Originally Posted by tigat

In January, in a fit of hubris, I signed up for the Sunday leg of the Triple Bypass in Colorado. 120 miles, 10k plus ft. of climbing over 3 high mtn passes, from Avon to Bergen Park.

If any of you have read previous posts, you are probably aware that I ride single handed, as my left arm went missing at the shoulder almost 40 years ago. Accordingly, I have never been able to generate any meaningful power standing up on the pedals, but I've always been a pretty competent sit down and pound it out climber.

In my younger years, I rode a steel classic, and my lowest gear then was a 42-23. Never a problem. In the 2 plus years I've been actively riding as of late, I've run a 50/34 crank, and an 11-26 or 11-28 cassette on a lightweight CF bike, my concession to age.

In the upcoming Triple Bypass ride, all three passes going eastbound, and Vail in particular, have relatively short but steep sections that have forced me on recent training rides down to a cadence around 65 in my lowest gear (6 mph or so), and toasted my legs and lungs to the point that it takes me a long time to spool back up, and catch up to my 20 year old training partner, who is able to stand up and slam the steeps.

Powering through at higher speed and cadence, like I do when a climb has an end in sight, costs me even more in recovery time. The ride is 10 days away, so getting stronger is probably not an option. My wife's bike has a triple crank with an inside ring of 30 that I could switch out for the ride, and regain some cadence on the steeper segments, possibly leaving me a little fresher. I'm not looking to set any speed records here, but very much hoping to finish if I can.

Thoughts? Posting this here, instead of the 41, in the hope that members of my own demographic may have more civil and relevant advice (I'll accept and deserve a few HTFUs, but likely won't learn much from them).