Candy Cranks

To be a cyclist in Seattle is to be an excellent climber. Biking up hills is a regular part of life which people either accept and excel at or hate and, well, still excel at it.

Summer comes around and the rain (kind of) stops so we start seeing more races with a thirst for climbing.  July 16th saw Red Lantern’s Polka Dot Rocker.

37 crazies eagerly took on the challenge of “hills, whiskey, and suffering”.  Seven of those were women who fought to take home a custom white and red polka dot messenger bag by Dank Bags.  You can see pics on Red Lantern’s Flickr page. Erin ended up taking home the winner’s bag but I put up a good fight to get it myself. About forty miles, a couple thousands feet of vertical and a bit too much whiskey put me in 2nd place.  They weren’t kidding in their advertising, especially in the suffering department. Uff da.

Now this weekend (7/23) we see the return of the Tour de Watertower.

It’s a time trial with stops at seven different watertowers around the city.  Do you know where you find watertowers? At the top of huge hills.  Racers will be released one at a time every three minutes and will follow a specific order to the checkpoints.  It’s a bit of a sufferfest but put on by the great guys of Go Means Go so it’ll be a fun sufferfest (trust me, that’s possible).

So, up and down, up and down. That’s life in Seattle. Gotta love it.  Do you love hills as much as we do?