Jack99

Hi All -

My wife and I are casual cyclists (small "hills", relatively flat, 6-8 miles/ride) and are signed up for our first "official ride", Bike New York's Discover Hudson Valley ride. We registered for the 33 mile ride. We've done a few "training" rides 20-30 miles on flat rail trails and canal path. Our concern is the posted elevation gain for the route we signed up for, 1764 feet over 33 miles. I understand what elevation gain is but have no concept of 1764 ft over 33 miles. I know it's all relative but... Is that a lot? Like on a scale of 1-10, one being flat and 10 being don't even try on a bike, where would that fall?

Our plan-B is to do the shorter 15 mile "family" ride which has a gain of 871 ft. Which still sounds like a lot to me.

Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hokiedad4

Jack99, you're smarter than me. I'm signed up for the 55-mi route with nearly 3000 ft of climb. My routine rides are along the beach in NJ, so I'm equally unprepared.

Little Darwin

I regularly ride an 8.5 mile ride with 500 feet of elevation gain, so your total gain (relative) is a lesser slope. The bigger issue is whether all of that climbing is in 2 or 3 big climbs instead of the slow gradual climb that I do. Mine is a gently sloping rail trail... with an almost continual slope.

My 2 rules of climbing:

1) Take your time

2) There is no rule in bicycle racing that requires riders to not push their bikes up hills... therefore, I don't hold myself to any macho rule about not walking... Why hold myself to a higher standard than the pros do? There is no shame in walking.

daryou

I'm a newbie. So my question is; how is elevation gain calculated? Up hill minus downhill or only up hill?

Hokiedad4

The ride starts and ends in the same place, so they're just counting the elevation increases. The net increase is zero.

DrIsotope

It's not about the total feet climbed, IMO, it's the nature of those climbs. There's the long, 1-2% slow grades, where you only pick up 30-40 feet per mile, and then there's the mean ones, when you might gain 100ft in 800 yards. I looked up the Ride With GPS plot from a few years back, and it looks like there are some pretty steep sections-- and to me, "pretty steep" is any grade approaching double digits. Luckily, you won't have to suffer climbs very long-- I didn't see a climb, even in the century ride, with uninterrupted ascents longer than 2 miles. You will likely want to get in some hill practice before the event, just so you don't get to the first 6-7% climb and just want to pack it in.