Andy’s blog shows a very slick map of the trip he took recently. It comes from MapMyRide.com, which appears to be a GoogleMaps mash-up. Here’s my entry, of the Great Swamp trip I took a few weeks ago.
When you open it in full-screen mode, you can toggle between satellite, street map or topographic views, and you can also show the elevation changes. This one’s relatively flat, just a 320 ft. variation and an overall 536 ft. of climbing.
It’s not perfect — that weird little loop before mile 30, I couldn’t get rid of — but for the money it can’t be beat.
Cool, I was hoping you’d start using Map My Ride. Yay!
I just did a 23-mile trip and used it to see just what the elevation change was on this one nasty hill. Very handy! (It seemed nastier than 220 ft., though it was steep.)
There’s a nasty 4000 ft. (approx.) 13 mile uphill time trial in the Giro de Italia this year.
I’m not worthy.
Yeah, at 235 lbs. I don’t have a prayer. A couple years ago I was out on a club ride, hammering away on the flats, and the guy next to me said “wow, you’re a really strong rider, but you know…”
I immediately cut him off, “yes, yes, I know.”
Found out something interesting day about those maps. For altitude they use “topographic GPS” rather than “road GPS.” What that means in a nutshell is, if there’s a 200-ft. deep ravine and you cross it over a bridge, you get credit for a 200 ft. descent and a 200 ft. climb. So, it’s probably not a great choice for measuring that.
As you know there’s only so much bullshitting you can do in life before time comes to “prove it.”
One of the more valuable subliminal messages we got in music school, I think.
Everybody thinks Ohio is flat, but there are some short hills around there that’ll make you fall sideways off your bike, they’re so steep. A couple of the roads that come up out of the Rocky River Reservation come to mind. More like rock climbing than bike riding.