permanentjaun

The Furnace Creek 508 thhread has got my interest peaked into conquering the most grueling cycling events in the world similar to how climbers like to conquer the top mountains in the world.

What are the top 10? Furnace Creek 508. RAAM. What else?

knobster

While not road bike centric, this is pretty freaking epic: Great Divide Race

shuffles

Paris-Brest-Paris.

knobster

and it's American cousin, Boston-Montreal-Boston

permanentjaun

Is that a pro only event or can anyone register?

knobster

You have to qualify for it. Check out the www.rusa.org or www.ultracycling.com site for more info.

permanentjaun

Amazing. Winner last year average a little more than 160 miles a day on a loaded MTB.

Biker395 

There is the HooDoo 500 and the Race Across Oregon as well.

permanentjaun

Anyone want to dare rank them in difficulty?

m4ximusprim3

yeah, that is f**king amazing. It looks like a lot of fun though, just not as a timed race

urbanknight

I think anyone attempting to do that should have ridden all of them. I doubt Roy Wallack is on the forums, though.

Biker395 

With any long distance ride like those, weather is a huge factor ... enough to wash out almost everything else.

I can comment on the 508 and the HooDoo. I think they are about equal. They were both tough this year because of wind.

The 508 challenges:

Wind
Crappy roads
Heat

The HooDoo challenges:

Wind
Altitude
Cold

johnny99

Tour de France requires a lot of endurance. Or are you talking about amateur events only?

urbanknight

~5 hours per day is not an "ultra endurance" event. Not to discredit Le Tour, it's an animal in itself, but you're comparing apples to oranges.

briscoelab

Vapor Trail 125 is a killer MTB race.

Trans Iowa is growing in interest each year (gravel/B road race), 320ish miles straight through... lots of climbing.

They aren't into the crazy long category though.

SteelCan

Disagree. That's every bit an endurance race IMO. I recall reading that the original TdF concept was to have an attrition rate so high that only 1 rider would complete the course and the rest would die of fatigue.

johnny99

It may not be that many hours per day, but they are riding twice as fast as the RAAM guys and for twice as many days. I bet the last place finisher in the Tour de France could win RAAM if he wanted to.

urbanknight

The key word was ultra, and yes, the original Tour de France was an ultra endurance event. There were no stages, just the first one to finish won, just like RAAM. The modern tour is broken into stages. Yes, they still require endurance, but not in the same way as an event that is running around the clock.


So you're saying it focuses on speed more, which implies that it focuses on endurance less. That makes it an endurance event, not an ultra endurance event. We apparently agree there. However, if it was that easy to win RAAM, why aren't freshly retired grand tour riders doing them for kicks?

As I said before, both events are extemely difficult, and I would even agree that it's harder to win Le Tour than RAAM, but they are still different categories of events.

El Diablo Rojo

Reading these threads.

urbanknight

Biker395 

I'd take that bet.

johnny99

Jonathan Boyer

urbanknight

So you found one guy, and he doesn't even hold the overall record. I fail to see your point.

Still not sure why you feel we disagree. I'm not saying it's harder, just different. From my understanding, "ultra endurance" refers to an event which is run for a long duration of time without official breaks. Le Tour simply does not fit that description. No implications of difficulty. If this was a thread on the most difficult cycling events of any type in the world, Le Tour would no doubt be at the top of the list and RAAM would not.

johnny99

He held the overall record for a time.

Be realistic. RAAM is an American race. Most grand tour racers are Europeans and have little interest in racing in the USA. The American grand tour racers have enough opportunities to make money on their bikes that they have no interest in racing in an unpopular race like RAAM for free. Unpopular = no daily TV coverage. I bet if RAAM was on TV every day, then more top racers would be interested in trying it. The only people who do try RAAM these days are racing at half the speed of the grand tours.

Biker395 

That all depends on how you define difficulty. What's difficult for one person may be impossible for another and vice versa.

Ultra endurance events are a different animal. No pelotons. To teammates to draft behind. No crowds. No adulation. It's a 3500 mile time trial with no breaks. Huge advantage if you can operate well in a sleep deprived state.

I'm sure there are TdF riders that could do well in the RAAM. But me thinks there are quite a few that would not do well at all. It's a different animal.

Remember this day on the ToC?

https://velonews.com/article/72620

Worst day ever on a bike. A rainy, windy sufferfest like that would be an asterisk on the RAAM. Now do it for a week.