Just curious as to what others encounter (or avoid).

Although I commute to get into work, I take a longer route for fitness sake. The latest route (on the way home) takes me up a Cat 5 hill (according to MapMyRide), 1.1km @ 4.9% with one .28km section at 8.4%. It's tough but I have done it each time (albeit at only 12-13kph). Now that I know what a Cat 5 is like, I can only imagine what a Cat 1 or Hors Cat would be like?

What do others encounter?

When I first started biking to work, I thought that my route was kind of hilly. Then as I developed some fitness I went along with the "rolling hills" description. Eventually I realized it's basically flat. Then I moved. Now I've got the same basic route, but with a real mean kicker at the end of the day.

My main route has a few bits that go as much as 3% for a few hundred feet, but it's mostly flat. The hill going up to my house, on the other hand, is about half a mile at 2-5% and then I can choose between a quarter mile climb that averages 9.3% and peaks at 20% or a half mile climb that averages 5.2% and peaks at 14%. MapMyRide puts either of these as a Cat 5, though strictly speaking I don't think either one is long enough to get a category rating.

MapMyRide, by the way, is terrible at calculating grade for short segments of longer rides. Something in its algorithm discards local variations, so if you have a hill that goes up 100 feet, down 50 feet and then up 100 more feet, MapMyRide will show you a constant ascent of 150 feet over the whole distance. If you want to see the local variations, you need to map just the segment you're looking at. For instances, the hills to my house show up as 2.9% average grade for either climb if I put them at the end of my 10 mile route, but as 5.2% and 9.3% if I map them by themselves. Neither of these climbs has any downward slope, but for whatever reason MapMyRide miscalculates the elevation at the bottom of the hill.

BTW, when I go up the steep side of my hill, I'm generally climbing at about 5 mph/8 kph.

I have mostly downhill stretches on the way to work; conversely mostly uphill headed home. Frankly, I think that's perfect.

Map my ride rates my 18 mile to work commute with 1 cat 4 and 1 cat 5. The ride home has 1 cat 4 and 2 cat 5s. Both directions have hills that my GPS says are around 20% for at least part of the hill.

I wear a Polar S725X HRM. I don't think that data is very accurate either. When I look at the curves and click on that region of the climb, it doesn't output the information.

All it tells me is ascent.

According to the HRM my 13 mile ride has a total of 748' in climbing, but to what percent I do not know.

What I do know is on my best rested day, riding all out I have yet to break the 20mph average speed for the ride. I get really close, but no prize yet.

Anyone know how to get this info from the S725X?



BTW, I love Snorg T-Shirts.

I could do a century from my driveway and not exceed 100 feet of climbing. As for my commute, my only hill is in the parking garage: my bike box is on the 5th floor.

I live in the alps and my round trip commute has a little over 3000ft of climbing, mostly cat 4 and 5 rollers. There's a cat 1 climb on my route, but I choose to go around it and save the big climbs for my weekend rides.

A 4.9% grade is only about 3 degrees above flat. Are you sure those numbers are right? I have some minor hills on my route and they are about 20 degrees above flat, which Wikipedia tells me is about a 35% grade.

I go slow up hills on the way to work to avoid sweating. I have been known to seek out hills at other times

I find that anything above 20% is nearly impossible to ride on a bike, are you sure about that number?

I calculated the percentages myself (vertical/distance x 100%). Oh, wait a sec, the distance is the travel distance up the hill so the horizontal distance would be a bit shorter, probably not a big difference in this case. Well, wait a sec, maybe not, maybe MapMyRide does use horizontal distance, yeah, that's probably the case so my calculations are probably fairly accurate.

The "rules" regarding the determination of Cat 5, etc, are governed by UCI. I used MapMyRide to see that the slope is (or is reported to be) a Cat 5 slope, I didn't make that determination myself.

Slightly off-topic - anyone know a good Android app that tracks height changes well? I have the free Endomondo at the moment (doesn't do it) and Google's My tracks - and that seems to be so off it's not funny. I cycle along the SF Bay - that's pretty much sea level. According to Google, I climbed from -110 feet to -50 feet.

Just out of curiousity, I went to the UCI site to see what the rules have to say but I found nothing. Other searches indicated that it is not just grade or distance but elevation, point in the stage, are there any flatter areas to provide a bit of relief, etc. Furthermore, since it is determined by the race director, a Cat 2 climb in one race might be a Cat 1 in another.

One quote that I thought was particularly amusing was:
I read an interview by a TDF director that it was to do with which gear the Tour Director's car was in to go up it, and if it overheated or stalled it was given an HC category!

I don't have exact measurements, but estimating it here using visual memory of the rise, I measured a 2.5 foot rise over 7 feet, or 35.7% grade. It lasts for about 1000 feet. I have to downshift into my lowest gear, but I can make it up without leaving the saddle going about 6mph.

Let me see if I can find a source for the actual elevation change.

edit: okay, it seems my visual memory is way off. It says it's only a 56 foot elevation change, and it's over about 1000 feet, so that's a 5.6% grade.

https://www.getlatlon.com/ to get the coordinates
https://www.gpsvisualizer.com/elevation to get the elevations

I use SportsTracker on Windows Phone. I'm pretty sure there's an Android version too. It tracks your route, average speed, max speed, and elevation changes.

Where I live, there are a number of climbs that are featured in the TdF. Some years they're rated HC and other years they're Cat 1. They're long and steep, but they're not hard on a touring bike with low gearing. They're incredibly hard if you try to go up at speed, though.

Using these, I determined that the grade is 5.3%

Visual perception is a very dubious way to estimate hills. A 3 degree/5 percent slope looks basically flat when you draw it on paper, but when you ride it for any distance it feels steep. My 20% hill looks to me like it's nearly 45 degrees when I'm riding it, but it's actually only about 12 degrees.

I remember being told in college that the surface of the earth, mountains and all, is actually smoother than the surface of a bowling ball. Scale makes a big difference in perception.

MapMyRide tells me that a couple of my local routes have brief sections of 20% (or more, since that's where the scale ends). If that's true, there isn't much you can't do on a 71" fixed-gear.

My favored commuting route follows a line of hills along the city's southern border. I have shorter and longer routes that are flat. But I prefer my hills.

My climbs are more Belgian than Alpine.





Don't let the camera angle fool you. These babies are 10 and 12% respectively, and continue out of the frame. Nice, standing climbs with the panniers fully loaded. Seated when not.

Digging the sepia, Bruce.

There's a park (Bever Park) in my area that has a brick service road much like that.

I don't have the patience for mapmyride. The user interface was horrid last time I tried it. What other ways can I measure my hills?

^^^ www.ridewithgps.com works well.

I'm riding up and down hills 80% of my commute - they're modest but frustratingly long. Still, it's only 2 or 3 miles and a couple hundred feet total.

Worst hill I ever had to tackle was coming up Main Street and Triangle Street on the east side of Amherst, MA, from East Village to UMass. It seemed like a minor mountain when I first started riding that route. Funny to remember that these days.

what the hell are these things called "hills"?






yeah, i live in chicago.

Wow tsl, gotta hand it to you brother, you must have balls of steel to frequent that bricked nightmare!

Ring the bell for this guy!!

Ironically. the Six Gap Century is on Sunday here in Georgia. This is one of Georgia's signature centuries, and a very awesome ride. Something like 11,200' of climbing for the day.

I've done it 3 times. Twice on a Bacchetta Corsa recumbent. (because I'm stupid like that...)