Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

Granted, but isn't that a worst case? Maybe road bikers just don't climb that kind of hill. Any more than they would go on a mountain trail. Nothing like that exists in the major stage races that I know of. Perhaps it is just not a route that is intended for road cycling. You can just avoid it when on the road bike. It is much more important on the road bike to have the intermediate gears than huge cogs for that kind of climbing. I hope you don't live at the top or bottom of that road. That would present a bit of a problem.