Originally Posted by Grambo

My point is that saying you can ride sustained average grades of 10% for 20 - 30 minutes in a 50 x 18 is BS (I'm not questioning whether this is the gearing you ride or whether it is a good overall gearing choice). You're severely overestimating the average grade you are riding. Throwing around grades of 16% or 21% is even more ludicrous. I'm not saying that you can't mash a 10% grade for a brief stretch but and extended pitch at 10% average is highly unlikely (not to mention that I'm not even sure whether a prolonged average 10% grade exists in NJ). From the article posted above (and I'm guessing this guy is an elite endurance athlete) and he is riding lower gearing than you!


Immediately after leaving Saint Esteve, the road from Bedoin turns sharply left, enters the cedar forest, and goes straight up for 10km without a single flat section. It’s utterly relentless. Even the long lines through the switchbacks are steep. I did the best I could to ride the longest (and hence, the flattest) line I could up the mountain and even tacked to keep from bogging down in what I now realized was a ridiculous gear. I knew I would be out of the saddle without a single break for this entire pitch. The grade isn’t that bad — it’s mostly nine to 11 percent — but what hurts is that there is so much of it, with no rest whatsoever.

Despite my best preventative efforts, I was quickly anaerobic. I stopped a few kilometers into the pitch and rested on a guardrail until by heart rate recovered and then I set back to work. I completed the 10km climb with only one more brief stop.