BluesDawg

And a brutal MTB trail. 690 ft in 4.3 miles.

Tom Bombadil

One of my favorite trails, the Military Ridge Trail, "climbs" about 330' over the 13.5 mile stretch that I ride, with about 300' of that being in the last 5 miles. It tops out in a beautiful small town named Mt. Horeb. I usually get a bite to eat while there and shop around a little. Then I ride back to the start for a 27 mile round trip.

The route up has very little up and down to it, just a long, steady, slight uphill slope. On the ride back, over the first 5 miles, I usually ride at around 17-18 mph, above that on the limestone surface feels squirrelly. I always love that downhill stretch.

BikeWNC

So over 100 miles, 100' per amounts to 10,000' of climbing. Do you still consider that flat? Unless you ride a steady consistent grade with no descent will it only grade out at 1.9%. Usually there are much steeper grades, some flat and some down.

Monoborracho

Everyone who hasn't seen much of the state thinks Texas is flat. There is one particular poster here who always goes on and on about the treeless plains north of Dallas where he lived as a child. Evidently he didn't get out much..

Then someone thinks, "Gosh, I wonder where Lance learned to climb hills"

Tom Bombadil

Many think the same thing about Wisconsin, and it is true for portions of the state. But they hold a 300 km race here in the hilly section that has 22,000' of elevation gain over its course. All in the form of rollers.

mgearing

I rode this the last 2 years. Definitely not flat.

maddmaxx 

To summerize so far, it would appear that most of us ride in an area like mine and 1000 to 1500 ft of total climbing would be considered "normal" for a ride. The second largest group rides on what most of us would consider pool tables (and I have made note of these places and added them to my list of retirement options). There are a few however that routinely go the "mountain goat" route and my hat is off to you. If my rides looked that hard, I might be tempted to go into Downhill biking and let the truck take me to the top.

Having spent some time in Florida, I do get a kick out of those profiles where the local highway overpass is the "mountain".

Pamestique 

Actually about 4 years ago I did "Texas Hellweek" out of Fredericksberg (sp?) and I can tell you Texas is far from flat but... although the area was hilly, it not like the climbs you find out west. The one thing I did encounter that blew me away where going coming a corner and finding a short but steep grade that was almost undoable. Many were in the 18 - 20% range. I can't imagine a car can even drive up them if there's any ice or water on the road.

That being said, Texas is pretty flat in areas. I remember Dallas (my sister lived there 10 years) being rollyish but the area west of Austin to New Mexico is just flat, pancake flat!

Here's some "Hill Country" photos:


Like here's a "big" hill....

solveg

There was actually a study which proved Kansas was FLATTER than a pancake. I know the guardian is weird, but I remember when this first came out and I heard it on the radio, driving through Kansas.

https://www.guardian.co.uk/life/featu...048791,00.html

alexdrozd

You do not figure the angle of ascent by dividing 100 by 5280. By doing that you are just coming up with a ratio. You find the angle by dividing 100 by 5280 than it is the Invert Tangent of that number. Which is 1.085 degrees in this case. 500 feet per mile is 5.410 degrees. Remember trigonometry? 1000 feet is 10.724 degrees.

MTBLover

Ah- but then there's Manayunk! And there are some pretty good climbs in Wynnewood and Gladwynne (though nothing like Leverington- "The Wall"- in 'Yunk). But yeah, overall, we ain't San Francisco or western NC!

maddmaxx 

Most of us return to the starting point of a ride so we descend the same amount as climbed. On average this would double the grade as we actually do the climbing in about half the ride. The other half is the reward you get for the work.

Consularrider

Back Kansas and pancakes... If I remeber right the point was that a pancake wasn't really flat, but a series of ups and downs in the air pockets, so several of the "hilly" profiles could be considered flat as a pancake!

BlazingPedals

Hills aren't usually rated in degrees, they're rated in % of slope - which is a ration of rise/run. So yes, 100 over 5280 is proper usage. 100 feet per mile is 100/5280 = 1.89%. Depending on your method of measurement, a mile of hill might actually not be a mile horizontally (it might be measured along the hypotenuse) in which case you can feel free to exercise your trig table to find the true horizontal distance. The difference will be trivial, though.

solveg

(Yes, that was the point.... Shhhhh!)

alexdrozd

Thanks Blazing Pedals, I learned something new. I didn't realize that hills are rated in % of slope.

tcs

I was in Houston a few weeks ago and was reminded how flat that fun, wicked city is - but water does run off there. In parts of the Texas Panhandle, rain gathers in playas and sits until it evaporates rather than running off down a watershed. There's a place out between Dalhart and Dumas so flat that if you squint hard enough you can see yourself standing on the far horizon.

Around Dallas? Far from the hilliest part of the state, but I can take you on rides that would get most of you out of the saddle in your lowest gear. No big climbs, just little rollers. Nasty little rollers.

Best,
TCS

Fun fact: The 17% grade up to the McDonald Observatory above Ft. Davis, Texas, will take you to 100 feet higher than any point east of the Mississippi.

Kurt Erlenbach

You mean like this one? There are three bridges in this out and back ride. Can you find them?

stapfam

That measurement for Ventoux is in metres but as you start at 300 metres- the actual climb is only around 4,000ft. Some of that climb is steep- but at one point I hit the flat bit of 4.5% and actually felt that I was going downhill. It is not the severity of Ventoux that is a problem but 13 miles of continual climbing meant that I did know I had done a ride that day. I say that Ventoux is easy and it was-- once I got into the rhythm of climbing. Kept HR comfortable- Kept turning at the same cadence and was never tempted to get out of the lowest gear on the bike.

Just wish I had a map of the area where I trained for three days before the Ride. Some of those hills were steep- so that to me means in excess of 20%- but thankfully for only a mile or so at a time.

ken cummings

My vote for flat is the Death Valley by Moonlight ride that started at Furnace Creek Ranch. Starts near 0 elevation, drops 278 feet to Badwater then climbs back to 0' at the 48 mile turn-around. True flat would the the ride around Lake Okeechobee in Florida

Beverly

I have a variety of choices in my area. There are no mountains but there are quite a few river valleys that consist of short steep climbs, flat trails and tons of those long gradual grades of 1-3%. This is from one of the local sponsored rides just a few miles from my house.

stapfam

Now that sort of climbing is the type that would get most riders. May not seem as severe as a straight 15% for 1 mile and on paper it is not- but all those short climbs- then descent that breaks the rhythm- does not allow you to get into climbing mode. Then take the type of terrain and a loose slippery surface into consideration and you may realise why Road climbs do not bother me.

And on road climbs- Gearing does pay a factor. I know a lot of it is mental- as I found out when I went Compact from Triple- but try and climb in too high a gear and the knees and willpower will go before anything else.

roadiespinner

Where I live, we call "100 foot climbs" rollers.

cgallagh

"That measurement for Ventoux is in metres"
Sorry I missed the meter/foot translation stapfam. I should know better given my profession requires me to transpose those numbers often.

"And on road climbs- Gearing does pay a factor. I know a lot of it is mental- as I found out when I went Compact from Triple- but try and climb in too high a gear and the knees and willpower will go before anything else."

When I bought the Fuji, it came with an 11-23 cassette 50-36 in the front. I thought "no problem". Silly me. I took on a lot of hills in that thing and the more hills I rode the more pain was involved. I did both those climbs I attached but did not finish Mix. The last mile pitches up to 23% at the end. I stopped to get my heart rate somewhere near not leaping out of my chest, when a large dog came out of a drive way. When I stopped going down to avoid this canine, I found my self 3/4 mile from where I last stopped and decided no more climbing that day. I just put a 12-27 on the back and will try again. We are doing a 66 miler today with some pretty fair climbs and I will report back.

BillK

Well...I went to toporoute.com and gave it a try. While I liked the "follow road" feature, the site wouldn't allow me to save the resulting .png topo map (might need to subscribe). But I was able to learn that you start at ~30ft, with a high point of just over 90ft and a low point of ~0...so pretty flat.