Road Cycling

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touch said:
He's referring to the categorised climbs in the ToB, not strava.

although, there is a cat1 climb on strava
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Right, that makes sense. I did wonder about that but guess I'm tired from having to use my legs for walking rather than cycling.

Target acquired for that cat 1. A little annoying that it's a few feet short of Great Dunn Fell though.

edit: Actually.... Has Strava changed the way it categorises climbs? I could've sworn GDF was a 2 when I did it :confused:
 
FrenchTart said:
edit: Actually.... Has Strava changed the way it categorises climbs? I could've sworn GDF was a 2 when I did it :confused:
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The way Strava works occasionally allows people to game the system so that a long approach to the actual hill can include sufficient additional elevation gain, even if it also includes some elevation loss going downhill en route, such that you can manufacture a cat 1 climb where otherwise you'd just have a cat 2. It's a bit silly because you can be tacking on another mile or so at maybe 1% or 2% which doesn't add any real weight to the climb when you're riding it, but it still works out such that the overall segment gets categorised differently.
 
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Some action shots from today's track day.

We finished second overall in a close-fought final but managed to beat a serious team of girls that had expensive frames, aero helmets, skinsuits, disc wheels and pursuit bars.:D

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Vonhelmet said:
Ah, OK, well firstly there are a couple of legit looking climbs on Strava, like the Great Dun Fell and one particular approach to Bealach na Ba, which I'm sure touch can tell us all about. Secondly, and more pertinently, you've got the issue of how climbs in races are actually categorised, which is a bit of a black art, and includes many factors such as the length of the stage, where the climb falls in that stage, how many other climbs are in the stage, etc. A nasty cat 4 at the end of a long stage in a TdF stage could easily get bumped to cat 3, for example. In the case of the ToB I imagine there will be a bit of climb inflation in saying the Nick O' Pendle is a cat 1, just to make the race sound more interesting, but equally it comes at 1 mile into quite a hilly stage, so they'll have increased it on those grounds as well.

For the record, the Nick O' Pendle is a cat 4 per Strava, so cat 1 seems a bit of a stretch, and the Bleara Moor climb is a cat 3, so again cat 1 is a stretch, but not quite so much!

I guess in this country they've got to strike a balance between suitably challenging climbs and roads that actually have a surface you can ride a race weight tubular tyre on for more than 20 yards...
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Wouldn't listen to a word of what ITV are talking or what categories the organisers are giving the climbs in ToB. At least they aren't calling them all "Cols" like they did in the Tour of Yorkshire which was just pure cringe! Col du Cow and Calf.... **** off lol.

Another interesting one being them claiming todays stage was "well over 3000m of climbing"..... But look on the pro dudes who upload to Strava (always regarded as over stating also) and they are all about 800m+ under the nonsense they were spouting on the telly about elevation gain.
 
Ha, whoops.

But yeah, the point is that climb categorisations are a bit fluid from one race to another. I'm sure the same climb has been categorised differently in different editions of the tdf, for example, or perhaps between the tdf and the dauphine, for example. Holme Moss was a cat 2 in the tdf in 2014 but it would certainly be cat 1 in an edition of the tob.

We rely on strava for categorisation of climbs here and around the world, but it's not really as hard and fast as that.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Ha, whoops.

But yeah, the point is that climb categorisations are a bit fluid from one race to another. I'm sure the same climb has been categorised differently in different editions of the tdf, for example, or perhaps between the tdf and the dauphine, for example. Holme Moss was a cat 2 in the tdf in 2014 but it would certainly be cat 1 in an edition of the tob.


We rely on strava for categorisation of climbs here and around the world, but it's not really as hard and fast as that.
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Climbs change category in a stage depending on what comes before and after it in the stage. Strava applies some sort of logic to some segments to create a category.
 
Yeah, TdF categorises differently from the other grand tours but across them all, a climbs CAT will be upgraded if it comes after very difficult climbs or is the stage finish for example. So they are categorised on difficulty (length & avg gradient) the same as Strava but due to them being used in stages this dictates their categorisation. With Strava, it's purely based on numbers else I would be upgrading all my CAT2 climbs to CAT1 because I done them after cycling 50 miles and was feeling tired that day :P :P
 
Yeah. I probably should've mentioned that I was aware that categorisation works that way in races and tours. I just suppose I wouldn't really refer to the climbs in that way when I was talking about them though.
 
I'm just packing up all my stuff for heading out (pocket full of jam sandwiches!) and the Mrs is off to work. "Go carefully" she says. "Watch out for crazy people" she says. Yay for the perception of cycling, although given the state of British driving it's not an unreasonable warning :/
 
Vonhelmet said:
I'm just packing up all my stuff for heading out (pocket full of jam sandwiches!) and the Mrs is off to work. "Go carefully" she says. "Watch out for crazy people" she says. Yay for the perception of cycling, although given the state of British driving it's not an unreasonable warning :/
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Today is the first day that a lot of schools and Uni students are back in Manc so the roads are a lot busier than they've been. I know you've lived here a while so you're already aware of it but I thought I'd mention it in case you expected to have another week or two of quiet roads as I did.
 
SoliD said:
You can't deny the wind proofing, I'm not that fussed on the waterproofing, but they do keep you warm to some extent when wet. I have recently reproofed mine and it has sorted them out again though!
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What did you use for reproofing? Mine probably need doing if I'm wearing them for raincover this winter... Forearms and thighs are not beading as well as they used to!

R0B75 said:
Pah! You can keep your jazzy graphics :p
although some might argue this is a little jazzy...:o
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Looks good, although if I were showing a frame logo, Planet-X is the last thing I'd want to show! ;)

Shamrock said:
I've borrowed a GoPro for my trip to the Pyrenees next week so I thought I'd give it a test today on my commute.

Note, I don't ride this aggressively outside of commuting!:o

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Good going and nice speeds, almost makes grudas look slow! ;) That's Nottingham yeah? Cycling infrastructure looks amazing, dare I say it - better than London's! So jealous, we're lucky if we get an ASL here. :rolleyes:

Vonhelmet said:
Ooh, I've been driving to my parents on the m56 which, as you will all know, goes across to North Wales. I've seen team vehicles for Etixx Quick-Step, Tinkoff Saxo and Lotto Jumbo, presumably heading off to tomorrow's Tour of Britain start. Exciting times!
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Awesome, have a great trip!

Jonny ///M said:
Went hard on a long way home from work. As per the comment from the Strava King himself I was surprised to get top ten for up and over a hill I hate around here!

Hopefully that's some fitness coming back :)

https://www.strava.com/activities/385556196
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Saw this one on Strava, good going mate and some great segments there!
 
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