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September 25, 2004

Col du Granier

This afternoon, Nathalie agreed to let me take my new bike for a ride. Since I've been itching to do it for a while, but my old bike wasn't up to it, I rode to the Granier Pass.

Granier Pass lies at 1134 m elevation, 9 km outside Chapareillan. You start at about 280 m elevation, so you average an almost 9.5% grade. It's not all uphill however, because there are two spots where I could coast, although not for long. There's also a couple of flattish spots where you finally get out of first gear and stop huffing and puffing so much.

That means there are also parts that just hurt. At a few points you look forward to sharp left turns because they have a few meters of almost flat road around the outside edge, and you can rest your quivering legs for a second.

My lowest gear is 30 up front for 23 in back. Several slopes had me wishing for larger cogs in back. Also I need to adjust the tension on the front derailleur. I cannot get it to stay in the right position for using cogs 2-4 in the back when on the 30 up front. But they told me at the shop there'd probably be a few things to adjust, and the 3 month tune up is free.

It's about 17 degrees C down here in the valley today, but I could see my breath up there. My toes and fingertips were cold right at the top.

And they were freezing for the first half of the descent. I'm thankful to Matt for his suggestion about only breaking in the straightaways, since that gave me something to think about. Otherwise the midwesterner in me would've filled my shorts had everything not puckered up in terror. I understood why you need glasses for those rides when a tiny little speck of something almost went in my right eye. You need to be alert like a fighter pilot.

All in all, highly recommended, but only if you have faith in your bicycle and especially in your brakes.

Posted by Mark at September 25, 2004 06:12 PM

Comments

Sounds like a real athletic event. A 9.5% grade means a rise of 9.5 feet or meters over 100 feet or meters, correct? My most noteable hill here, according to my topographical map, seems to be a 10% grade for about .3 miles with a similar distance tacked on to both the beginning and the end at a lesser inclined. This hill is preceded by some other lesser hills because most days my ride starts out with a climb from 650 ft to 920 ft over a distance of about 2.8 miles. That is about a hilly as it gets in Laporte County.
I have been riding a lot this week with more of a traveling style in mind than a speed style. I have taken four rides for a total of 152 miles (245 KM) this week, three rides over 40 miles each and one in the upper 20's. I have ridden them in what feels like a modestly athletic effort as oppose to my more normal rides which are usually around 25 miles and in which I am always trying to push the effort. The surprise is that there is so little difference in the average speed considering the significant difference in preceived effort. My "tourist" rides only average about 1.5 - 1.7 MPH slower than my "fast" rides. I averaged from 14.2 - 14.7 MPH for my 40-mile rides this week while on my previous 25-mile "fast" rides I have failed to break 16 MPH average. These 40 - 43 mile rides are thus taking me a little under three hours.
I have been thinking lately about trying to make a South to North crossing of the U.S. next year instead of an East/West crossing. I could start at the Gulf (New Orleans or Biloxi) and ride the to Minnesota/Canada border (approx. 1600 - 1700 miles.) I think the weather would be good to start mid-May in the South and and get the to north in June. I would hope to average 70 miles (110 KM) per day, that's 500 miles a week.
I got new pedals this week to replace the open platform pedals that were on the bike when I got it. I got Shimano pedals that have the SPD locking cleat system on one side while the other side is a traditional pedal that can accept toe clips though I will leave them off. The idea is I can ride either locked in to the pedals or not without changing pedals or shoes. Starting and slow-speed maneuvering is much shakier on the recumbent than an upright and I do not what to be locked into pedals in stop and go traffic and certain other situations (loose gravel for example.)
I would think that the sifting on you new bicycle would be extremely smooth with the small difference in the back cogs. On my bike, when there is two-teeth diffence (my rear cassette is 11-13-15-17-20-23-26-30) the shifting is so smooth you can hardly hear or feel it. However, when the gears began to be wider spaced, the shifts are much more noteable. Likewise, on the front the shift from 52 to 42 is very smooth but going from 42 to 26 is anything but smooth.
From the picture of your bike it appears that you have the handlebar stem all the way down which seems kind of extreme. However it may give you a slightly better aerodynamic position, sort of a permanent tuck, if it is comfortable and your hands, etc., will tolerate the extra pressure. I would raise the handlebars at the first sign of numbness in the hands.

Posted by: Dana at September 25, 2004 09:20 PM

Yes, you climb almost a foot in every 10 on average. I found myself standing up on the pedals and "walking" up the steepest slopes. By that I mean rather than spinning normally I alternate quick downstrokes from side to side. It beats falling over.

Maybe you could find that sort of workout in southern Indiana near the river.

It sounds like in your fast rides, you've experienced the same thing I have when running hard. The last 5% seems about as hard to do as the previous 30%.

That seems related to recovery. By that I mean at some point you burn faster than you can recover. If you stay much above that rate of burn, you start having to make a huge effort just to maintain your speed. Below that rate of burn, you can actually save something up, even if you are nevertheless working fairly steadily (provided you haven't already burnt everything up). I aim to raise the rate of burn at which I can still recover.

As you guess, shifting on the new bike is like what shifing on yours sounds like. With the new bike, it's possible even to shift comfortably on the front while standing up and pushing hard.

My handlebars are fairly low down, but I'm only riding an hour or two at a time, and can rest in the upright position. If I were racing, I'd have to put them down even a little lower.

Where it gets me is not in the hands so much as the neck. When you ride downhill, you have to look pretty far ahead, yet you also have to keep your hands near the brakes. From the side you must look like one of those time trialists. It's not a fun position to hold for a long time. Around here, the downhill stretches don't last very long, though.

Another thing about the roads here: They're almost infinitely nicer than roads I remember in northern Indiana. Even the bad patches on the heavily used national road are reasonably well surfaced. And you should've seen the road we took a while ago up to l'Alpe d'Huez. It's paved very smoothly with nice black asphalt, like a new parking lot.

If your ride in the US goes well, you might want to consider a summer ride in this part of Europe.

Posted by: Mark at September 26, 2004 08:13 AM