fholt

I was shopping for a century or two to do before the end of the year, and came across the "Nantahala Nightmare" scheduled for November 5 in Western NC. According to the elevation map attached to the flyer https://www.noc.com/events_tournany.html - it looks like they're gaining 1805 feet in 3.7 miles - which I figure at 9.2%. Add that this is >75 miles into the ride, and it looks like a sure killer. On the other hand, it does look like it's all downhill from there - literally.

Anybody done this ride? I've never heard of it

nova

Dont know but id love to ride that route backwards heh
I was looking at some roads near where my sister lived in kentucky theres one stretch of about 75 miles that avrages grade 8 with sections that are grade 12 to 22 all down hill litterly for 75 miles of nice long curves. Best part is theres not many cross roads. In other words very possible to do a century all down hill. Hmm a century ride that you never have to pedal on. Corse the breaks would probably need replaced 4 times during the run heh.

watchman

Yeah that is right, I'm guesing that is on the Cherohala Skyway?? But if not, there are plenty of roads in that area with that kind of gradiant. I just looked at the link, looks like the steep part is going up to wyah bald, I've done that road, not all that bad really. Beautiful area if you haven't been there.

BikeWNC

Last year was the first for this century. There are more hills than are represented by the elevation profile. The route is as follows. From the NOC follow Rt 19 up the Nantahala River to Hwy 129 to Robbinsville. Turn rt on NC 143 up to Stecoah Gap and then down to NC 28. Take a rt on 28 to Franklin, NC and Wayah Rd. Up over Wayah Gap (on the steep east side) then mostly down with a couple of climbs back to 19 and down the river to the NOC. I would say the steepest part of the climb up Wayah Gap is at least 10% for over a mile. It's a nice ride but be prepared for a cool morning start.

SSP

Yep...that works out to a 9.28% grade, according the the Climbing Calculator in my CycliStats training diary software (example below).

If you can average 6 mph, the climb will take you 37 minutes, which would give you a rate of climb of 2,927 feet per hour (a respectable climbing rate, BTW).

krazyderek

no offence to anyone, and maybe it's just that i haven't done any climbing tours yet (planning on doing the cabot trails next year 300k of mountain roads) but we have a 0.7km 10% hill that i train on one and a while, and it usualy takes me 4 or 5 passe's to wear myself down to a steady "give up" pace of 60 cadence on 42x25, which is 12km/h or 7.5 mph, and i mean that's really my "what the hell was i thinking going so fast the first 4 times"-dead pace... if i were trying to do a steady pace up a 10% climb that was 3 miles or something in the middle of a century i'd probably try to aim for 16km/h to try and keep my cadence up in the high 70's, but also just to get it over with, i mean there's "to fast" but there's also "to slow" a speed that if you go under, you're just prolonging the effort to the point where it's really getting counter-energy saving.
Just my 2 cents

johnny99

I agree that single digit grades aren't too bad, especially if the grade is steady (stairs are a little more exciting). If you're not used to real climbing, the biggest secret is learning to pace yourself. Try to keep your HR below your LT, especially in the first half of the climb. If you're feeling strong at the half way point, you can try to drop your buddies if you want. Pushing too hard at the bottom of the hill is an easy way to blow up and embarass yourself.

TheKillerPenguin

Come to the catskills. We have platte clove above 10% avg. for 2 miles with parts over 20%