Various postings on average speed or the speed attained for 10 miles in a pace line- but what sort of terrain do you ride?

I am at Heart a mountain biker and if you saw the hills that are only 6 miles away from where I live- You could be too. They are the South Downs and that is a Chalk ridge that runs along the South Coast of the UK.

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About 4 years ago I took up Road riding and it was still those Downs that got me. Lots of roads cross the Downs (Why they call them the downs is still a misnomer as you have to go up the downs to get the benefit of them) All start at around sea level and the Max climb is only 850ft. Most around 10% but going up from there with the basket being 16%.I can get in a 5 mile flat ride to the Downs- then 20 miles with 3,000ft of climbing and a gentle cool down time to make a ride of 30---Or it can be extended to as many miles as you like with as many hills as you want. Once when really fit I did 65 miles to Ditchling Beacon. and got in 7,000ft of climbing- but none of it more than 800ft at a time. But that 7,000 ft came in about 40 miles. The rest was flattish.

Ditchling by the way is on the London To Brighton ride and is the one hill on the route. Plenty of walkers amongst the 33,000 riders though.

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Or I can get in flat rides over the marshes Name the milage and I can do up to 100 miles with only 50 ft per mile average climb. OR I can go North if I want punishment. All back roads with little traffic but it is Short steep rises that take it out of me- No flat bits and you always seem to be climbing

So what sort of rides do you have in your locality?

My training rides depart from my work place, Moccasin CA. We are near Yosimite. I have three rides to pick from but the one I can recall is 32 miles, 3500 elevation gain, short grades of 13-15%. We do it in less than two hours, usually averaging about 15.5 MPH. Ride number two is 2 miles of 15% grade. Ride #3 is 32 miles, 4500'. I have recently started riding, after a 15 hiatus. I lived in the Central Valley where flat riding was the only choice. I have to say that the elevation I deal with now has made me stronger than my younger years in the valley. We also have top notch MTB trails here, one is about 35 miles long combine fireroads and single track along a canal.

Saturday's ride was 96 miles, 8500'.

Eric

Sounds good Eric! My Saturday ride was 101 miles and 9,400 feet of climbing!

Yes, I like to climb, on road or mountain bikes, but mostly on the road. So many good climbs around here: Glendora Mountain Road to Glendora Ridge Road to Mt. Baldy Village is one of my favorites.

Then we have Angeles Crest (Hwy 2), Angeles Forest and all the canyons in that area. Not to mention the Santa Monica mountains, the Climb to Onyx Summit . . . the list goes on.

And then there are all the climbs off Hwy 395: Mt. Whitney, White Mountain, Old Sherwin Grade, Dead Man's Summit, Sage Hen . . . all good and most at high altitude.

Yes Stapfam, I prefer to climb and descend and find flat land rather boring, actually.

Rick / OCRR

I am a roadie but my area does have area lot of really great trails for technical mountain bikers. For us roadies there are beautiful lakes, rivers, forests and mountains here. Climbs of all types and lengths, rail trails and rolling terrain.

That's an excellent question, so much so that I was going to start a thread on it myself.

The local bike club grades rides on terrain rather than speed, with a few exceptions. The ratings are something like this:
1 - 0-25'/mile. Flat.
2 - 25-50'/mile. Rolling.
3 - 50-75'/mile. Hilly.
4 - 75-100'/mile. Nasty.
4+ - >100'/mile. Might as well be mountain biking.

Most of my rides are in the 40-60'/mile range. Riding on the flats is a treat and doesn't insult me in the slightest. Unfortunately the only place that is flat locally is downtown and I don't care much for urban riding.

My most severe road bike rides are around 90'/mile, and I'm pretty beat after them.

There are no sustained climbs to help the numbers here. The highest is about 375' at around 15% grade.

One of our OCD hammerheads actually tabulated every single worthy hill within 50 miles of here. I reckon I've climbed about ten of them. Here is the site if anyone is interested: https://www.louisvillebicycleclub.org/climbs2.htm

I miss terrain with variety so bad my teeth hurt.

I currently live (and as long as I'm married I guess I will) in the Low Country around Savannah, GA.

During autumn and spring we get some really nice winds that act like invisible hills. Right now it's the humidity and (today especially) the heat that are the challenges I face. December through mid-March we can have such splendid weather I really miss a climb to humble me. It seems almost sinful to ride in such nice conditions.

I tend to like the rolling countryside nearby, but there are long pan-flat routes available to me as well.

I live downtown in a city of about half a million people. The most prominent feature of the city is 100-150m high escarpment that runs right through the middle of town. I say "prominent" because pretty much every route I choose involves climbing it. There are lots of different routes to climb it, with different characteristics. One is only a single km long and has 10-15% grades. Another is an 8km long former railroad track and has a grade of about 3%.

In 2003, I got to watch Erik Zabel, Robbie McEwan, Victor Hugo Pena and 150 of their friends and enemies climb it 40 times during the World Road Race championship. Some doper named Astarloza won it.

Road, MTB, hills, flats, I just ride!

Crystal Lake


video


Potato Mtn (MTB)


video

GMR (as mentioned by Rick@OCRR)


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And lots of this on the weekends with the wife and friends

Hills and mountains when I'm in northwest Arkansas, flat ground and humidity when I'm in central Louisiana, as I am now.

Northern Sonoma County, CA. Lot of bumps around here.

Hey Beanz,

Missed you on The Bear this year.

Were you there?

Rick / OCRR

Nope, not this year, had too much other stuff going on, not enough training, daughter's wedding in AZ, Parents 50th anniversary, I'm broker than broke now! Saving it al for 2011, hopefully the TC and BA (need to better my time)

I didn't realize you did it again this year. Looks like you used it as a recovery ride, crazy doubles rider!

We live in hilly terrain. Generally, a flatter ride is 50 feet per mile. Most of the rides that climb Skyline are 75 feet per mile and rides to the coast are 100 feet per mile. We have the Skyline Ridge which runs down the middle of the peninsula. The elevation varies from 1400 to 2100 vertical feet.

WHen I first moved to the area, we looked at clubs to join. One of them was the Western Wheelers. They have a fairly complex way of rating rides as shown here. https://www.westernwheelers.org/main/.../ride_info.htm

Much is based on one's ability to climb Old La Honda which is a 3.3 mile 7.2% average grade. I find their rating / speed table "representative". Depending on who shows up for rides the average speed can be up or down.

We did not join them and instead joined a racing club.

Generally 100ft gain per mile here in W. Pa. You can find a flat ride if you try but the hills are pretty hard to avoid. Hey, the street I live on is 12% so ending my ride from home is always a challenge.

Rolling hills, some quite steep, but not too many long climbs unless I travel (which I have normally been doing this summer.) I hardly ever get to settle into a groove. Up and down and around and back up and down again. Just the way I like it

I'm right on the edge of the Springfield Plateau so the terrain varies from relatively flat/moderately rolling to way rolling to the Ozark Mountains, depending quite literally on what direction I go when I leave the house. There is no such thing as a 3+ mile climb anywhere within reasonable riding distance of the house, its normally fairly short and sometimes steep, or at least what feels like steep to me.

That is an apt description for southwestern wi.

Mr. Beanz-great videos!

Thanks!

I'm a roadie and ride exclusively the hills of Montgomery and Grimes country. Nothing steep compared to Colorado but rollers. I can't stand riding flats.

Speaking of Colorado if I'm not riding locally I can be found in Boulder Colorado riding with good friends that reside there. I try to make it into Boulder a couple of times a month...working for an airline has it's perks.

Sarge

Not a lot of choices around here: flat to gently rolling to the north and east, and mountains to the west. Nothing much in between. (South there's only US97 - wouldn't even THINK about riding that. It's bad enuf in a car!)

SP
Bend, OR

I retired to northwestern Montana after spending most of my career on the east coast (I'm west of Glacier National Park). I'm in the middle of a 2.2 million acre forest and my favorite rides are on unpaved forest roads. It's fairly hard to find flat areas here. Here's a sample of the forest roads that I enjoy riding. You do have to stay alert to wildlife, especially bears and mountain lions. (I live between 2 grizzly/black bear habitats.)

I live on the Fall Line in Georgia or the transition from the Coastal Plain (formerly under the ocean) to the Piedmont region of rolling hills. There are quite a few ridges of hills all around giving way to the flatlands to the southeast or the mountains to the northwest. Most of the local hills are short and steep. The longest climbs are under 2 miles. There are some flat rides along the ridge tops, but most routes are gently to moderately rolling. Others are full of hills too steep to carry speed up from the previous downhill. There are plenty of well paved rural roads with light traffic and also a great network of unpaved roads. The mountain biking is classic east coast with lots of tight, twisty, rooty climbs amongst the trees.