Describing Rides

[JNR]

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This is a route I've found lately that incorporates lots of quiet back roads and Parkgate, which has a lovely view of Wales from the coast of Wirral. What I would like to know is, how do you describe it? I do a few flat suburban streets at the end to make it 20 miles, but what would you call it? Flat with a hill? Pan flat with a hill? Flat?

 

[HLaB]

I'd call that relatively flat; there's not much rise or fall over the 18 miles and where it does its only 3% or less

 

[amnesia]

This is mostly flat, but with a sodding great climb slap bang in the middle... can you spot it ?

 

[JNR]

Yeah I can spot that! Even though that route I posted is mostly flat, I still find the first bit harder than the second, with an average speed difference of what must be at least 4mph. It's already improved so far though, so I'm guessing it will continue to do so.

 

[Kestevan]

The profiles above are what is known as "Flat".


Ask ColinJ what a hilly ride consists of.... the profile below is from the last "bumpy" ride he organised...

TBH though, the only way you could ride on the flat round here would be to hire a pedalo and find a lake

 

[jimboalee]

A ride can be described as 'Hilly' when JUST ONE hill on the ride spends >300 Cals.

300 Cals is about your immediate reserves when you have been riding for an hour or so ( and you will feel it ), so BEFORE you have climbed the hill, you need to eat something.


For example:-

A 3 km long 10% or a 2km long 15%

 

[jimboalee]

Audax UK have a definition of 'hilly'.

It is their Audax Altitude Award formula.

 

[Andrew_P]

My daily commute homeward bound. Average below or above?

 

[ColinJ]

The profiles above are what is known as "Flat".


Ask ColinJ what a hilly ride consists of.... the profile below is from the last "bumpy" ride he organised...

TBH though, the only way you could ride on the flat round here would be to hire a pedalo and find a lake

Ha ha - you beat me to it!

Audax UK have a definition of 'hilly'.

It is their Audax Altitude Award formula.

Yes, and here's the profile one such local event - Season of Mists - 2.5 AAA points. (The picture is a bit small - those altitudes are in metres not feet!)

 

[marinyork]

Pan flat with a very small hill.

 

[jimboalee]

Ha ha - you beat me to it!


Yes, and here's the profile one such local event - Season of Mists - 2.5 AAA points. (The picture is a bit small - those altitudes are in metres not feet!)

Any chance of a gradient profile?
Is that a 12% straight out of the blocks?

 

[RedBike]

You'll find that with time as you start to get used to riding further distance your perspective on whats hilly and whats far changes.


When I first started riding I can remember trying in vain to get around this ~15mile loop in under 2 hours. At the time I thought I would never break the 2hr barrier for this loop. I can remember struggling up some of the hills in the granny ring of my MTB and having to force myself to keep going to the top of the hill before stopping.

Several years later I rode the same route one evening on a road bike. Even though I was deliberately taking things easy I still comfortably got around the route within the hour and hardly noticed most of the climbs.

 

[HLaB]

Any chance of a gradient profile?
Is that a 12% straight out of the blocks?

I imported the route into Mapmyride to look at the gradient Profile, the poor thing can't handle it

At the same time I also found the Hebden Bridge Star Audax, its more regular but

 

[ColinJ]

Any chance of a gradient profile?

I'm looking for an online tool to do gradient profiles from GPX files - do you know of one? I use Memory Map for plotting routes and it only does altitude and speed profiles.

It's the kind of tool I wouldn't mind trying to develop if there isn't a good one available. The problem would be getting access to the altitude data but there's probably some way of fishing it out of Google Maps.

Is that a 12% straight out of the blocks?

Unfortunately, pretty much so, yes! The ride starts from near the Co-op in Hebden Bridge, and the hill is the Heptonstall Road which starts about 200 m down the A646 towards Todmorden.

I only live a few minutes from the start so I don't get a warm-up riding to the start and there is no warm-up after the start before the hill! The event takes place the first weekend in October and it is always cold in the valley at that time of year at that time of day so it is literally staight from a very cold start to a pretty tough climb.

The first time, I did it with no warm-up and hardly made it up the hill and felt like throwing up when I got to the top. Now, I ride up and down the valley for 15 minutes or so first just to get my legs working. I also get up early to make sure that my breakfast is settled before I start riding!

 

[GrasB]

I like this guide to the approximate nature of a ride m climb per km (ft climb per mile):
Flat - 0-5 m/km (0-26ft/m)
Rolling - 5-10 m/km (26-52ft/m)
Moderately hilly - 10-15 m/km (52-78ft/m)
Hilly - 15-20 m/km (78-104ft/m)
Very hill - 20-25 m/km (104-130ft/m)
Insanely hilly - >25 m/km (>130ft/m)