late

It's nothing impressive, but my big climb was over some mountain to get to Gubbio. Switchbacks were fun on the way down.

EvilGoodGuy

My longest climb was 25km @ 6% to 10%. The majority of it is around 8%. I try to ride it once a week after the snow clears, ussually in early June. Even in the summer, it's quite a bit colder near the top. It's by far my favorite ride. There is something different about doing a nice long climb.

ken cummings

My longest climb was from 7,800 feet in Bergen Park to 14,260 feet atop Mt. Evans. The biggest ride I had ever done. The next day I made the mistake of doing my first Century, did not eat or drink any where near enough, and had to walk the last 5 miles. Had to stay off the bike for weeks to recover.

Ritterview

Well, have you signed up for this year?

brockbankslc

Big Cottonwood Canyon east of Salt Lake City

SSP

I lead a ride nearly every year around Mt. Lassen, here in northern California. It's 105 miles, with nearly 10,000 feet of climbing.

The main climb is 50 miles of steady up, with about 8000 feet of elevation gain:


But it's worth it for the scenery...including the chance some years to ride between 20 foot high snowbanks:


This year, I'll be leading this ride on Sunday, June 6th. PM me if you're interested.

big john

I did this, too, but I had a harder time than Beanz did because I had nausea for the last few miles of the climb. I was still tired the next weekend.

Ritterview

It is >10,000 feet, in more like 35 miles, and it is relentless. There are climbs of greater than 10,000 feet, but not in less than 35 miles. Simple enough to do. Just arrange a trip to Maui and contact Donnie at Go Cycling Maui.

Nachoman

SAme here.

dark13star

Without detail, it is hard to know if that was actually climbing, or just elevation gain. You could do that elevation gain with rollers on a ride of that length and not even feel them. In my opinion, it is not a climb, if you can see the top. Climbs are something that you have to commit to, and work for extended time to make it up.

As another poster mentioned, a 7% climb is likely to have some steeper sections that will challenge you. Clearly, the best way to practice is to climb, but intense intervals will help too.

Not sure about my longest climb. Here is Colorado they are all long and lacking in oxygen. I love climbing.

icyclist 

SSP wrote:

> This year, I'll be leading this ride on Sunday, June 6th. PM me if you're interested.<

What's that date, again? Sunday, the 6th?!? Looks like a great ride.

c50jim

There seem to be three separate streams in this thread.

To the OP: I've not ridden those climbs but have ridden a lot in the mountains of Europe. I've done similar amounts of climbing in one day on routes of similar grade. I'd recommend that you go with at least one gear lower than you would for a single short climb. The cumulative impact of a lot of kilometres will make you happy you have the lower gear somewhere along the way. Pacing is also critical. If you hit the first climb too hard, you may not make it to the second, let alone the third. At my current age (57), I'd be using a 34-29 for that route, although I did similar stuff five years ago with a 39-29.

@Machka: Highwood is long but not very steep. I've done it from both sides with normal road gearing (in fact, I think I only used a 39-23 the last time I did it from Longview, although I used a 34-23 from Kananaskis Village last year). I plan to be out there with my son next weekend, probably from Kananaskis, in preparation for a trip to Italy the following week.

And yes, Haleakala is probably the longest continuous single climb in north America. 10,023 feet is hard to top.

icyclist 

Ritterview wrote:

>Well, have you signed up for this year?<

Last time I rode the Climb to Kaiser was 2002, when I was a young man.

The year before I gave myself two weeks to prepare, with about 20,000 feet of climbing, and 360 miles of riding. I survived, barely. I got back in the dark, the chicken from the finishers' dinner was long gone, and about four riders out of 200 were behind me.

Next year, I gave myself six weeks, 870 miles, and 72,000+ feet of climbing to prepare. Without hurrying, I cut more than two hours off the time of the previous year, and finished about 100 out of 200 riders.

How many weeks before this year's ride?

jaxgtr

People actually climb hills on a bike? , I just have bridges and parking garages to work with here, but I have about 1/2 mile loops over the one bridge I can ride over and 7 stories in a parking garage which is about 750 ft total including the roof

Machka 

That's normal for just about any thread.



Good to know ... long I can deal with all right. Steep I have a bit of trouble with.

mattm

30km, ~1000m of elevation gain - that was actually only one of the three passes we did that day, but it was the hardest one i think - stevens pass might have been longer, maybe 50km for 1000m gain? needless to say it was a long day.

(this blewett pass coming from cle elum, on Seattle Rando's "Three Pass 400k" brevet)

this july i'll be doing the RAMROD, 150 mi & 10k feet of gain.

roy5000x2

Let's see. My longest climb would be up Powder River Pass in Wyoming. I believe my starting position for the day was at 2000ft, did who know how many feet to the base of the climb, then rode the roughly 25 mile long climb up to almost 10,000ft.



Of course, after reaching the top, I still remember there being one 5 mile climb, and a few 2 mile climbs. That was a hard 100 mile day.

dark13star

I hate to rain on your climb, but that is not possible. The lowest elevation in Wyoming is 3,099' and it is quite far from there. I think the standard elevation gain over that pass is something around 5,000', but it may be a bit more. It is still quite a climb, but you were probably around 4,500' when you started.

neospazzy

https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/5231429

Azusa Canyon Road. 15mi straight up with 4,500+ ft of elevation gain with 6.5-24+% grade. We had to turn around due to black ice hazard. Descending at speeds close to 40mph (my record was 45mph here) was a reward in itself. Be aware of the cliffs ...

Cleave

Hi,

This is pretty much the longest climb that I've done:



This is going up Highway 39 in SoCal past Crystal Lake up to Highway 2 (Angeles Crest). It's not the hardest climb that I've done nor is it the most climbing I've done in a day.

I did a race up this road back in the 1980s. It was fun, I placed (7th, I think) but I never got my prize.

valygrl

i did that pass fully loaded. it was the hardest day of my cross country trip, although i only did 41 miles.

TOLOCOMan

It's really a very easy climb. Nowhere near as difficult as a couple of the climbs on the Icefields Parkway. About the only thing that gets the heart racing is the fact that I have run into grizzlies on the road about 2/3's of the times I've ridden it. I would think there is most likely some new snow at the pass with all this rain we have been having lately.

skinnyone

12 miles, 2000 ft of elev gain or so. Prob 3-4% ave grade. Kancamagus hwy from Lincoln to the top. Wanna do the descent down to Passaconway and back this year. Lets see.

Stallionforce

Oh up over the Coquihalla from Hope to Merritt and then from Merritt to Westbank on the 97C. The connector absolutely destroyed me, 460km in total from Vancouver to Kelowna in one day. Never again. It's not fun to take off your bibs and see pickled onions.

...on to the next topic...