Whiteface Uphill race report

[steveyo]

I made the first ever attempt to complete the 2005 Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race (www.whitefacerace.com) last Saturday 6/11/05.

It was unbelievably hard on my 29er. To read a slighty wordy story of the race go to:
home.nycap.rr.com/rduhan/race2005/

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steveyo

[Unitik908]

congratulations... your a beast..

Chase

[recycled]

Way to go, but yea definitely you should train on something that approximates more closely the race conditions, so your equipment will be all sorted out. Good job!

[tomblackwood]

Steve,

Awesome job!!! Congratulations on powering through the pain and making the summit. Great write-up too. I can relate to the parts about being short of your goal and having to grapple with those "convenient opportunities" to call it quits. I ran into one this weekend on a long Coker ride, but unlike you I took the easy way out.

Nice work.

Tom

[tholub]

Originally posted by steveyo
I made the first ever attempt to complete the 2005 Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race (www.whitefacerace.com) last Saturday 6/11/05.

It was unbelievably hard on my 29er. To read a slighty wordy story of the race go to:
home.nycap.rr.com/rduhan/race2005/

--
steveyo

Great write-up, and congratulations!

One technical note; I don't think your issue is cadence, or at least, it's not wheel size. A 29" unicycle is more or less equivalent to a bike in a "29 gear-inch" gear, which is quite low for a road bike. Most road bikes don't even have a gear that low. The problem is that you're not able to spin it fast enough. Partly that is conditioning, and partly it may be crank length; the KH29 probably ships with either 150mm or 125mm cranks, both of which are much shorter than typical bike cranks. I would probably ride 150mm cranks on a climb like that, but as you get up towards 10% grades, 170mm might even be appropriate.

The Mount Diablo Challenge, which is a similar race out here, has a unicycle prize category, and the fastest guys are on Cokers and 29ers. I've known a couple of guys who did it on 24" unicycles, but they've always been quite slow. Mount Diablo is not quite as steep as your ride on average, but it includes pitches of up to 14% grade.

Great job finishing!

[U-Turn]

A huge accomplishment, Steve! Congratulations!

Is that road open to cyclists during non-race days?

[john_childs]

Way to go Steveyo! I know what it feels like when you're doing a climb and fighting for survival rather than being able to push yourself for sake of going faster.

A lot of climbing well is technique. How well can you minimize wasted energy. How well can you keep the pedals going in a circle rather than big surges of power on the down stroke with big let ups when the pedals are vertical. How to be smooth. Once you get the technique the climbing will be easier and you'll be able to go faster with the same amount of energy.

Congratulations! A long steep climb is an accomplishment.

I've got two big local road climbs on my todo list. They're not a race. Just big climbs that I want to be able to say I've done. Time to get training for them.

[ChangingLINKS.com]

Amazing!

[steveyo]

Originally posted by tholub
Great write-up, and congratulations!

Thanks.

One technical note; I don't think your issue is cadence, or at least, it's not wheel size. A 29" unicycle is more or less equivalent to a bike in a "29 gear-inch" gear, which is quite low for a road bike. Most road bikes don't even have a gear that low. The problem is that you're not able to spin it fast enough. Most road bikes don't even have a gear that low.

I don't really get this. All the cyclists who passed me. and even those going approximately the same speed were pedaling MUCH faster than I was. Many of the racers were running gear ratios much lower than 1:1, i.e. less than a wheel rev per full pedal circle.

I really wonder what size wheel was used setting the 1991 Mt. Washington record of 2:18. I'd bet it was 24" or less.

Originally posted by john_childs
...How well can you keep the pedals going in a circle ...Once you get the technique the climbing will be easier and you'll be able to go faster with the same amount of energy.

Mmmm. Pedaling in a circle. Just practice, right?

[U-Turn]

Originally posted by steveyo
Thanks.

I don't really get this. All the cyclists who passed me. and even those going approximately the same speed were pedaling MUCH faster than I was. Many of the racers were running gear ratios much lower than 1:1, i.e. less than a wheel rev per full pedal circle.

I really wonder what size wheel was used setting the 1991 Mt. Washington record of 2:18. I'd bet it was 24" or less.


Mmmm. Pedaling in a circle. Just practice, right?

http://www.tinmtn.org/hillclimb/foru...01&thread=1220 has some interesting discussion.

Endless attention to spinning during each and every training ride, coupled with lots of ups and downs will do wonders for your spinning.

I anticipate that a few years of participation will lead to unicyclists beating bicyclists in this race, perhaps the entire field. Same gearing, much lighter cycle.

[shibumi]

Hey Steve, you are an animal!!!

Well Done. Those cheers must have been the best prize of all.

[steveyo]

There are pictures from the Whiteface Uphill on this page:

http://pathendrickphotography.com/WF...%20table1.html

Warning, they're not pretty.

[tholub]

Originally posted by steveyo
Thanks.

I don't really get this. All the cyclists who passed me. and even those going approximately the same speed were pedaling MUCH faster than I was. Many of the racers were running gear ratios much lower than 1:1, i.e. less than a wheel rev per full pedal circle.

If you look at Dura-Ace, Shimano's top-end road components, the 10 speed rear cluster is available with a 12-21 tooth "corn cob" (favored by racers), and the largest rear cog on the largest cluster is a 27. The 9 speed tops out at a 25 tooth cog. The Dura-Ace double crank is available only in 53/39, and the Ultegra triple is 52/39/30.

So, the lowest gear you can get with decent Shimano road components (which is what almost all the road bikes you'll see are using) is 30 teeth front, 27 teeth rear, which on a typical road tire is a little above 29 gear-inches. And that's only the bikes with triples; the doubles are pushing a gear around equivalent to a Coker, or even higher.

You can get a bike with a lower than 1:1 gear ratio if you use mountain bike components. There are some road bikes which do this, mostly touring bikes and tandems, but the typical bikes you'll see on the road have 105, Ultegra, or Dura Ace components, and I don't think there is a gear lower than 1:1 available with those combinations.

I'm sure you're right that the bikes that pass you are spinning faster than you, but that's because they're passing you! You should be able to push your setup at a comparable cadence, given sufficient training, practice, and sufficiently long cranks.

My anecdotal evidence is that I passed a number of bikes on the 14% section of Mount Diablo (right at the end of the climb); that was on a 29er with 150mm cranks. And I wasn't one of the fastest unicyclists.

Good luck next year; now you have a time to beat!

[steveyo]

Originally posted by tholub
...(snip impressive bike gear list)

I'm sure you know what you're talking about with the bike gear. All I know is I saw lots of high-end, superlight road bikes, maybe designed just for hillclimbs, with a 22 or 24 on the front and 28 in the back.

...I'm sure you're right that the bikes that pass you are spinning faster than you, but that's because they're passing you! You should be able to push your setup at a comparable cadence, given sufficient training, practice, and sufficiently long cranks.

Several times I rode with someone at their same speed, and noticed them pedaling much faster. Those folks must be some with those lower geared setups.

My cranks are 150s. Do you think more training would allow me to double my cadence?

My anecdotal evidence is that I passed a number of bikes on the 14% section of Mount Diablo (right at the end of the climb); that was on a 29er with 150mm cranks. And I wasn't one of the fastest unicyclists.

I guess I'll just have to train harder next time.

[johnfoss]

I rode Mt. Diablo once, on a 29er with 140mm cranks. Those cranks were a little too short. Diablo is a little less steep than your ride, at about 3300' in about 10 miles. A few parts are even flat, and that 14% bit is only at the very top (ouch).

My experience on that ride was that wheel size = speed. I was bringing up the rear with Mscalisi, who was on a Coker. The speed we were going was basically about as slow as we could pedal without becoming too unstable. Maybe 40-50 rpm or so. Any slower and you start slowing down on each pedal stroke, and/or falling off a lot. So that was like the minimum speed we could maintain for long stretches, which was the maximum our conditioning allowed us to go.

The Coker was faster. Mike would move faster than me. Then we switched cycles to see how the other would feel. The Coker was still faster.

My conclusion based on that is that *if* the steepness of the road exceeds your ability to ride above your own personal minimum speed, use the biggest wheel available (with long cranks! 170 or longer on a Coker). If your training allows you to go faster than that, only then should you consider something smaller. But I think I'd stick with at least the 29er. Maybe use longer cranks, and obviously train on similar rides.

Thanks for that great, inspiring story! Come on out and ride Mt. Diablo with us some time. The race is in October, but sometimes groups go there for "training" rides. My ride up last may was surely one of the hardest rides I've done, because it was followed by a ride back down. The downhill was what made me sore, and my 140mm cranks, with no brakes, were much too short for the dirt trails we took!