beginners gear ratio for mount ventoux

mark1973

Hi

I looking to buy my first road bike for £800-£1,000 after spending years doing a bit of mountain biking on a full sus.

I'm 14 stone, not as fit as I should be but planning to get 2-3 rides a week in between now and next May when i'm planning to climb Mount Ventoux. I have no plans for racing but enjoying rides out with friends and maybe join a local club with comfort a consideration as i get numb hands on my mtb but live with it.

With this in mind I'm concerned that I get the gear ratios correct. I'm current looking at a triple 50/39/30 & 12-30t but this has limited the number of bikes and I would prefer a compact.

on this basis I have currently narrowed my bike choices to a Trek 1.5 2013 or a Trek Domane 2.0

Any other suggestions on bikes and am I been to conservative on the gear ratios?

xscreamsuk

In that amount of time you will loose loads of weight, I was 15 1.2 stone last July and a year later completed The Etape Acte 2 at 11 1/2 stone. I used a 34 / 28 which was plenty. Best 2 things I did were join a club and get a proper bike fit. Then I got a training plan from a coach in the club.

Grenouille

I have no answer to your question but 3 months ago I declared to all and sundry that I will climb the Ventoux before I am 40. At the time of the declaration I was 20st, now I'm nearly 18st and maybe I might just do it before I'm 35 (currently 33). Therefore I'm keen to see what answers you get for this thread. My guess is that some quite small gears will be necessary.

My wife and I often stay in Bedoin in May so if you do it next year let us know when and perhaps we could turn out for some moral support for you.

Rob Somerset

I would have thought that given this is more than 8 months away you should be fit and lean enough to make it a doddle on 34x27 . For what its worth, I have done quite a few Alpine Cols, when I was a lot less fit and age 50+, on a triple with 30x25 with no problem. I now have a 34x27 compact, which I prefer, it seems suitable for most riding.

Grenouille

Just been reading through the sticky thread at the top of the forum: "Help I need smaller gears..."

Some useful info in there.

peejay78

a compact with a 28 should do. the fitter you are before starting, the less painful it will be.

this is what everyone else has said anyway.

mark1973

Thanks for all the comments.

I just bought the trek 1.5 triple 2013, there is a lot of steep hills up here in North Yorkshire.

I guess all I need to do now is get out and get the miles in.

Looking forward to ventoux next may.

rubyrider

Enjoy it

I've only been road cycling a few weeks, but my compact came as a bit of a shock after my mountain bike triple. I found it much harder getting up the hills, so I think you probably made a good decision. Mind you I'm not very fit - yet! The hills are getting easier as I try and keep my cadence up.

tight_git

Enjoy it - I will have to have a go at Sutton bank soon on my newly acquired compact, then again I might dig out my triple and try that instead.

I'll keep an eye out for you if you're over the moors way.

ALaPlage

Living in North Yorkshire you have plenty of options for training however a good challenge would be the Rosedale Chimney. It is fairly short but by gum it's steep

bahzob

ALaPlage wrote:

Living in North Yorkshire you have plenty of options for training however a good challenge would be the Rosedale Chimney. It is fairly short but by gum it's steep

Sorry but the chap wants to climb Ventoux. Going up steep climbs in the UK is not very good training for this.

Climbs like the Ventoux require 1-2 hours of sustained non stop sub threshold effort. Going up a steep climb in the UK is just a question of how long you can keep going over redline, surest route to disaster if you try it on a real mountain.

Best training for the Ventoux or similar are long steady ride as hard as possible, never letting off effort. So paradoxically best place to train is the flat, TTs are especially good. Another option especially with winter in mind is a turbo which has the advantage that you can also set it up at an incline to check bike fit. And if you can manage 2 hours non-stop hard on a turbo in a garage in the middle of winter you should be able to manage most mountain climbs...

As for gearing. I have climbed 100s of mountains including the Ventoux (lots of times including the 2009 etape when finished in top 200 overall /flex). My preference is for a triple.

Part of the reason is practical. The essence of successful climbing is keeping a steady smooth cadence from start to end. The closer gear ratios with a standard cassette make this easier.

Part of the reason is psychological. I almost never use the very lowest gear combination. However knowing it is there makes climbs easier. Being forced to use your lowest gear 15 minutes into a climb that's going to take upwards of 2 hours is a pretty depressing experience.

Whatever. Regardless of compact/triple there is only one real piece of advice you need on gearing. Choose one that you are confident you can maintain at least 50rpm, preferably at least 60rpm throughout. Pedaling at a cadence any lower than this is the biggest single mistake most riders make.

mark1973

Thanks bahzob.

You have just echoed what my LBS said. Long steady climbs and plenty of miles. The triple just gives me more flexibility. Maybe I will want to change down the line once I have more experience of road biking.

Does anyone know any good routes around Northallerton & Darlington area?

Also i may look into getting a turbo for winter, can anyone recommend one at a reasonable price?

Thanks

MSByrne

As a beginner too with only a small amount of leisurely riding behind me I've also decided to tackle ventoux - to the extent that I'm in provence right now building up to it. From what I've found since I got here, climbing some of the smaller mountains in the region (and they are much smaller!) I've needed all the gears I could get - and I'm riding a triple with a 32 - 26 lowest gear.
If I were you I'd play it safe and go low so you can so you can be confident that insufficient gearing won't be a problem - noting feels worse than going badly into the red with a long way yet to go. I shall report back when I actually have a chance to give 'le geant' a go - my mission has been delayed thus far by a bad crash near vaison la romaine which broke by bike and nearly my leg, but it gets fixed tomorrow and I'll assault the beast in a few days before I leave
!

bluebarchetta

Hi mark1973,
I was in a similar position to you and rode it earlier this month. I'm a bit older (43) and smaller/lighter (58kg). Did as much practice as I could...

I ran a 50/34 with a 11/28 cassette. Tried to keep my cadence up - just about sustained 60rpm.

I'd suggest a HRM too and get used to what you can sustain for 2 hrs It's easy to go off too hard.

Great sense of achievement!

t4tomo

As menyioned above, Alps / cols etc are very different to NY Moors hills (infact most UK). ur monster clims in the UK are steep but few are over a mile in length. Alpine ascents aren't that steep but very long as hairpins after hairpin winds itself up a mountain. Consequently if you can get up a UK monster hill thats 1:3 / 1:4 ratio you don't need lower gears to do an alpine hill, although you probably want a lower gear than you'd use for same steepness hill in the UK because of the sustained effort needed you want to spin up in lower gear (more efficient) than trying to bash up it in the big ring, which tires your muscles much quicker.

Not sure where you are in North yorks but I grew up in NYM national park and Huttle le Hole to Castleton and back would be good training, both ways are a long steady climb up to Blakey Ridge (and a nice descent!). Incorporate that into a route or do it a few times.

Rosedale Chimney was always the ultimate for "can you climb it".

JamesB5446

Slightly off topic, from tomorrow I'm doing the coast to coast over three days (doing it with my dad, he's 62, wanted to take it easy). My lowest combo is 39-25. Will I end up crying on the second day when I have to do lots of hills?

The winter just gone we were staying in Rosedale Abby. It was so icy you could hardly walk up the Chimney.