Will I need a 29 for the Dragon ride?

on-yer-bike

Not quite sure how hard its going to be. I have used a 12-25 for other 100 Sportives with 7500 ft of climbing but I'm not sure about the Dragon. I use a compact 34/50 chainset.

aberdeen_lune

I'm sure you could get round it in a fixie if you had the legs. The question may not be will I need a 29 cog on the back it maybe should be have I done enough training for this event? If the answer is yes I've done plenty of training then the gears you have are absolutely fine. If not then a big cog on the back may help you get round.

tenor

If you have to ask, then the answer is probably, 'yes'.
The only downside (pun) is that you may be a little undergeared for some descents using 50/13. But that should help keep you out of trouble as the standard of descending of the average sportive rider is a bit sketchy at best.
However, if you have a Campag cassette with individual cogs you could customise by swopping the 16t for a 28t Macchisio sprocket thereby giving a useful 12-28 range
You could swop back for normal use.

nferrar

I hope not, doing it for the first time this year and a 34:27 will be my lowest ratio, can't imagine I'd need lower unless there are >20% gradients or I bonk badly

clanton

There are some long climbs on the Dragon but none very steep as I remember, you should be fine.

magliaceleste

Generally the climbs are long and not that steep (although I think a couple of bonus climbs have been thrown in this year?) A 34/25 should be fine, it was for me last year.

bendertherobot

No need for a 29 IMO. The steepest part is actually a fairly short section leading to the Bwlch. All of 200 yards or so. Get up that any all else is easy.

funckchicken

34/25 should be fine.

funny, i run a campag 29-13 cassette on all my bikes, but that's with a standard 53/39 chainset.

39/29 and 34/25 pretty much is the same gear inches.

ugo.santalucia

No you won't...
It's not a difficult course, in terms of gradients

e999sam

I'll be using 39x23 so I hope not.