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Old 06-14-10, 03:04 PM
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stapfam
Time for a change.
 
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: 6 miles inland from the coast of Sussex, in the South East of England
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Bikes: Dale MT2000. Bianchi FS920 Kona Explosif. Giant TCR C. Boreas Ignis. Pinarello Fp Uno.

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What Terrain do you ride?

Various postings on average speed or the speed attained for 10 miles in a pace line- but what sort of terrain do you ride?

I am at Heart a mountain biker and if you saw the hills that are only 6 miles away from where I live- You could be too. They are the South Downs and that is a Chalk ridge that runs along the South Coast of the UK.

Downsview..JPG Downs view..JPG

About 4 years ago I took up Road riding and it was still those Downs that got me. Lots of roads cross the Downs (Why they call them the downs is still a misnomer as you have to go up the downs to get the benefit of them) All start at around sea level and the Max climb is only 850ft. Most around 10% but going up from there with the basket being 16%.I can get in a 5 mile flat ride to the Downs- then 20 miles with 3,000ft of climbing and a gentle cool down time to make a ride of 30---Or it can be extended to as many miles as you like with as many hills as you want. Once when really fit I did 65 miles to Ditchling Beacon. and got in 7,000ft of climbing- but none of it more than 800ft at a time. But that 7,000 ft came in about 40 miles. The rest was flattish.

Ditchling by the way is on the London To Brighton ride and is the one hill on the route. Plenty of walkers amongst the 33,000 riders though.

DSC00026..jpg DSC00025..jpg



Or I can get in flat rides over the marshes Name the milage and I can do up to 100 miles with only 50 ft per mile average climb. OR I can go North if I want punishment. All back roads with little traffic but it is Short steep rises that take it out of me- No flat bits and you always seem to be climbing

So what sort of rides do you have in your locality?
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