BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Awww man, that looks like fun, and it's on my birthday

And the charity looks less likely to conflict with my ethics

Jeepers, that looks like painful fun.

that piccolo route is all me.

I lived in that area for a short spell. Totally gorgeous. Would love to go back.

If there is a carpool I am down. I have not ridden the DD yet, but their elevation profile spreads out the climbs over a number of miles - not feet. It will make a good training target, and maybe I will prep by trying the 48x18 on Shaler St. and Sycamore. Or at least work in some mega hills on a geared bike.

Is anyone going to ride this for time?

Ditto on the car pool

dunno P-Rob, the grades remind me of 18th street (8% to 16%), several dozen times, back to back to back.

My 55X22 would work, and you have time to build that dream single speed...

Here is an 8,000 ft climbing route over 55 mi that you can get without venturing more than 3 mi from Highland Park.

I'll keep this event in mind for later in the season... thanks for mentioning it DMT.

holy schlit Quizbot!! that is some hill love. 4800 calories is one heck of a workout!! That is awesome. And 48 mph would be cool too!

Did you figure out how to set the lap start/stop by physical location? I have the 500 but have not really explored the lap functions. Or did you set it for every 5 mile interval?

Shaler St is on the backside of Mt Washington and real close to me. The problem is that riding down it I cannot let go of the brakes since the road is so very bad at the bottom and along the way. And the intersection is bad. It does offer a 400 foot climb.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/85060884

If I ever do it 17 times, I might be ready for that rando!!

I might focus on this route along Route 51. The "run-out" at the bottom is great in that you can let'er rip without brakes. I would just turn around and ride the humps over again.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/89406868

I am totally in for this ride if we can get a group together to do some training rides. I have not put many miles on since the ms 150 and have been looking for a group. Anyone up for a Tuesday or Thursday, or both group ride to train for this sweet thang?!?!?!?

When we did each dirty dozen hill 4x we got

17,000 feet in 90 miles. I think there is a

strong correlation to between riding up a hill

a bunch of times and having a large elevation

gain.

Im pretty sure this gran fondo would be a

lot more peaceful and beautiful than

kitanning pike

@steevo - DDx4 is the stuff of legend. Who else was on that ride? Have you ever done more climbing in a single day? My suffering through Kittanning Pike repeats is in preparation for Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier, and Alpe d'Huez on July 11 (around 11,000 ft total over 70 mi). Training for that... I need to use the tools in the shed, and KP is a good local option. Hopefully the payoff will be peaceful & beautiful as well.

@P-Rob - I just set the gps for 5 mi laps. You can definitely get a good head of steam on the descent, but you need to watch for 2 intersections on the way down (Maurers & Oakhurst). Also: deer & groundhogs. Shaler St is new to me... will need to check that out.

4x DD = me, chew, and his friend john.1dnf

I will post the gps for "stigs loop" its is a 55 mile route through fox chapel and the north that has like 6000' of climbing and is

really good riding.

I would like to think that when doing the

great divide mountain bike route, I may

have climbed more. I have no idea of

knowing, but we averaged 90 miles a day

traversing the the continental divide

If you want a DIY ride closer to home with a similar elevation profile and distance, this was pretty fun:

http://ridewithgps.com/routes/424967

ctrl-f "stigs loop" found!

@quizbot: That sounds like an awesome trip.

One tip that isn't readily apparent until you've experienced similar things: Doing our short steep hills is ok training for those long hills, but going consistently hard for longer periods of time on flat roads is better.

I guess a person does need the mental courage to not care about any amount of steepness. The thing that is harder is the consistent effort needed for those long climbs, as opposed to the few minutes up kittaning then resting while you come back down.

That ride up to mt. davis has a few sections that are great like that.

oh and never look up!

@Aaron - I was on Etape last year too... 15,000 climb over 114 mi, finishing on Tourmalet in the Pyrenees (about a 12 mi climb @ 7.5%). I did 6 or 7 centuries to prep for that, and had a very difficult day especially toward the end. This time, I changed tactics & focused less on distance & more on climbing...the Kittanning Pike repeats are essentially 10 min intervals at close to lactic threshold for me... I know it's not consistently arduous, but I'm hoping the plan works... we'll see how it goes!

Holy cow, these are some strong leg conversations. It's cool to think that we have routes like the DD and that Mt Davis century loop nearby to train for/on. I wont be here this year for T-Giving, so perhaps I should try the DD route as training to see where I am at on the mega hill ride side of things.

I'll have some free time on Saturdays later in July, and can post the ride here or something of that nature.

just a friendly reminder to register!! the website is a bit more flushed out now... I highly recommend it. I can also see if I can round up some Shenandoah Valley Hospitality for anyone interested.