Conquering Cypress mountain on a bike and a few other things

<p>I am based out of Vancouver. It is one of the best places to live globally and also happens to be one of the most bike friendly cities in the world. I would go as far as to say that it is the most bike friendly city in North America. Vancouver is a paradise for outdoor enthusiast &mdash; Within the boundaries of the city, you can ski down a mountain and end up on a beach. So there&rsquo;s a bike route for every skill level.</p> <p>Cypress is part of the elusive three peak climb &mdash; Cypress , Grouse and Seymour. It is a 10.5KM climb averaging about 6.5% gradient, with over 800 meters of elevation. The plan was to do a 60KM ride starting from Downtown Vancouver. According to Strava, my previous best climb was 94m, so I was signing up to improve it by a factor of nine. Doing a climb like Cypress is tough &mdash; imagine doing just the leg press in the gym continuously for 60&ndash;90 mins. You are carrying your bodyweight against the forces of gravity. Also, you engage a different set of muscles in a climb as compared to a no gradient bike ride. With all the training this year, I felt I would be in a decent shape to climb Cypress in three months from now.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/@sleepymonk/conquering-cypress-mountain-on-a-bike-and-a-few-other-things-3058df7e2193"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>