Have to admit that this is not my idea and I think it was CCorlew who first put the idea forward. Riding your age in miles is OK but for some of us it gets boring. I used to ride my age Offroad but since getting the road Bike- I am doing 50 to 60 miles almost every week on the Sunday ride. So looking for it still to be a challenge- Do it vertically.

And I dont mean just doing 50 miles up hills but take 100 ft as 1 year. So if you are 50- the climb 50 x 100 on a ride to be 5,000ft of climbing. Now that may sound a lot to you flat guys but you have the boring bit. For those of us with hills- for us to do our normal rides we still do the flat bits---and the hills. Then there are those of us that live in the hills( and the lucky devils in the Mountains). All of our rides take in a bit of slow riding and we cannot get our Birthday rides in as easily as some others. Especially as we get older.

5,000 ft may seem a lot but that is only one Ventoux climb. Admittedly all in one go and around 13 miles- so for me that is not a challenge any longer.

But in my area- we have a lot of hills that give 600ft of climbing. 10 of those and I will ride my age of 61- or near it. The hills may be a 5% or less that will spread over a couple of miles or the baskets at 15% over less than a mile,. But I reckon that this will give me a more challenging ride than going over the marshes or picking a point 30 miles away and riding there and back.

I still reckon that for me to climb 6'000 ft- I will have to do a 30 mile ride- but not something I have attempted. Or It could be that in a 30 mile ride- I would only have to climb 3'000ft- but that is somewhere near my normal ride in any case (2'000ft and around 50 to 60 miles)


So open for discussion- Whats your views