I had the most fun I've ever had on a New Year's Day! A local cycling club had a hill repeat challenge up Beatty Drive in El Dorado Hills. Beatty is a 3/4 mile long hill with lots of 10%-12% grades and a max grade of 16%.

The goal for the riders is to climb Beatty as many times as possible in two hours. I am not a member of this club and I wasn't technically a part of the ride, but I wanted to live up to my username as usual and have some fun on that hill, motivated by the presence of 75 other climbers.

I mounted front and rear cameras on my Bike Friday folding bike. These did a great job of capturing passes and the occasional rider I was able to pass. Having more than one camera also gives people a second chance to hear the commentary from spectators and passing cyclists.

The rear camera also did a great job of capturing suffer-faces on riders passing me and being passed by me.

Between climbs I stood on the side of the road and took video of the riders passing by. I could only do that for a few minutes at a time before I got the overwhelming urge to do more of my own climbing!

Garmin data

Details of the ride from the bike club's website

Before the event I met a very nice woman from another forum. I was talking to a friend and she heard me talking about my San Francisco climbs on the Bike Friday. She also recognized my voice from my videos. She had a very nice recumbent trike, and after the event we took a ride down Green Valley Road before turning around due to limited daylight.

Here's the video from my climbs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WjAVfsj6q8

Here's the video from the side of the road. The sound of the descending bikes was pure badazz!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YJPDO5NOIo