Originally Posted by
thebulls
Although it's true that you can never ride your first 600K again, the ones I've ridden have all been sufficiently different that each has felt like a "first". And I always learn new things.
So true - which is kind of nice in a way too.
Mattm,
Any idea how much climbing there is on Jan's 600K, and how the climbing compares to the Four Passes 600K from last spring? A friend is planning to ride Jan's 600K and was asking about my experience on the Four Passes. She said she's heard that if you're not a fast climber, you're at serious risk of missing the control after the overnight.
Bikely says roughly 18.7k feet of climbing for the route, sounds close but I'm not sure.
I DNFd the ride last year, out of pure laziness since a friend was calling in his wife and I had a free ride home. I so regret that.
We were about to do that last climb before the overnight (White Pass), but starting it at night was a little too daunting at the time. But boy do I regret that DNF, and hope to make up for it this year.
FWIW, Four Passes has 21,500 feet of climbing according to my GPS. The 600K that DC Randonneurs just finished last weekend has about 23,000 feet. ...
Do you think she needs to worry about Jan's 600?
Everyone doing that brevet needs to worry a little, unless your name is Ryan H. or Jan H. =]
Seriously though, looking at
the results from last year, most of the times are pretty close to 40 hours. And some of those riders normally come in closer to 35 hours for a 600.
But I do know that some of the riders that finished are
not strong climbers - but they are very experienced/determined randos who never seem to fail on a brevet.
None of the grades are too tough, most are below or around 5%. But the FS26 "road" up to Windy Ridge gets up to 20% in a few places.. it was a beast of a climb for sure. I don't think it's an over-the-top brevet, but it's got to be up there.