Mapmyride - accuracy?

durhamwasp

Im in training for a shot at the Cingles du Ventoux in September (listed at 14,576ft of climbing) and have been using Mapmyride for my training runs, trying to get an idea of how much climbing i'm doing.

However ive noticed massive differences what he says my ascent is, and what routes are officially listed as. For example the Keswick Sportive 4 passes route is officially 8,759ft however mapmyroute calculates it at 3,711. Also northpennine cycling website listed the Bollihope route at 4,242ft however mapmyroute has it at 2,717ft.

So, i'm guessing they are using two different ways to measure it, or is mapmyroute way out? Anyone help me?! Cheers

jibberjim

For undulating routes there is no right or wrong answer, so it's almost completely useless as a measure.

A completely flat road and a road which alternates between a height difference of 5m will be pretty indistinguishable to ride, but second one could produce hundreds of meters of climbing. So the problem is identifying what is a meter climbed. There's no simple answer I'm afraid, so all are right, and all are wrong.

I'd also say it's a complete red herring to compare the amount of climbing you're doing in routes in the UK and Ventoux, UK climbs are rarely more than 10minutes long, and most are shorter which will often use quite different components of fitness. Tracking sustained time at or near threshold would be more useful, as that's what you'll need, going steadily for 90 minutes or more three times in a day.

You'll actually possibly be better training on completely flat courses and pushing all the time, to replicate the lack of rest you'll get when actually climbing.

GeorgeShaw

+1. Any calculation of ascent on undulating routes will be enormously affected by the sample rate and any rounding algorithm. That's before we start looking at mapping errors in Google Maps. So you have to compare like with like. You can compare one route with another route using the same software. But expecting anything meaningful by comparing routes using different software is pretty futile.

durhamwasp

Cheers guys, suprisingly mapmyride calculates the Cingles du Ventoux at just about the correct amount of climbing (around 14,000ft)

All i can do is get fit, and keep on turning the wheels...

MarjMJ

Interested to see the interpretation being about sampling rates etc. Like the OP I've been logging rides on Mapmyrun and been surprised to see what I [as relative newbie to climbing] have been fairly steep rides smoothed out to 4% :evil:

Have been sad enough to go back and map single short sections to get idea of horridness of some steep bits though.

Overall it is probably down to being able to grind along for the hours it will take to ascend rather than the steepness per se.

Good luck with your Ventoux adventure.

jibberjim

durhamwasp wrote:

Cheers guys, suprisingly mapmyride calculates the Cingles du Ventoux at just about the correct amount of climbing (around 14,000ft)

It's not surprising though, as there it's constant up or downhill, so there's no undulations which are way the errors come in.

GiantMike

As a gross error check you might like to put the routes into www.ridewithgps.com

This has the option to ignore GPS data and give elevations based on official US Govt info. I use this when I have a route from my Garmin Forerunner 305 (because the height channel is rubbish on it).

However, I agree with the above regarding UK climbs.

ScaldedCat

I used to use MapMyRide but I now use SprintGPS or Runkeeper which seem to be more accurate at tracking routes.