Quote Originally Posted by aicabsolut View Post
Well that route gave me a few panic attacks when I thought, "Am I going to have to walk? How do I stop and unclip uphill without falling? I can't walk. Must keep going. I'm going to die. Whew! Made it. Oh no, there's another one." There is one section that my friend calls the "racecourse section" because you can get in a big gear and really fly. It just about makes all the torture worth it.

If there's decent parking at Rileys Lock, then that sounds like a good start point to me...Shortens the drive time a little too getting out there. And yeah, would be good not to cycle up a hill you have to downshift to get up in your car!
Starting at Rileys Lock will add about 2.6 miles total and about 150 feet of climbing right off the bat, before your legs have had a chance to warm up. It's doable, but not much fun. Check it out.

Totally O/T question, but your comment about River Road got me thinking.. If you were in a city where cycling isn't too common but the only long routes with not too much stop and go are on some pretty major causeways with 45-55 speed limits (usually meaning cars are going at least 60-65), would you ride them? (nevermind that one of them has a drawbridge that probably means walking across for the grooves). Would it matter if it was 2 lane or 4 lane (easier passing)? And mostly flat? I'm trying to think about what I could do when I go home to coastal Georgia over the winter holidays.
I have no problem (mentally) cycling on two-lane roads with a double yellow in the middle, or even limited riding on a four-lane divided road, providing that it's pretty continuous without a lot of busy intersection, active business driveways, etc. Of course, many riders have no problem at all in commuter traffic, etc. It's all about what you can deal with.

The issue of flat vs hilly is firstly an issue about ease of the biking effort and secondly an issue about visibility: how easily you can be seen by motorists. A flat but winding road may be more dangerous than a straight but hilly road.