anything with climbing: breathless agony (114 miles, 12000 feet of climbing), ride around the bear (100 miles, 8000 feet of climbing, grand tour lite double metric (124 miles, 6000 feet of climbing)....

of course... i consider flat centuries a challenge too... 100 miles on a bike is nothing to scoff at!

then there are days... like the day after a climbing century... that a flat recovery ride becomes a "challenge"!

around where i live... nothing is "flat".... no matter where i ride... i have some upgrade at some point in the ride! i can ride out one way that is slightly uphill... with a nice downhill... that i then have to climb to get home.... i have another way i can go that is slightly down going out.... but then slightly up coming home.... then, of course, i have the national park to climb up into if i want! that is a nice training climb just to the entrance gate is a good ride... but on days we have more time... we go all the way to jumbo rock campground or even climb more to keys' view!! i feel fortunate to have this right in my "backyard"!

then there is also oak glen.. .and hour-ish drive away... tough climb! and the gorgeous gmr... a 29ish hour drive! but well worth it!