Catagories?

koreanbaz

I've done a search for catagories, etc but not having much luck.

How/where do you find what catagory certain hills are? Or do people randomly make them up?

16mm

It's made up. The same hill in France can be a different category in different races.

sharky1029

Strava is my reference point as it gives you categories however they are not always the same as other sources.

cougie

It depends on where they come in the stage and how long the stage is etc etc.

A hill on fresh legs is easier than one on tired legs. There's also different routes up the mountains too - or some of them at least - different routes might be harder or easier.

charliew87

Fair amount of info available if you google it. Might want to brush up on your spelling of 'Category' though!

Such as:

How do the organizers of the Grand Tours evaluate the ratings for the climbs in their races? The Tour organisers use three criteria:
(1) The length and steepness of the climb
(2) The position of the climb in the stage
(3) The quality of the road surface

General guidelines for classification are as follows:
Hors Category (HC) – the hardest, climbs of 1500m+
1st Category – climbs of 1100-1500m
2nd Category – climbs of 600-1100m
3rd Category – climbs of 300-600m
4th Category – the lowest category, 100-300m

from http://thecycleway.com/?p=32

StillGoing

As explained to you elsewhere Baz; the steepness of a climb is not the issue, but the length of the climb.

koreanbaz

philthy3 wrote:

As explained to you elsewhere Baz; the steepness of a climb is not the issue, but the length of the climb.

I get the overall jist Phil, its just that people are mentioning certain climbs and then suggesting a category to go with it.

I can see how as has been mentioned above that a hill later in the ride can be harder than an early ride.

For instance there is a local hill that is no mean fete, from Compstall lodge at the bottom up the the hill, then Cowlishaw lane to the top of Werneth low.

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Co ... 1&t=m&z=14

StillGoing

There's no disputing that a short steep climb of 14% or more for a hundred yards or so at the end of a hard slog is hard work and probably worse than a cat 4 at the beginning, but the short steep climbs don't get categorised. Even some long climbs don't get one despite going on for a few miles which I don't quite understand.

AchillesLeftKnee

philthy3 wrote:

Even some long climbs don't get one despite going on for a few miles which I don't quite understand.

In a race where points are awarded for climbs, some are ignored so as to ensure a sensible points distribution between stages or along the route. The opposite also happens, especially early in stage races with a mountains classification, with small mounds getting classified just to ensure there are some points on offer so as to put a jersey on someone as early as possible.

For a good example of this...



Stage 1 of this year's Giro kicked off with four sort of hilly circuits in Naples. The pretty dinky climb was ridden four times, and was rated as a category 4 for two circuits, and uncategorised for the other two, so just enough points on offer to get the climbers jersey on someone's back at the end of the stage, but not enough to make four climbs of a piddly little hill by Giro standards to become overly important in the competition.