Saturday, June 19, 2010

Re-visiting Sugarloaf Mountain Road This Morning

This morning, Bridget went to the famed Renninger's antique center in Mount Dora and I took the occasion to pedal over to Sugarloaf Mountain Road outside nearby Clermont -- the second highest point in Florida and a magnet for roadies who want some hill work.

At the top of the hill live Harry and Janice, who I included for a features story on cycling the hills of central Florida I wrote for the Tampa Tribune about five years ago. The couple who used to live in Tampa -- Harry is former Air Force and served at MacDill -- wheel out two orange Gatorade water coolers for cyclists who make it to the top every weekend.

Janice was out there this morning and I caught up with her. What a lovely couple. With so many people in central Florida copping nasty attitudes toward bicyclists it was refreshing to chat with Janice, who makes it a point every weekend to have two big orange containers of water, with cups, ready to serve thirsty Sugarloaf Mountain Road bicyclists.

After biking up the hill and catching up with Janice, I took a 2-minute video of the scene when I began my descent.

1 comment:

GhostRider said...

What was your top speed on the descent? I have GOT to try that...if only to attempt to break my personal speed record of 54.5MPH on a downhill.

I'd like to climb up it too, of course...not a lot of hills to train on here in Tampa.