Originally Posted by
MinnMan
Climbing Cuito Negro:
"Rabobank climbers Robert Gesink and Laurens Ten Dam were horrified at their experience. "I have never seen anything as hard than the Cuitu Negru," Gesink said. "This last climb is hell, for a fact. The last three kilometres were horrible. I almost fell off the back of my bike."
Ten Dam echoed his sentiments. "It was perhaps a great show for the spectators, but not for the riders. When I came down again, I saw other riders still going up, and it was just unbelievable to watch, terribly steep. I rode with a compact cassette for the very first time in my life. And in the end, I needed it! It was no fun, I was in a cave of pain. Horrible."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ride...to-cuitu-negru
OK, so this raises maybe a dumb question, but if they were facing a finish on a 20% grade where the speeds went down to something like 6 MPH (or so I read), why don't they put triples on their bikes that day?