Mount Seymour Park climb, Vancouver

lukester

Just back from a trip to Vancouver to visit in-laws. I wanted to get some cycling in and noticed le grimpeur was from the city, so emailed him looking for suggestions for good climbs. He was very helpful. It turned out that the best/longest local climb is Mt Seymour, featured on his blog as it happens. (Profile)

I didn't have a bike with me, so opted to rent a road bike from a local shop. They did me a half day rate of about EUR20, which wasn't bad. I got a Specialized Tarmac Expert with compact groupset for my money. I didn't anticipate that they'd be willing to swap pedals, so didn't bring mine, ended up with a gammy set of toeclips and running shoes. Not ideal but better than riding a hybrid.

As it was a road through a nature park, I expected a bucolic setting, with a nice smooth twisty country road ascending to the summit. It was more of a 3 lane mini-highway, made me appreciate even more the Dublin/Wicklow mountains. The route itself was nice enough, not a lot to see until the summit though as trees line the road and cover the whole mountain. The climb was physically not that hard, although I was taking it very easy, but I'd never ridden anything quite so long- 12 kilometres long and ascending about 900 metres. It reminded me of Stocking Lane in terms of gradient, only a good bit longer. The toughest part of it was psychological, not knowing where the hardest bits were. There were kilometre markers at the side of the road giving the elevation. At times I cursed them as they seemed to come up so slowly. They also spelt out starkly how many metres of ascent were left- ignorance is sometimes bliss.

I was passed by a guy who races in one of the local clubs, and chatted with him at the top. There's a fairly active road scene in the city, in spite of the fact that Vancouver is a mountain-bike mecca. What struck me about road riding there is that all the routes have a lot of traffic, apart from the 3 or so main climbs, which all have the same 3 lane set-up. There are some quieter routes, but it all felt pretty urban, even in the more scenic spots. The standard tourist ride is around Stanley Park, which has a sea wall around its circumference, nice for a leisurely jaunt. Roadies tended to stick to the main road through the park, saw one guy on a TT bike being commuter-raced by a large bloke on a road bike.

Cycling itself is promoted a lot, there's a very active and hardcore cycling lobby, they've even managed to steal a whole car lane on one of the main bridges into town, over which there's much teeth-gnashing by the city's car drivers. Shared walking/cycle lanes have signs asking cyclists to 'use bell or voice to avoid conflicts with pedestrians'. Phoenix Park may need these :pac:. Nearly everybody wears a helmet, most people ride mountain bikes. There is a large maverick element too. I spotted more recumbents and tandems in two weeks than I've ever seen here.

On the hipster tip, saw a few fixed gear creations, mainly ridden by couriers, but most of the couriers I saw were on hybrids/mtbs. The downtown area is quite hilly, may be a factor. I did spot a hipster dude riding fixed, and wearing what looked like a pink lady's bonnet. Hipster irony taken to the limit. Most of the hipsterati were riding old school steel framed road bikes.

Overall, a cycle friendly city, with cars and bikes co-existing acrimoniously. Amsterdam it ain't, notwithstanding the wide availability of 'BC bud'.

Pics from Seymour: