In the screenshot of Google Earth above, you can see the route that I rode my bicycle last Wednesday… the little bit of green coming in from the right is a downhill section of road, followed by the long red uphill section through the tiered rice paddies of the village, then up the mountain on an old road no longer open to traffic.

I’d ridden 55km (34mi) to get to that point, and would end up riding 72km (44mi) farther before I got home, but ever since my first “real” ride in February, I’ve not been so interested in how … Continue reading The Voodoo of Elevation Gain and Strava (and How I Get Around It)