Training for Alpe d’HuZes.

briantrumpet

Hire a bike for the day?

... or look out for the bits on eBay, and then sell them on afterwards??

meanredspider

ademort wrote:

TBH no i don,t. All of my colleagues and bike buddies ride the standard 53/39 or thereabouts and sadly we are all in the same boat. We live in the Netherlands and there,s almost nothing here near me to climb. Why buy a bike with a compact when there,s no hills to climb. It looks like i will have to buy a Shimano tiagra compact crankset and cassette. I might just buy a groupset when they are on offer and i can use the parts for my other bikes.

Fair comment (I have 53/39 and 12-23 on my NL Foil) though I'm surprised not more of you go to the Ardennes where such a set-up would be punishing. My Dutch colleagues have compacts.

Well, the offer's there: happy to lend you mine - I'm in Amsterdam but often in Eindhoven and Drachten. If you're running mechanical, I even have a 12-32 cassette and appropriate RD I can lend you (from my turbo bike).

mercia_man

I've enjoyed cycling in high mountains for the past 25 years and agree with meanred and others who say low gearing with a compact chainset is the key. Of course, it's possible for a fit person to ride up one pass with a standard chainset and narrowish cassette, but it's a very different matter once you have got two or three passes in your legs. I vividly remember riding the Giau towards the end of a long day in the Maratona dles Dolomites (at 9.1 per cent, even steeper average gradient than the Alpe) to see apparently strong men having to push their bikes or sitting at the roadside in tears. I was on 36-29 and would happily have used an even lower gear as I had to honk most of the way up. I now use 34-29.

Incidentally, I can recommend an interesting new website thecolcollective.com put together by climbing specialist Mike Cotty. A good read, with great pix and useful tips.

ademort

meanredspider wrote:

ademort wrote:

TBH no i don,t. All of my colleagues and bike buddies ride the standard 53/39 or thereabouts and sadly we are all in the same boat. We live in the Netherlands and there,s almost nothing here near me to climb. Why buy a bike with a compact when there,s no hills to climb. It looks like i will have to buy a Shimano tiagra compact crankset and cassette. I might just buy a groupset when they are on offer and i can use the parts for my other bikes.

Fair comment (I have 53/39 and 12-23 on my NL Foil) though I'm surprised not more of you go to the Ardennes where such a set-up would be punishing. My Dutch colleagues have compacts.

Well, the offer's there: happy to lend you mine - I'm in Amsterdam but often in Eindhoven and Drachten. If you're running mechanical, I even have a 12-32 cassette and appropriate RD I can lend you (from my turbo bike).

Thanks very much for the offer but i,m probably going to rent a bike for a week. By the time i invest in new wheels ,crankset and cassette for what could be just a one off event is not worth it. Most of my colleagues are like me we travel around quite a lot and get togetther when possible for a ride out. Not really worth the drive down to the Ardenne.We always have a lot of wind here so we get a good work out. I lived in the Lake District in England so was in the hills all the time and i really miss them.Thanks again for the offer.

mamba80

ademort wrote:

TBH last week we had a video conference with our colleagues from around the globe who will be joining us for the event. It was said that gearing was very crucial and it would be better to have the option of a smaller ring just in case. If i go along with that then i am going to have to change the crankset as i have Shimano Ultegra 6800 series 53x39 with a maximum front mech capacity of 16 teeth. This means i could only fit a 37 inner ring at most. I,m probably going to have to buy a compact and fit a 28 sprocket on the cassette. Can anyone think of a better option. I,m already spending money on new wheels as my cosmic carbone SLs will be no good in the mountains. I can see this being a costly event for me.

http://www.starbike.com/en/shimano-105- ... crankset/#

You ll be able to sell this on afterwards, its cheap and looks the part too you could buy this plus a 5800 cassette for 140 euros.
Whats wrong with your wheels? some light weight tires (michelin pro4 comps are very good) will have you sorted, ighter wheels wont make the difference you d imagine and hire bikes wont come with anything much better, unless you are spending a lot on one and can spec wheels and tires.

ademort

mamba80 wrote:

ademort wrote:

TBH last week we had a video conference with our colleagues from around the globe who will be joining us for the event. It was said that gearing was very crucial and it would be better to have the option of a smaller ring just in case. If i go along with that then i am going to have to change the crankset as i have Shimano Ultegra 6800 series 53x39 with a maximum front mech capacity of 16 teeth. This means i could only fit a 37 inner ring at most. I,m probably going to have to buy a compact and fit a 28 sprocket on the cassette. Can anyone think of a better option. I,m already spending money on new wheels as my cosmic carbone SLs will be no good in the mountains. I can see this being a costly event for me.

http://www.starbike.com/en/shimano-105- ... crankset/#

You ll be able to sell this on afterwards, its cheap and looks the part too you could buy this plus a 5800 cassette for 140 euros.
Whats wrong with your wheels? some light weight tires (michelin pro4 comps are very good) will have you sorted, ighter wheels wont make the difference you d imagine and hire bikes wont come with anything much better, unless you are spending a lot on one and can spec wheels and tires.

The bike i would be using is a Sensa Calabria it comes with it,s own brand 58mm deep rimmed own brand wheels. They are an aluminium braking surface with a carbon fairing. I,m told these are not suitable for this event. I have a number of other bikes and they are all the same as far as gearing and wheels are concerned.. My son has a cheap steel frame bike. It,s fitted with shimano sora triple and cheap shimano wheels. It cost just over €450 TBH i would be a bit worried about climbing ADH 6 times on that

meanredspider

Well, there's still a chance I'll be there again this year so I might still say hello.

ademort

meanredspider wrote:

Well, there's still a chance I'll be there again this year so I might still say hello.

Yes would be nice. I believe we are staying in accomodation 12Kms from the start. We will be there from Saturday to Saturday with 4 teams. Am really looking forward to it.

meanredspider

ademort wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

Well, there's still a chance I'll be there again this year so I might still say hello.

Yes would be nice. I believe we are staying in accomodation 12Kms from the start. We will be there from Saturday to Saturday with 4 teams. Am really looking forward to it.

Cool - well, good luck with everything. Let me know if there's anything I can help out with. It's an amazing event. The bit I found hardest looking back on it was simply keeping my energy levels up and drinking enough. It's interesting seeing how my HR drops from climb 4 to 6. Really think about those things you can face eating when you can't face eating anything And take it with you - the supermarket is OK but also pretty limited.

I'm still in two minds whether to do it again even if I can get there - now I know I can do it, the challenge has gone a little bit and that's what drives me.

steoroc

Apologies for kind of hijacking the thread but maybe some can help me,I've been doing steady solo spins of75-90 k on the weekends trying to keep the HR in check and a turbo session midweek when possible , 5x5 or Sufferfest Fight club/ Very Dark Place.
I'm going on holidays in july and will be doing a few +1000 m climbs. Where I live is very flat. Should I concentrate on pushing bigger gears on the flat to simulate hills or will I get more benefits from doing climb specific turbo session?