I think you're concerned more with GRADE than ELEVATION. Grade relates to the steepness of a hill. Here's a little blurb I found.
Quote:
Grade -- steepness of hill
Most of us find that climbing up a 200-foot hill which is steep takes more out of us than a 200-foot hill which is gentle. A simple and very useful measure of steepness is "grade":
grade = vertical_climb / horizontal_distance
where both vertical_climb and horizontal_distance are both converted to the same measurement units. So if a hill goes up 264 feet in 2 miles, then we can first convert 2 miles to 10560 feet -- so the grade is then 0.025 = 264 feet / 10560 feet, which is 2.5%.
What does this "grade" number mean?
0% grade is exactly flat (and a negative grade, less then zero, is downhill).
2% grade does not seem very steep, but it's enough to substantially reduce forward speed, and for most riders it will absorb more than half their power output.
6% grade is enough to cut speed to well under half, and absorb more than 80% of a rider's power output (leaving less than 20% to fight air resistance and rolling friction).
10% grade, and anyone who is not a fit and frequent rider is off their bike walking -- and anyone who is not a racer is reaching for all the extra power they've got.
Build yourself a little spreadsheet. Enter the distance in miles and the elevation gain for each segment. Convert the miles to feet (miles x 5280 = feet). Calculate:
Elevation gain (in feet) / Distance (in feet) = Grade.
On your ride:
108.48 x 5280 = 572,775 feet distance
Elevation gain is 7,112 feet.
7,112 / 572,775 = .0124 (average grade of 1.2%). This is pretty flat.
Quote:
0.27 | 71.42 | 65 | 4,788
This is the steepest segment. It is just over 4.5%, but it is only a quarter mile.
I am SUCH a nerd! :rolleyes:
