I’ve signed up for a pretty serious gravel ride in August – 46 miles and 6,100 ft of climbing. The worst stretch is about 16% grade. I don’t have a true gravel bike, so my lowest gear ratio is 1:1. If I train hard for the summer, is this realistic? Or would it be wiser to change up my gearing to help out with the climbs?
I’m about 200lbs currently and plan to drop some weight, but when the KOM on some of these segments is going at like 8mph I’m wondering how I’ll stay upright.
by Hartzler44
9 Comments
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Not crazy. Not easy either. Sounds like a good goal to work toward…
Send it!
You’ll be walking that 16% grade without proper gearing. That type of grade is no joke. Most people on the leader board are probably standing and pedaling for a decent amount of that.
Get it!
Very reasonable but challenging ride. Yes, a lot of climbing but not insane. That said the hardest gravel day I’ve done is about 6600ft. I do have a goal of a 10k foot day at some point.
75 km / 1900 meters. Nah, that’s not that bad. You got it. Train. Eat, drink and spin. Think of it has three long climbs with three descents to recover. Take it easy.
I would definitely consider a lower than 1:1 ratio though. Depending on your RD, it could just be a cassette and chain swap.
Bad idea? No. But realistically, unless you’re pretty strong, at your size and gearing there’s a pretty high likelihood that you’ll need to walk parts of the climbs. But that’s OK, most of us have been there at some point and if you just accept that as part of the process, it won’t ruin your day.
What are the surface conditions like? You say you don’t have a gravel bike, so what kind of tires are you going to run? If those downhills are steep and chunky, having the wrong tires for that will probably spoil the ride more than walking some uphills.
Tough ride but normal. Steep part might be a walk, but you’ll be fine. Do lots of 2000 ft 20 milers between between now and then.