Road Cycling - Holy cow, my GF suprised me today!!

First off, a little background- my GF is a marathon runner.. a very good marathon runner- ran a 3:45 her first marathon, and in her second, qualified for Boston with a 3:40. She decided she wanted to give biking a whirl, so we got her a 2002 Specialized Allez (the one with the sora/Tiagra components). Well, she was getting very frustrated with the sora stuff, and so when I upgraded the components on my bike, I gave her my old 105/tiagra stuff. In addition, we decided to drop her inner chain ring, and replace the middle with a 39, then replace the BB with a narrower one, to bring her legs in a little. A few hours of work, and she now has a double, that is working great, and I put my Ksyrium Elites on her bike, to replace the heavy things that came with it stock.

Last weekend, I taught her how to stand up out of the saddle and power up hills. Today we went out, and about 40 miles into a 45 mile ride, there is a nice 1.5 mile hill at about 6-8%. She stood up out of the saddle and dropped me!! :eek: She hauled herself up that hill at about the rate I do on a very good day, and it was her first time tackling a hill like that. We got to the top, and she was barely puffing.. totally blew me away.. looks like I got one heck of a climber on my hands!!! (it may have helped that she sat on my wheel while I was doing 18-20mph for the first 40 miles.. but it was still VERY impressive and humbling!! I think I am going to take those ksyriums back!! ;) ).

-Mark

First off, a little background- my GF is a marathon runner.. a very good marathon runner- ran a 3:45 her first marathon, and in her second, qualified for Boston with a 3:40. She decided she wanted to give biking a whirl, so we got her a 2002 Specialized Allez (the one with the sora/Tiagra components). Well, she was getting very frustrated with the sora stuff, and so when I upgraded the components on my bike, I gave her my old 105/tiagra stuff. In addition, we decided to drop her inner chain ring, and replace the middle with a 39, then replace the BB with a narrower one, to bring her legs in a little. A few hours of work, and she now has a double, that is working great, and I put my Ksyrium Elites on her bike, to replace the heavy things that came with it stock.

Last weekend, I taught her how to stand up out of the saddle and power up hills. Today we went out, and about 40 miles into a 45 mile ride, there is a nice 1.5 mile hill at about 6-8%. She stood up out of the saddle and dropped me!! :eek: She hauled herself up that hill at about the rate I do on a very good day, and it was her first time tackling a hill like that. We got to the top, and she was barely puffing.. totally blew me away.. looks like I got one heck of a climber on my hands!!! (it may have helped that she sat on my wheel while I was doing 18-20mph for the first 40 miles.. but it was still VERY impressive and humbling!! I think I am going to take those ksyriums back!! ;) ).

-Mark


Hahahaha! Funny post!

Isn't it always humbling getting dropped. I got dropped by my dad last week! Getting dropped can sometimes be a nice little motivating push that you need, but yeah it sucks though.

This being Fathers Day and all, I thought you were gonna tell us she bought you an Ottrott. Good story though. How is she at golf?

55/Rad

We need pics of BlueDevils GF to know that she actually exist!!!!

Post Blue post!

Yeah, well climbing is all about power to weight ratio. You can climb fast if you are really, really strong and not terribly heavy or if you are really, really light. Runners tend to be pretty light.

In our club, we have a rather tall, wiry lady and she is probably the best climber in the club.

The biggest mistake some men usually make is assuming a) the woman's bike doesn't need to have the top of the line components in it and b) that they should ease off for women in a ride.
Just based on pure genetics, this is often true but not always.

I wonder if one of those sub 2:10 marathon runners have enough power to push a bike.

We need pics of BlueDevils GF to know that she actually exist!!!!

Post Blue post!

:lol: If you think I had my azz kicked on that hill, it is nothing to what would happen if I post a picture of her to a forum!!! I think thats the #1 cardinal BF sin.. (well, maybe not #1, but up there.. ;) ).

As for the power to weight, she definitely has a good power to weight ratio.. she is pretty darn light. On our metric century she was trying to pull up hills, faster than we were going in the flats. She has always loved (and been very good at) running up hill, and I think the same is true for the bike. Even though I was getting dropped, it was pretty neat to see how she was able to just "turn it on" and get in a very strong rythm.

This being Fathers Day and all, I thought you were gonna tell us she bought you an Ottrott. Good story though. How is she at golf?

55/Rad

hehehe.. I'd have loved that!!!

Golf? She is much better than I am.. she played varsity golf in HS, and played on the club team in college (however, I dont think she has played in a few years now). I on the other hand, put out windows, and lose my ball in the woods.. some people are golfers.. I am DEFINITELY not one of them.. ;)

being light is great for going up hills, I road with a guy that weighs 110 pounds and he out climbs me without any effort. But on the flats, he doesn't have the horsepower to stay in my draft. That's why many good climbers in the tour can't keep up with Lance and Jan on the time trials. :p happy riding!