Originally Posted by
Marcus_Ti
Depends on the wind and how fresh your legs are. Not just terrain.
If you're deep into a century and the wind picks up and is a typical Great Plains headwind...you're not going to be using that big ring. AAMOF, odds are you'll be looking for your granny gear. I was doing an 80 mile ride out in a farming valley that acted as wind tunnel with no air brakes...barely able to spin a 39/25 on a pan flat road due to the 30MPH sustained headwind.
That's fair, I've dropped to the small ring for similar reasons. We've had wind this year, but nothing I couldn't push my way through, but I remember having to drop in past years.