The first attempt lasted four miles.
I had driven upstate to ride around Harriman and Bear Mountain. Then the rear derailleur went into the spokes and broke the hanger. The limit was set wrong. The bike was finished before the real ride had started.
Six days later, I went back.
The plan was simple: start in Cold Spring, ride south, climb Bear Mountain, continue to Peekskill, and return to Cold Spring. The repaired bike made it past mile four. That was the first improvement.
I finished with 35.6 miles and 2,727 feet of climbing. Moving time was 2:07:29. Strava recorded 191 watts average and 225 weighted for the whole ride.
The Bear Mountain climb was the part I cared about.
I held more than 300 watts up Bear for the first time. By the time I stopped, two emails from Ride with GPS were waiting. One said I had set a personal best on the Bear Mountain Climb. The other said I had set another on Bear Mountain from Circle.
Two PRs on the same mountain, less than a week after putting the derailleur into the wheel.
There was no dramatic change in the intervening six days. I fixed the bike. I did a short indoor ride after driving home from the failed attempt. Then I returned to the same roads with the same legs and a machine that could shift without eating itself.
The bridge came into view late in the ride, steel towers above the Hudson with the mountain behind them. I took a crooked photo from the road and kept moving.
This time the bike made it home in one piece.