Originally Posted by
Rick@OCRR
Hermes is right. It's all a matter of how steep the climbs are vs. how much you weigh and how much power you produce.
Yes, there are some technique variables, but when you sort it all out, it's steep vs. power to weight. You don't say where you live in Southern CA, but to use Glendora Mountain Road (a very popular climb in SoCal) as a reference, GMR/GRR is between 5 - 6% average from Glendora to Mt. Baldy Village.
I'm 5' 9" and weigh 165 lbs. and I can go to the Village and back with an average of about 12.5 mph. That's just over 5,000 feet of climbing, 44 miles in approx. 4 hours.
Where in SoCal do you live? I'm almost 60 (59+), so our times should be comparable.
Regarding century times, I rode the Mulholland Challenge this Spring in 8:28. That was just over 100 miles with 12,000 total feet of climbing.
Which century do you reference in your Original Post?
Rick / OCRR
Rick, 5 to 6% grade climbs are perfect. That must be a great climb. The next time we are in SoCal, we will have to put that on our to do list.