rangerdavid

Here's a you tube on these guys trying to ride stage 16 of the Tour, which is a ton of climbing. One did well, the other DNF'd.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35lH2...1B422C&index=5





climbing in mountains makes you a better climber.

svtmike

The bigger guy looks like he weighs about 250. That's a really tough climbing assignment but I bet he's awesome to draft on the flats.

banerjek

I did that ride a few years ago. Descents didn't seem that difficult as grades are not bad and the roads are good as well as straight so you barely need your brakes. What makes that ride tough is the length. Long descents through steep switchbacks on crappy surfaces are considerably more tiring.

I agree it's normally not a problem. But if you're spending the day climbing and descending, it can be an issue. I haven't done any serious climbing on a bike since August. In all honesty, I don't miss it. A couple steeps here and there is fun. I'm starting to question the suffering thing.

Easy to do on flats and light inclines. Not so easy on steeper grades.

Gallo

I will chime in on 19 percent not being a problem. For me anyway it is a HUGE problem. My toughest climb I have ever done was on La Pinarello. The accent up Mt Grappa broke me like an egg in a room full of swinging sledgehammers. Salto di Capra or Jump the Goat is a 9 kilometer climb at 11 percent with 20 percent max areas and as far as i am concerned is a wall with asphalt on it. The total accent of Mt Grappa is 6.7 percent over 19 kilometers and was a brutal climb.

being from San Diego I climbed Japutal and Palomar in preparation as well as local training miles. Got some climbing in Lago di Garda up from Bardolino right before the event and barley survived Mt Grappa. Grappa is the foothills of the Alps not even the real deal.

Climbing even when prepared is always a challenge for me

rebel1916

19% is a problem for every mortal. Well, except for people with active imaginations on the interwebs

ericm979

It's trying to maintain a deep aero tuck for every descent that makes them hard. If you sit up it's cake; they're easy albeit fast descents. But if I sit up I get dropped or get caught by the guys I just dropped. Not what I want in a race. It used to really chap my hide to spend the last 45 minutes of a climb reeling in some guys and then losing them again on the descent. Now that I'm faster on the descents I can use them to drop people or at least make them work more to catch me.

What? Heresy!

Actually by the time EC comes around I am looking forward to just riding around. That's why I don't race cross.

merlinextraligh

I don't hink we disagree that much. There's no doubt that the best way to get better at riding mountains is riding mountains. My point is that if you don't have ready access to sustained climbs you can still do a lot to improve your ability to climb by working on your threshold power.

Living in Florida, where it's a 7 hour drive to real mountains, my approach in getting ready for races like Everest Challenge, is to do a lot of work on threshold power, work on core strength, do some time on the trainer with the front wheel propped up to mimic a climbing position, and make as many weekend trips to the mountains as possible.

Taking this back to the OP's quetion, he can absolutely do reasonably well in a event like Blood Sweat and Gears with little or no time in the Mountains, but it will be helpful if can do some riding in similar terrain before hand.

RedHerring

I would make the drive. You need to do some real climbing before you tackle a 100 miles of hills.

banerjek

I don't have a comfort issue maintaining the tuck. But I don't like riding in the praying mantis position at high speed for control reasons -- hit anything, develop a shimmy, or whatever, and you're screwed. I'll get in the position except hands stay on the drops which costs a couple mph so people who are serious about speed get by me. I've seen too many really bad crashes, and over the years, I've hit holes, developed shimmies, and had front tires go down over 40mph but I've always stayed up *knock* *knock*

Hillbasher

this

Rowan

I move my arse back over the saddle an inch or so and take my weight off and use my legs as good ol' shock absorbers. In some ways, I feel in better control on the drops speeding downhill. Moving too far forward can make the bike feel twitchier than it might already be.

Plus inside pedal up on corners...

JimF22003

I don't think all "mountain" climbs are the same either, and require adjustments to technique. I've done a few of the long western 6%-for-10-mile climbs that really are pretty similar to riding a flat route, only slower. You just find a gear and keep going till you finish.

With the Eastern hills I'm more familiar with, there's a lot more technique involved -- when to sit or stand when the pitch changes for a short section, what line to take on a sharp switchback, how to handle the short but insanely steep 17-18% sections where you're pretty sure you're going to fall over, and worry if you'll be able to clip out in time. I don't think there's any real flat-land substitute for experience on these types of climbs.

Bob Dopolina 

+1.

It really does make a difference. I find it very hard to climb here because of the VERY technical nature of all vertical. There is no 'settling into a gear' which greatly increases both the impact of technique and of being familiar with the climb thereby being able to time work and recovery.

You can't learn that glued to a PM spinning away in your living room.

banerjek

Next you'll be saying you can't practice descending without hills.

Just elevate your rear wheel on the trainer, crank up the fan to full blast, get in an aero tuck, and brake/coast/steer just like you would on a real incline. The movement is the identical.

mike12

I promised an update so here it is. I have been riding about 200 miles/month since I originally asked this question with about 1/4 of the miles on mountain bike trails. Today I took the bike to the closest mountain (hill???) around. This mountain has about 1,000 foot gain over 7 miles on one side and the same gain over 6 miles on the other side. I rode a total of 52 miles with Strava showing 4,445 elevation gain. My Bontrager node 2 did something funny today so I can't compare Strava's elevation to the Bontrager's.

Anyway, I was slow at 14.7 mph, but I was able to hit the 4k elevation gain and 50 total mile total which is what I set out to do. I'm doing an event next weekend that has very similar distance and elevation gain so I should be OK for the event. I guess this means you can train for small mountains by riding flat lands. However, I bet my time would have been much better if I'd ridden in these conditions more. It's just hard for me to find time to haul the bike when I can jump on and ride from my house.