A Century With 13,584 Feet of Climbing

[Alex]

I posted a query in the Southwest section, but I thought I might get more responses if I posted in the Open Topic thread as well. I am thinking about the Tour de Park City. It is a century ride with 13,584' of climbing. It tops out at over 10,000 in altitude. Here's a link to the route description:

http://www.tourdeparkcity.com/tdpc_route.php

Is this completely insane? I've never done that much climbing, or ridden at that altitude. I could certainly ride parts of the route up there between now and September 8, but I don't know if that would be adequate prep. I've been putting in a lot of miles and doing a lot of climbing. I honestly don't know how much climbing I've been doing because I just recently got a cycle computer that gives me that information.

Any advice?

Thanks.

Alex

[Veronica]

A lot depends on how you react to altitude. Personally I feel like crap above 6500 or so. That's a lot of climbing in 100 miles.

V.

[jobob]

Without knowing how much climbing you've done regularly, and the most you've done on single ride, it's really hard to say.

Plus, it being at altitude, that adds another big variable into the mix.

[maillotpois]

Ditto what they said already. What sort of rides are you doing now?

That looks like a really cool ride, though! I do have to note that Topo often overestimates climbing, so the fact that the route sheet is made from Topo and the climbing stats come from there may mean that it's not quite that much climbing. They may have independently verified the stats, or maybe not.

[yellow]

Might I suggest something a little tamer?

http://web.bike2bike.biz/Rides/Heber...1/Default.aspx

However, if you'd really like to do the Tour de Park City, I suggest going out and riding part of it or at least riding Wolf Creek to get a taste of what it will be like before you commit. It's a tough climb, but with proper conditioning, it can be conquered. I agree with MP, it's not 13,000', but it's still a whole lot of up with some pretty steep sections, esp when you climb up toward Provo falls.

Have you ridden Brown's Canyon? That's at the end of the ride, it looks like. I remember one day riding that last year towards the end of a very long ride (I think it was a 120-mile day) and being really, really thankful I ran into another cyclist to pull my butt up the hill. It's not super steep, but tough at the end of a long day.

[smilingcat]

I'm generally optimistic and love to encourage others to push themselves a bit. However, you are asking several questions and stated few things which makes me wonder.

Okay so I looked at the topo, you'll be riding from mile 30 to mile 60 at above 8,000 feet. and about 20miles of it will be above 10,000 feet.

If you never ridden a hilly century, I can't recommend it.
If you haven't regularly ridden at the altitude, I wouldn't recommend it.

But if you have done both then you probably know whether you can do it or not. And since none of the experienced riders with hill climbs have ridden with you, we really can't gauge your fitness level, endourance. The ride will be very dry and very hot. It should be a very pretty ride though.

So I would suggest you think it over carefully of what you are really capable of doing. This isn't the time of bravado, its time to think realistically.

My opinion is that of ambivalence because I really can't say yes or no to you. Just my two cents from what you said about yourself and the way it was posted.

If you live in SLC area, have you tried the Emmigration Canyon to East Lake?? training route. If you can do that every weekend, then you might give this ride a try. This is the route I use to train when I visit my sis and my bro-in-law. He kicks my butt up the canyon.

smilingcat

[RoadRaven]

Is it completely insane?

Nup... you are asking the wrong group of gals if you want any other answer.

I can't get the link to open - so how far away is this ride - as in how much time to you have to prepare.

If you can ride for hours on a bike - with or without stops, then you can achieve this.
You just need to set yourself a realistic goal - to set yourself an unachievable time goal would be the crazy thing.

Do you have people to support you/ride with you, because this can make a huge difference on very long rides.

Centuries aren't my forte, but as long as you have time to prepare and set yourself realistic goals, you are not insane at all.

[RoadRaven]

If you never ridden a hilly century, I can't recommend it.
If you haven't regularly ridden at the altitude, I wouldn't recommend it.

...

So I would suggest you think it over carefully of what you are really capable of doing. This isn't the time of bravado, its time to think realistically.

smilingcat

Ah... Cat said it much more specifically and succintly than me... I was trying to say if you had done similar rides then go for it... but only if you had...
Or if you had time to train up to this type of ride

Thanks Cat

[ibcycling]

Morning Alex. Wow, looks like a challenging ride. My legs hurt just looking at it. LOL I have no advice one way or the other being a newbie but I was curious what bike computer you have. I don't have one yet and am trying to decide how many features I want on it. Knowing how much I climb would be great! I don't seem to have an "eye" for how steep a hill is but I guess that will come with time.

Thanks,
Lora

[Alex]

Thank you, everyone, for your input! I have analyzed some of the rides I have taken this summer on Routeslip, but it seems that Routeslip over-estimates elevation. I was getting stats like 5400' over 45 miles or 3200' over 12 miles for some of my rides. In any event, I think I have solved my dilemma. The Tour de Park City is also going to offer a 50-mile option, but they haven't put it up on their website yet. So, I can sign up for the century and then go as far as I want up Mirror Lake Highway. If I want to turn around before I get to the top, I can easily do that and then ride the return loop. I thought that even completing just 50 miles would make a good training ride for the Heber Valley Century that's a couple of weeks later.

It will be a pretty ride and now I won't have the stress of worrying about making the cut-off times or of not enjoying the big climb.

Ibcycling: My new computer is an Edge 305. There's an entire thread on TE about the Edge.

Yellow: I don't think I've ever ridden Brown's Canyon. If I did, it was years ago.

Alex

[Alex]

It seems the TdPC organizers overestimated the climbing and the distance on the TdPC route. A couple of weeks ago, they changed their website to reflect 8000 feet of climbing over 100 miles.

I did the "century" ride today. It was actually 93 miles. My Garmin shows 6653 in elevation gained. Almost all of the gain was in the first 43 miles of the ride. There were about 32 miles of almost solid uphill that ended at a mountain pass. The pass was at 10,750 feet. The main climb was on the Mirror Lake Highway. Someone had painted the following on the road, "BEGIN TO SUFFER." Cheery, huh?

It was a lovely route! About 200 people signed up for the century and half-century options, which made for a very solitary ride. I rode alone the entire way and I really enjoyed it. I talked to the cows (who were ON the road). I chatted with the goats, "Yo! Goat!" I admired the horses. I screamed at a suicidal chipmunk who I certainly would have hit if he didn't have a sudden change of heart, as I was going about 38 mph downhill at the time.

At a couple of the rest stops, the organizers had trailers that were specially designed portable toilets. The women's toilets had a throw rug, a flush toilet, running water, hand soap, paper towels AND an arrangement of fake flowers AND a basket of mints. Such luxury!

When I started riding it was about 43 degrees. When I finished it was around 70. Gorgeous blue skies. Pine trees. Couldn't ask for anything more!

Alex

[Starfish]

Wow, that sounds like a gorgeous, wonderful ride. So glad it worked out this way for you!!

[SandyLS]

Congratulations, Alex. It sounds as if you had a great ride! I've never heard of that kind of luxury for a portable ladies room on a supported bike ride. The best I've seen are moderately gross porta potties with a bottle of hand sanatizer if you're very lucky. I'm glad it turned out to be a great day for you.

[sbctwin]

I rode the 'half century' which turned out to be only 35 miles. I was so apprehesive of the the hills that when Alex first reported she thought it was only 35 miles, I felt relieved. But now, I feel disappointed because it was only 35 miles . The ride route was extraordinary. The country side, with the horses and pastures and everything, couldn't have been better. But they need to plan better. The organizers didn't have porta-johns at the beginning of the ride (and end of ride, at least when I finished). They didn't think they needed them. There were porta-johns available, only because the starting point was also a construction site. So the porta-johns available were 'well used'. But, as Alex reported, the 'Luxery' porta-johns, wer luxery. I couldn't believe they made those things on wheels and that they were so, well, luxurious . ...

[zondian]

It sounds you like you had a beautiful ride! I have to compliment you on doing a ride at altitude, when I first moved to NM (Taos) I went from sea level to 7000 feet. It took awhile to adjust (weeks I think). I could swim one lap at a time in the pool, and hiking uphill was difficult. Sounds like you did just fine.


The elevation gain sounds amazing, and it sounds like a really cool century (neat rest stops and all). I'd love to hear more about your climbs if you care to share