Originally Posted by
GhostRider62
Peter makes a good and really salient point.
I can easily exceed the power of all the Strava leaderboard up Hollywood Gate to Gate (except the KoM). However, I would probably be at the 15-20th percentile due to mass. Hills over 6-8% are all about W/Kg although the energy systems used depend on the length. A sprinter might have an easy time on a short climb, a Puncheur could excel on a 2-4 minute climb but eventually it is the really light specialists who excel at the long climbs (say 10 minutes plus)
As a former bodybuilder, I suspect you have too much mass to do well on really long climbs but your explosive power probably gives you a realy advantage on shorter climbs. All just a guess
Edit: I just noticed the average gradient is only 1.4%. That is not a climb, more like pretty gradual up and then a descent down. Aero matters a whole lot on that sort of segment. I could probably challenge the leaderboard.......on my recumbent.
1.4% for the whole up and over and down. (The segment link
here.) Strava simply averages the starting and ending elevation. And they don't do any smoothing of the climb, so dragging along the elevation chart shows ... 0.6%, 4.3%, 7.2%, 2.1%, 13.3%, 6.1% ... where it should calc a more gradual change in the grade from point to point. Raw GPS recordings are very noisy and need smoothing.
The first 2.5 miles have a net gain of 625 feet, not even including any small roller hills within the climb. This 250 feet per mile (4.7% average: "moderate") is a real climb.
Pacing
I'm not a fast climber. My best efforts have been solo efforts within the climb, setting my own pace. I really like my Stages left side power meter for pacing. It keeps me from going too far over my limit at the beginning, and is an instant encouragement to go a bit harder toward the end. My "perceived effort" tells me I'm maxed, but I find I can actually go a bit faster.
Would I have an even better result if I tried to hang with a "too fast" group of climbers? Would motivation improve over optimal pacing strategy? Maybe!