Losing energy

Have you ever ridden upon concrete?

I thought all those years that riding on concrete would feel like riding on asphalt. But how wrong I was! 

Either riding uphill or on long stretches, concrete makes me feel that I'm losing energy when I ride on it. 

At first I thought that maybe it was due to this road. It is very steep as you can see on the pictures. I also lack on really low gears. So I thought that climbing with my bicycle there literally exhausted me out, not because of the terrain but due to the fact that the incline was more than my bicycle could take. Which is partly true of course!

Two days later I found myself riding on another road! It had an incline, but nothing major. Third gear was more than enough. However, my bicycle felt really sluggish. I pedaled and pedaled but I felt like the tires were sticking on to the ground.

I looked down and photographed what I saw. The road's surface was a mix of gravel and concrete. 

On the first road I blamed the steep incline and my bicycle's inefficiency. On the second road I accused the gravel and the terrain's uneven surface. I did not take into account the fact that when I ride on actual plain gravel, I never feel my bicycle sluggish. 

However, when I rode through this stretch (a new bicycle path near the coast), which is also made from concrete and has an even surface and no incline whatsoever, and felt again the slug, then I started to wonder if maybe the road's material was the one to blame!

I asked my cycling friends what did they thought of this matter. And after waiting for them to stop laughing after I showed them the first road that I climbed with my bicycle (they still could not believe how I managed to do that! And I must say that I surprised myself too for not falling back!) they replied that concrete was one of the worst road materials for cycling and that they avoid the routes that the paths are made of concrete.

One question pops into my mind though. If concrete is such a bad choice of material for road paths, then why all the new bicycle paths are made from it?

Is it cheaper? Maybe..

But asphalt isn't that much more expensive, too.

Who knows..

One thing I learned though is that, to me, concrete absorbs all the energy when I pedal and no matter how much I force into it, the slug never goes away.

Is concrete used as a road material where you live, either on the road or on bike paths? Do you feel the "drag" when you ride on it?