The Annual Lunacy Climbing Challenge Chatzone

[Dogtrousers]

Saturday was a big day. Le Grand Colombier. The town of Culoz has regular "jounées cyclo" days when the road is closed to all except cyclists.

I've never ridden anything remotely as big as this. The biggest climb I've ever done is probably 150m or so and this is 1250. It starts off fairly steep and after about 5km you get to the "lacets" where the road wiggles in a series of switchbacks and the views over the Rhone valley are amazing.

I was surprised at how well I felt when I got to the top. Two of my friends had been there for a while and one soon followed. Two more would climb by e-bike later.

I descended the other side on my own to the village of Champagne en Valromy and re ascended what was supposed to be the easiest route. By now my body was going into battery-saver mode and grinding slowly up the last 3km at 9-11% was very hard. Coffee and croisant at the snack bar was a life saver.

Descending was pretty hard too. I had to keep stopping to uncramp my hands from squeezing the levers. Also the rims were getting so hot I was fearful of a blowout.

Still I made it without mishap and so did my hired Lapierre bike.

 

[FrothNinja]

Saturday was a big day. Le Grand Colombier. The town of Culoz has regular "jounées cyclo" days when the road is closed to all except cyclists.

I've never ridden anything remotely as big as this. The biggest climb I've ever done is probably 150m or so and this is 1250. It starts off fairly steep and after about 5km you get to the "lacets" where the road wiggles in a series of switchbacks and the views over the Rhone valley are amazing.

I was surprised at how well I felt when I got to the top. Two of my friends had been there for a while and one soon followed. Two more would climb by e-bike later.

I descended the other side on my own to the village of Champagne en Valromy and re ascended what was supposed to be the easiest route. By now my body was going into battery-saver mode and grinding slowly up the last 3km at 9-11% was very hard. Coffee and croisant at the snack bar was a life saver.

Descending was pretty hard too. I had to keep stopping to uncramp my hands from squeezing the levers. Also the rims were getting so hot I was fearful of a blowout.

Still I made it without mishap and so did my hired Lapierre bike.
View attachment 733671

Heck of a view!

 

[Willd]

Managed 1,303m at the weekend, but had to go 102 miles to find that many.

I'm using Mapmyride to measure elevation as I don't have a "smart" phone. Out of interest I put in a ride someone else had done on Strava, more or less (couldn't see exact start and finish points) and got it to be about a mile longer than their route, Mapmyride said 858m, but Strava said 1,047m, or 22% more Either Mapmyride is very stingy, or Strava over generous.

Mapmyride seems pretty accurate for distances:102.27 c/w my Cateye at 102.22. and comparing a local hill with a gain of 79m on an OS map it was only a couple of feet out.

I don't suppose it really matters, as long as you stick to one method, but Mapmyride is certainly making it more difficult without going longer distances

 

[Alex321]

Managed 1,303m at the weekend, but had to go 102 miles to find that many.

I'm using Mapmyride to measure elevation as I don't have a "smart" phone. Out of interest I put in a ride someone else had done on Strava, more or less (couldn't see exact start and finish points) and got it to be about a mile longer than their route, Mapmyride said 858m, but Strava said 1,047m, or 22% more Either Mapmyride is very stingy, or Strava over generous.

Mapmyride seems pretty accurate for distances:102.27 c/w my Cateye at 102.22. and comparing a local hill with a gain of 79m on an OS map it was only a couple of feet out.

I don't suppose it really matters, as long as you stick to one method, but Mapmyride is certainly making it more difficult without going longer distances

GPS devices aren't all they are cracked up to be regarding climbing and elevation.

I almost always ride loops, and the elevation gained and lost are almost always different - sometimes quite significantly so.
Just looking at last night - 20.6 miles, 419m ascent, 406m descent. So my house was 13m higher when I arrived home than when I left?

The day before was the other way around, with 464m ascent, 480m descent in 20.1 miles.

One last week was 243 ascent, 258 descent - so a 7% difference

 

[Dogtrousers]

I don't suppose it really matters, as long as you stick to one method, but Mapmyride is certainly making it more difficult without going longer distances

Exactly this.

My chosen standard is RideWithGPS.

(Which also just happens to be particularly generous)

 

[FrothNinja]

Exactly this.

My chosen standard is RideWithGPS.

(Which also just happens to be particularly generous)

I've noticed that - makes Garmin seem tight

 

[Willd]

Interesting, I've just re-done Sunday's ride in RideWithGPs and I've gained 1.23 miles and 116m (9%)

 

[Dogtrousers]

Interesting, I've just re-done Sunday's ride in RideWithGPs and I've gained 1.23 miles and 116m

Clearly the best solution

 

[FrothNinja]

Two long (for me) rides in Shropshire last week and I didn't get near a 1000m.
Would have made with a bit of contrivance where I cycle in Scotland, and would have been a certainty (unless I was trying to avoid climbs) if I had done the distances locally.
That's topography for you.

 

[Willd]

Spot the Cotswolds Oddly enough the 4.3% avg grade was easiest as it was a very uniform A road

 

[Dogtrousers]

I've really lost touch with this challenge due to ... well ... stuff. Still, I've got the autumn to come.

 

[FrothNinja]

I've really lost touch with this challenge due to ... well ... stuff. Still, I've got the autumn to come.

Still time - gotta admit I am not where I was hoping to be by this stage of the year either.

 

[Willd]

Had to go 102 miles today to find enough upness, skirted the Cotswolds this time to Farmoor.

 

[Willd]

102 miles to Derby and back, lots of little ups and downs, just one 11% hill by Staunton Harold Reservoir

 

[Dogtrousers]

I think I'm not going to make it this year

I've got the usual excuses of work, holidays, illness and other stuff but I think the real reason is that I actually trained for my visit to the Grand Colombier in June. After that I had a bit of a loss of mojo.

Buying myself a new toy in the form of a bike with a single speed/fixed flip flop rear wheel hasn't helped either. It's not exactly a climbing bike.