I kept racing up the climbs though.

I beat Tim up the 2 climbs I challenged him on. But then Tallwood reminded me of it later.

[Dirt]

Sprinting for KOM points on that ride is pretty much never a good idea.

You kicked ass, Tuba. Great ride. Tallwood is definitely a heartbreaker.

[vvill]

@Dirt 8968 wrote:

It was awesome riding with you, Will. I agree… that path up to 26th street near Marymount was a definite highlight. That was new for this loop. I hadn’t really told anyone that this was being added in.

😎 There’s something about riding through somewhere that cars can’t go. I often take little detours on whatever paths between streets I can find. I go through the George Mason one (Rock Spring Park) on my commute. I’ve found Google Maps is great for finding them.

@jabberwocky 8970 wrote:

It was nice meeting you (and everyone else) on the ride. We had a super group. Things went amazingly smoothly.

Yup, only remember that one flat you had, and a couple of chain drops (managed to conveniently drop mine at the bottom of N Rock Spring Rd next to the country club).

@Dirt 8992 wrote:

Sprinting for KOM points on that ride is pretty much never a good idea.

You kicked ass, Tuba. Great ride. Tallwood is definitely a heartbreaker.

Sprinting – yeah I remember riding up one hill somewhere between Military Rd and Marymount and almost running into the kerb on the right I was so focused on just getting up it.

Just had a quick look at Tallwood on Google Maps. I might have to go on a exploratory ride down to the Lake Barcroft area in prep for this:

@Dirt 8961 wrote:

We’ll do that ride again next year. Today is the first day to start training for it.

and next time I hopefully won’t have a sore arm either (I broke it in early August). I wonder if I need a lower gear still though. I have a compact but I don’t like riding at much < 85rpm and some (a lot) of those hills had me lower than that. I think my cassette is 11-25. I guess I could try 11-28.

[Dirt]

I was surprised at how little my shoulder bothered me on that ride. I guess that’s a sign that the work that I’ve been doing with it is working.

Here’s the back half of the route that gets you to and from Barcroft. That is a good training loop in and of itself.

Tallwood and Mount Denis need to be experienced to be appreciated. Quantico too. Quantico has dashed a few hopes in the past.

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/752675

Pete

[SwimBikeRunDC]

Thanks for putting this ride together and letting me tag along! That path was absolutely “better than NOTHING”, but I kind of loved it all the same. Congrats on making it through the whole 104+ miles!

[Author]

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