Sure, a pair of 110 pound tweens should conceivably go well up a hill. But they shouldn’t be able to post the top times in a pan-flat ten minute effort on the same day. 

But they did. Drew Cummins and Kyan Olshove made this week’s #solokolo double-segment challenge look easy. After Drew’s early-week scouting-out of the Craigy Col, you’d be forgiven for assuming they were focused on the .64 mile climb and not, perhaps, the overall win. A day later, they went out and made the most of a ferocious tailwind to set the Craigy Col KOM and, minutes later, set down the two fastest times on the four-mile drag race on Bluff to Blue Water

Tom and Alissa O’Hagan had set the initial marks a day earlier, but the top times all came on Tuesday thanks to a south wind that only got stronger as the afternoon wore on. Both impressed, with Patrick Cotant, Jon Throop, and Jaden Drews also breaking the 11 minutes mark. 

Next week, we’re going up. Twice. It’s another two-fer and, for the first time, we’re hitting the bigger climbs on the west side. 

Lincoln. At two miles in length and a 4% average grade, you’d be forgiven for thinking this is a mild climb. In fact, it’s really three climbs separated by shallow or even flat sections. Of the three steps, the first holds 5-7%, with another short section at 3-5%, before slamming into the steepest ramp that hits 14% before a long false flat to the line. 

Star it here, and check it out Veloviewer, too. 

Wayne Hill. It’s not spring if you don’t hit it. It’s about as straightforward of a climb as there is; it’s steep, it’s short, and timing your effort is kind of the whole game. After a gentle rise in the first 150 meters, riders suddenly find themselves pushing speeds in the single digits. Still, it’s a long way to go before the trees clear overhead and riders are ticking off the climb mailbox by mailbox. 

The average gradient is 8.9% and, for the most part, stays true to that number. There are three sections that hold something closer to 10-11%, but with the speed already sucked out of the legs, that additional 2-5% in gradient is almost a non-factor; riders are already going the speed they can hold. 

Star it here, and check it out on Veloviewer. 

Just like last week, you can do these segments as many times as you want all week until Saturday at 5pm. However, your times from ONE ride will count, denoted by your top time on Lincoln; you’ll get the Wayne time from THAT ride.