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 — Within the boundaries of the city, you can ski down a mountain and end up on a beach. So there’s a bike route for every skill level.
Cypress is part of the elusive three peak climb — 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 — imagine doing just the leg press in the gym continuously for 60–90 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.