Our ride coodinator was this thin, gnarly, sinewy guy that regularly rode across the USA. To him there was no such thing as hills or mountains. One of my favorite ride description was something like "43 miles, X to Y, one hill".

At least he acknowledged the 28 mile mountain climb (approximately 6500') as a hill.

We all learned it was best just to know the area so if you were going from point A to B you knew it was hilly.