TDY.... do we have cyclists of that standard on CC?

[13 rider]

Yeah, but I did it on a tandem......

With Mrs Dave providing the power

 

[Smokin Joe]

Anyone who has ridden up Ditchling Beacon will know that it is an out of the saddle grind. When they had whatever classic that ran near Brighton in the early nineties and the top pros came over to ride it I watched them climb it seated while showing hardly any effort at all. They took it like it was a humpback bridge.

 

[NorthernDave]

Gabriel Cullaigh (Team Wiggins) has recorded times on a few segments that I've ridden.
He is so much faster than me, even downhill, that it's ridiculous.

 

[I like Skol]

Those pro's are amateurs.....

 

[I like Skol]

Gabriel Cullaigh (Team Wiggins) has recorded times on a few segments that I've ridden.
He is so much faster than me, even downhill, that it's ridiculous.

Yeh but... I've ridden with you and you are dead slow

 

[Julia9054]

When the TdF did their Yorkshire stage, they rode most of my route to work. One of the guys in the peloton had Strava on. The hill that i do every morning at about 6-7mph, he did at 16mph.
Mind you, he didn't have panniers and a class set of marking with him!

 

[CXRAndy]

Ive only got the climbs from Tenerife to compare to the Pro's- but there quite a few, so you can get a could picture. A climb which takes me 1hr06 to complete the Pro's whilst training do it in 35mins. The guys who I have ridden with and are much faster at climbing than me do it in >50mins.

The tour organiser has ridden with Sky team once or twice when he has bumped into them on training sessions. He has been a Kona Ironman qualifier-so no mean cyclist himself. His heart rate was 30bpm higher than the Pro's whilst climbing. They then put the hammer down and blew him out of the back door

 

[Globalti]

We stood on Côte de Barden Moor yesterday and watched the amateurs then the pros. There were three types of rider:

1 - Regular amateurs like me: it's still an achievement to be able to propel a bike up a 10% hill, only a tiny percentage of the population could do it but these people were grinding and breathing hard, obviously suffering. They had a variety of bikes with bits added on and a variety of body shapes. Quite a lot were in club kit, quite porky and making lots of noise.

2 - Fast amateur riders: usually in their 20s and very thin indeed, often fashionably unshaven, wearing a variety of unusual jerseys on a variety of unusual bikes, unencumbered by saddle bags, lights etc. They went up fast with their mouths shut, always out of the saddle, weaving through the slower riders.

3 - The pros: not horribly skinny but actually honed and well shaped in standard kit on standard bikes. Studiedly silent, mouths shut, in well-drilled groups, looking as if they weren't really suffering at all. What was most noticeable was the uniformity of their body shape, position and riding style. They flowed past silently and were gone.

 

[NorthernDave]

Chris Froome has shared some of his Strava stats from the final day of the TdY.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...ts-tough-final-tour-de-yorkshire-stage-422613

The standout segment is this one, up Otley Chevin.
It's a Cat 3 climb of just over 2km at an average of 8%.
He hit almost 30mph at one point, uphill, and averaged over 14mph for the whole climb.

I know that climb and those stats are just unreal.

 

[derrick]

Anyone who has ridden up Ditchling Beacon will know that it is an out of the saddle grind. When they had whatever classic that ran near Brighton in the early nineties and the top pros came over to ride it I watched them climb it seated while showing hardly any effort at all. They took it like it was a humpback bridge.

Its a sit on the saddle spin, you might get out of the saddle for a short while, but i don't know anyone who grinds up the Beacon, if it's a short sharp bump i might get out the saddle.

 

[13 rider]

My mate did the Tdy sportive and if I'm comparing the correct segment he did it in 12.40 and He's no mean cyclist !

 

[CXRAndy]

Chris Froome has shared some of his Strava stats from the final day of the TdY.
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/...ts-tough-final-tour-de-yorkshire-stage-422613

The standout segment is this one, up Otley Chevin.
It's a Cat 3 climb of just over 2km at an average of 8%.
He hit almost 30mph at one point, uphill, and averaged over 14mph for the whole climb.

I know that climb and those stats are just unreal.

View attachment 465761

I too know East Chevin Road, I used to live and work in Otley as a younger fella. Its a brute if a climb. The 30mph will be either has he approached the bottom or the flatter top section where he put in a burst to break away. They run a hill climb competition on the hill. It would be interesting to compare times


Re Ditchling Beacon, Ive cycled up it and I used a high cadence, because I have the gearing to be able to do so. Its a little deceptive with multiple false horizons leading you to think its over, but no there is another section. No way as tough as Cote de Chevin-aptly named

 

[Dogtrousers]

Its a sit on the saddle spin, you might get out of the saddle for a short while, but i don't know anyone who grinds up the Beacon, if it's a short sharp bump i might get out the saddle.

Spin? If only.

For me it's a sit in the saddle grind. Even in my 1:1 bottom gear.

 

[ColinJ]

The standout segment is this one, up Otley Chevin.
It's a Cat 3 climb of just over 2km at an average of 8%.

It's even worse than that though, the easier bottom and top sections bring the average down to that 8% - I clocked the long steady middle section at 10% for 1.61 km (a mile) and my OS maps confirm it. It isn't steep by steep Yorkshire climb standards, but there is absolutely no respite in that section.

 

[NorthernDave]

It's even worse than that though, the easier bottom and top sections bring the average down to that 8% - I clocked the long steady middle section at 10% for 1.61 km (a mile) and my OS maps confirm it. It isn't steep by steep Yorkshire climb standards, but there is absolutely no respite in that section.

Agreed - it hits a maximum of 13.1%, which probably explains why there is a cafe half way up...