Categorized climbs

Brian1
Brian1 Posts: 595
edited March 2011 in Road beginners
Just wondering what criteria is used to categorize climbs in pro races?

Comments

  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    whether fact or legend the categories were meant to relate the gear a car had to be in to climb. 3rd gear = cat 3=quite easy: 1st gear = cat 1 = second hardest: HC = Hors Categorie = beyond categorie = the toughest climb that even a car could ascend.

    I think these categories were decided on in the early days of car manufacture.

    But just the other week in the tirreno adriatico they went up a cat 3 and then up a similar gradiented hill but it wasnt long enough to be called a cat 3, so I guess its a mixture of gradient and length.
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  • Lightning
    Lightning Posts: 360
    Cleat Eastwood wrote:
    so I guess its a mixture of gradient and length.

    This. Other factors taken into account are the road surface and where the climb is in the stage (for example, the same climb can be cat1 if it's at the start of the stage but be HC if the stage ends on the top of it).

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