Annual Simplified Climbing Lunacy Challenge chatzone

[Dogtrousers]

Another one ticked off. Really nice ride, not hot, a bit cloudy, everything with a post-rain green glow.

Headed out to the Ashdown Forest for some lumps and then got a train home from Sevenoaks.

 

[FrothNinja]

Another one ticked off. Really nice ride, not hot, a bit cloudy, everything with a post-rain green glow.

Headed out to the Ashdown Forest for some lumps and then got a train home from Sevenoaks.
View attachment 774059

Been vey blowy up here

 

[Dogtrousers]

Been vey blowy up here

Wasn't too bad yesterday. Apart from the usual perpetual headwind that accompanies me everywhere and makes me so slow

 

[Willd]

Cotswolds again

Including a couple of category 4 climbs Windmill Hill, Dovers Hill from Aston Subedge, Dovers Hill from Weston-sub-Edge and Ebrington Hill.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Just got back from a short hol in the Pyrenees. Once a year there is the "Montée du Géant" ride up the Tourmalet. There's a statue that is on display at the top of the Tourmalet during the summer months. In winter it lives at low altitude and each June it is driven up to the top, accompanied by lots of cyclists.

It was a grey day down in the valley, but up at the top, above the clouds it was stunning. It's a tough climb that saves all the steep bits up for the end when your legs are wrecked.

 

[Dogtrousers]

I just finished a ride from Hemel Hempstead to Marton in Warwickshire. 134km long and only just squeezed in over my 1,200m target. A bit of a contrast to the Tourmalet.

 

[bluenotebob]

I’d hoped to join this challenge a couple of years ago when I got a new SIGMA compteur fitted on my road bike. It claims to measure overall ascent – and it does .. but only if you set the starting altitude before every ride. Apart from having to remember to do this every time, I found it impossible for rides when I didn’t start from home – because I’d no idea what the starting altitude was.

Last month I bought a Garmin-style handlebar computer … an iGPSPORT offering: BSC300T. It’s proved to be bloody difficult to use but I’m getting there slowly with lots of help from Tony at the LBS (the older I get, the more incompetent – and frustrated – I become with new technology).

Hopefully I shall soon be able to start tracking total ascent accurately on some of my rides. I don’t expect that these figures will be huge: in fact, they’ll be very modest. Faced with a steep hill in full sun, I get off the bike and push it. My legs seem to appreciate the change of motion – which seems odd but I’ve noticed it a few times.

Which is all a very long-winded way of saying that I’ll post the occasional ride in the Lunacy Climbing challenge thread this year (isn’t it time to drop the ‘Simplified’ tag?) with a view to joining the challenge properly in 2026 (if the summer heat hasn’t killed me off before then).

My target for 2026 may be derisorily low – perhaps not much more than 200m … but, in my defence, I’m old and slow. If nothing else, it’ll add a bit more interest to some of my rides and perhaps encourage me to do more descents and re-ascents of river valleys (the Oust, Claie and l’Arz being the obvious candidates). We’ll see ..

 

[Alex321]

Last month I bought a Garmin-style handlebar computer … an iGPSPORT offering: BSC300T. It’s proved to be bloody difficult to use but I’m getting there slowly with lots of help from Tony at the LBS (the older I get, the more incompetent – and frustrated – I become with new technology).

Hopefully I shall soon be able to start tracking total ascent accurately on some of my rides. I don’t expect that these figures will be huge: in fact, they’ll be very modest. Faced with a steep hill in full sun, I get off the bike and push it. My legs seem to appreciate the change of motion – which seems odd but I’ve noticed it a few times.

"Accurately" is a very relative term here. These ones generally work by barometric pressure, and as that can vary during the course of the day in a single spot, the ascending and descending figures are not going to be completely accurate.

Most of my non-commute rides are loops from home, and with my Wahoo Roam, I have had differences in ascent and descent of as much as 7-8% shown at the end of the ride, and it is usually at least 1-2%.

My last such ride, on Tuesday, it shows 338m Ascent, 352m descent, so my house had dropped 14m during the 90 minutes I was out Almost 5% difference.

 

[bluenotebob]

"Accurately" is a very relative term here. These ones generally work by barometric pressure, and as that can vary during the course of the day in a single spot, the ascending and descending figures are not going to be completely accurate.

I'm sure you're right.

I've no doubt that exactly repeating a ride would give the same distance but a slightly different ascent/descent total.

It'll be good enough for me though as until very recently I haven't had a clue as to overall ascent on one ride.

Interesting comment on ITV4 a few mins ago ... today's TdF stage (in Normandy where the rolling nature of the land compares with the countryside around me) is the same as the Mont Ventoux stage in terms of overall ascent. So perhaps I'll be surprised at the ascent total on one of my longer (6-hour+) rides.

 

[FrothNinja]

"Accurately" is a very relative term here. These ones generally work by barometric pressure, and as that can vary during the course of the day in a single spot, the ascending and descending figures are not going to be completely accurate.

Most of my non-commute rides are loops from home, and with my Wahoo Roam, I have had differences in ascent and descent of as much as 7-8% shown at the end of the ride, and it is usually at least 1-2%.

My last such ride, on Tuesday, it shows 338m Ascent, 352m descent, so my house had dropped 14m during the 90 minutes I was out Almost 5% difference.

I also get some biggish variations on the same rides. What I may do is try and see what weather produces the variability....or I'll forget to do so...