Ok guys need some advice. I'm a flat lander (South Florida) so a "climb" to me is about 100 yards up a steep drawbridge. In June I'm going to Virginia for 2 days of climbing in one spot then on to the Virginia Bike Tour which is about 60 miles per day with 1000-4000 feet of climbing per day for 3 days. I have a compact crank and will swap out my 11/23 cassette. Should I consider swapping the cranks and go with a standard? Secondly, what cassette would you recommend? I'm thinking a 12/30 since that's about all I seem to find.

Thanks!

Why would you go with a bigger crank for more climbing? Keep your compact. A standard crank would be of more use where you live, not where you're going.

How steep are the grades? Maybe you don't need a 12-30, but could use an 11-28 or 12-27 instead.

Not sure about the grades yet as the routes aren't final. The Sunday solo ride ranges from 8% to 15% with a few switchbacks of 15%+ for short stretches. The route was part of a mountain time trial in the old Tour DuPont. I rode it a few years ago with a 11/28 and wished I'd had another gear but I'm a stronger rider now so 11/28 might be an option.

What rear derailleur is on the bike?

Ultegra 10 speed

Well, the 30 will give you a bailout gear in case you're really tired.

I did that for rides in Tennessee. Worked out fine.

Think I had a 12-32

We had one short 22 % hill.

I made it up.

Which by day 3 or 4 will most likely be needed. The nice thing about the Va Bike Tour is they have 3 route options each day with varying amounts of climbing etc. It's going to be hard to train to prepare for it without doing bridge repeats for about 4 hours a day

Keep the compact, a standard would only make it worse. No advice on the cassette.

Do you have a power meter? Hills require lots of power, usually for longer than a sprint. That's mostly all there is to it though. That and not getting discouraged.

I live in a VERY flat place, but what we lack in climbs we make up for with wind. I do force intervals - turn into the headwind on 50x11, stay seated, and just turn the pedals. A lot of people here use the wind for that. The wind here is sometimes referred to as "Dutch Mountains." Give it a try.

Improve your climbing by improving your FTP (functional threshold power) by doing 2x20' intervals. You can do them on flat roads with a headwind. Simulate climbing by sitting up on the tops or hoods as you would on a climb and push a big gear.

[on edit: What K. Katso said]

We got winds that's for sure. Winter in south Florida is the windy season. Great advice, thanks!

No power meter just my Garmin Edge 510 to monitor heart rate etc. I'll never get discouraged, the last time I climbed a mountain (the one I'll do Sunday) I had no shame in walking a few switchbacks when it was like 20%

The 12-30 usually works with an Ultegra short cage, but it does exceed the rated capacity. A 11-28 or 12-27 always works well with this derailleur if the chain is sized correctly.

Compact with 12-30 is about as good as you are going to get unless you swap the crank for a triple and get a new front derailleur.

Virginia isn't that hilly, it's just hilly compared to FLA.... I think the cassette you'd feel the best with is an 11-32 or if you have a long cage RD that can run one, an 11-34.... or just buy a new long cage RD that can handle the bigger cassettes..The new shimano 105 5800 can, I know that... and have your wrench put it on and lengthen your chain a link or two and get it running super smooth...

but it's kind of hard to make reco's w/o knowing your level of fitness in terms of climbing... If you really haven't climbed anything in a good while, I'd say being over geared is better than being under geared... meaning, better to have those extra gears and not need em' than vice versa....

I'd also run a compact 50-34 crank if you have one...

How much do you weigh now, how much did you weigh at your lightest as an adult, how steep are the climbs (8% with 15% switch-backs), how long are the climbs (unspecified), do you have a training plan with hard (3-4 x 7-10 minutes as hard as possible is good, 2x20 still works well) intervals, what's your current weekly riding volume in hours and miles, and do you fatigue abnormally soon when your cadence drops to 50-60 RPM?

Depending on the answers 39x23 may be more than you need or 34x30 insufficient.

I liked my 30x21 (like 34x23 or 39x26) low gear for Grand Junction to Golden covering 418 miles and 28,000 feet in a week.

OTOH, with 70 pounds of middle age spread I needed a 30 ring where a 50 would do using the same cog. Riding at the same fraction of one-hour power with the same cadence would take a 24x30 low gear where 30x21 is enough when I'm in better shape.

I live in the Appalachian mountains and run a 50/34 up front and an 11/32 in the rear. The 32 is when you are really tired. Your suggestion of a 12/30 will be fine but keep the compact chainring.

If its a short cage then you can only go upto 28t at the back supposedly. The long cage can do 28+

With your 10 speed, of course you cannot use the 11 speed 5800 derailleur mentioned earlier. If your Ultegra derailleur is the later 6700A version, it is designed for the 30t cassette. In actual practice, the earlier ones generally will work with 30t. SS or GS (long or short cage) doesn't matter, they have the same large sprocket size. You can still easily get the Tiagra 12-30 for about $20. They work well. Get a new chain too.

Best thing you can do is improve power. Treat the headwind as the climb. I did Road Titans (3 days, 100mile each, about 10k climbing/day) with a bunch of guys from Miami & they did just fine - very strong riders.

I haven't read any of the other posts, so I'm sorry if this is redundant.

I moved from Miami to hilly (not mountains, but rollers) Durham, NC. If you have compact crank you probably only NEED a 25, but 28 would probably be better depending on your legs. 11 or 12 is personal preference. I would rather have a 12 with closer gearing up top and just coast down when I get to where I would've needed an 11 (not racing though more of a fondo/group ride recommendation).

For practice go zone 5+ (not all out sprint but something in between) for 30 seconds to 1 min and High z4/z5 2-5 minute intervals and then z2 in between. If you will be on rollers only you will need to be somewhere between aerobic and anaerobic. If they are longer climbs you'll probably need z4. I'll give you an example using my wattage. I still struggle on the hills even though the groups I ride with are "easy" on the flats. We probably hold around 130-160 on the flats, then for short rollers 280-350 watts, and slightly longer hills 200-300 watts (B'ish A-ish winter pace). Don't get caught up in the numbers. I'm just trying to show you how the groups around here LOVE to surge on hills. It killed me at first and I don't want that to happen to you. Closest thing I can compare it to down south is a sprint, and lots of them! Practice the sprints with different cadences some around 75 RPM's depending on what cassette you go with.

Just saw mention of buying a cassette. You can get a tiagra 10 speed for $15 from Merlin 12-28 or 11-25 https://www.merlincycles.com/shimano...tte-61919.html

The first part of this is good advice! I don't think working on your FTP will be good enough unless you are riding solo and are going to stick to your z2/3 regardless of flat or hill. The second part of what Drew says is greek to me so I don't know if its good or bad advice . I also like the advice on "dutch hills." I don't think you have to use wind though. You can do the intervals anywhere you'll just go faster assuming you don't run out of gears and can't reach the right zone.

Just a note. I noticed you are using HR and not power. Remember that it takes longer for your HR to respond to a change in effort. You need to practice that so you aren't going too hard at first pulling your HR up and then blowing up. You'll need to learn what z4/5 feels like so you can get there before your heart rate tells you you are there. Does that make sense?

Keep the compact and go with an 11-30/32 or even 34. This flatlander with bad knees has appreciated having easy spinning big gears on the cassette when I have ridden out west. There's really not much of a down side to going too large on the back.

There's a huge potential downside - you no longer have tightly spaced gears many of us appreciate on flat terrain.

Crossing the Continental Divide that wouldn't be an issue - none of the next 400 miles will be flat.

Riding near a coast where you cross mountains to ride flat terrain it would be sub-optimal.