the Fridays Tour 2014

[theclaud]

. My plan has always to spring early starts on people

No shit!

 

[ianrauk]

[QUOTE 2532373, member: 30090"]No way has Ditchling got a max grad of 27%. I'd say the numbers are wrong.[/quote]



Not even close...

 

[StuAff]

[QUOTE 2532373, member: 30090"]No way has Ditchling got a max grad of 27%. I'd say the numbers are wrong.[/quote]
I'd agree. 15% or so on a few stretches, I think, but not much more than that.

 

[srw]

Maximum gradients are pretty meaningless because they'll be based on rounded numbers themselves based on inaccurate observations - you need to go with averages.

That little slope up from the coast in Normandy (Apple Juice Hill) worked out at about 16% for a third of a mile. That was one tough bugger, and about as steep as I'd expect in most of continental Europe.

 

[srw]

[QUOTE 2532404, member: 30090"]
Bit of advice for you peeps doing the tour. Fit a triple, make hay and enjoy the ride.[/quote]
This. a 28-tooth chainring or a Rohloff makes the steepest ramps look like a walk in the park.

 

[dellzeqq]

Maximum gradients are pretty meaningless because they'll be based on rounded numbers themselves based on inaccurate observations - you need to go with averages.

That little slope up from the coast in Normandy (Apple Juice Hill) worked out at about 16% for a third of a mile. That was one tough bugger, and about as steep as I'd expect in most of continental Europe.

honestly, srw, I've never encountered anything that tough in northern Spain - although I do see numbers at the beginning of day 2 (the Foz de Lumbier) that suggests we have a couple of walkers on our hands. It's fair to say that one gradient can go on for hours, but you've got to get in to a groove that allows you to admire the scenery and share the time with those around you. And again - it is absolutely not my intention that people spend a week of their annual leave at some kind of boot camp. 419 (it's crept up) miles in six days is not a walk in the park, but it shouldn't be purgatory. If the recce tells us that the idea isn't a good one, then it will get offed, just as Barcelona to Nice got offed. I've corrected Day 3 a bit.

http://goo.gl/maps/AkFEf Lumbier to Sabananigo (Day 2)
http://goo.gl/maps/HZMrT Sabananigo to Castellon de Sos (Day 3)
http://goo.gl/maps/125Vw Castellon de Sos to Sort (Day 4)
http://goo.gl/maps/bb6hY Sort to Ribes de Freser (where the Cava comes from) (Day 5))
http://goo.gl/maps/zbxCh Ribes de Freser to Gerona (Day 6)

 

[Flying Dodo]

I'd also make the comment that any mapping website, as they only look at certain points to work out the amount of climbing or descending, will by default pick up extremes. You can easily get them showing a large figure such as a 20% incline, when actually out on the road, there might only be a stretch of say 3 feet which rises a lot more than the rest of the slope. On Ditchling there are a couple of spots like that.

So, don't worry about the numbers and trust Dell.

 

[mmmmartin]

Given that my earlier posts with figures for ascent from RidewithGPS are, on further investigation, utter nonsense, I have deleted as many as I can. And apologies for any confusion I may have caused

 

[srw]

honestly, srw, I've never encountered anything that tough in northern Spain

Ahem. May I remind you that there were only about three bikes that got all the way to the top without being pushed. Two of them belonged to hard men with thighs of steel. The other one carried two people.

Anyway - my point (if I have one) is not to complain. I'm interested in profiles generally (not of individual hills) simply to get a sense of how much practice I need to do.

 

[StuAff]

Ahem. May I remind you that there were only about three bikes that got all the way to the top without being pushed. Two of them belonged to hard men with thighs of steel. The other one carried two people.

Anyway - my point (if I have one) is not to complain. I'm interested in profiles generally (not of individual hills) simply to get a sense of how much practice I need to do.

Figure of speech there I think, it was definitely more than three. I made it and I don't exactly have thighs of steel.

 

[ianmac62]

Ahem. May I remind you that there were only about three bikes that got all the way to the top without being pushed.

That's cider for you!

What's the local tipple in the Spanish Pyrenees?

 

[dellzeqq]

TeeCee raced up it. As did Susie, albeit that she raced up it in a more genteel way.

I think I've spotted an absolute wall, but it's at the side of the road, not across it...

 

[StuartG]

They did indeed, whereas I couldn't even think about riding up it - it was all I could do to walk up it. That's what I meant about 'barometers' - anyone looking in from the outside might get the impression hills like that are within most Fridays' capabilities. They just aren't!

Well you are not rubbish TMN! I've seen you get up some impressive hills. Yes the extreme might defeat you but it is a bit insidious to make the division on who walked and who didn't. On the Normandy tour overall there were very few hills ANYBODY walked up.

IMHO that's not the real problem. The real problem is precisely the majority of hills we can ALL get up. Just some of us are going to do it slowly and puff a bit (or a lot).

The danger here is we are maybe looking at a lot of very long moderate climbs, not the Turners Hill/Ditchling one stop wonders. I'm sure TMN and me can get up 'em - but we will be doing it mighty slow. And a long climb will be a big time difference by the top. That leaves DZ with the issue of the wonder thighs folks standing around being bored and the wandered thighs people pushing uncomfortably hard to try and not be a burden and perhaps not enjoying the view as much as they could.

I'd like to do it. Those piccys are amazing and I'd hate to miss them. But it would be unfair to disguise the uneasiness some of us might feel.

 

[redfalo]

I'm trying to explain that some cyclists who in the past have been the Fridays lodestone for what's achievable and what's not have maybe moved on from that - well done them, and I'm very happy for them.

There were some pretty significant climbs on LonJOG, and we all got there....

 

[StuAff]

There were some pretty significant climbs on LonJOG, and we all got there....

Hear Hear!