aspenmike said:Thanks for the kind words Steveyo, but the time constraint would be the
bummer. The ride itself is very doable in a day, a long day, but having
to ride 60 mountain miles in 5 hours would be tough, in my opinion.
I've considered it, but it'd be mental.
The cut-offs and stuff aren't posted for this, year, but if it's 5
hours to do the first 60 miles, including 5000 feet of climbing, and
3500 feet of descent, it'd be way way beyond my abilities to even make
the cutoff, let alone get to the finish after that. That Janklaas guy
who's obviously pretty nifty took 1hr 25 to do the 15km climb up l'Alpe
d'Huez. Bearing in mind there are only a very small number of people in
the world who can do 60 miles in 5 hours elapsed time on a coker on the
flat. This ride is about half as far as Ken Looi's world record, but
it's got well over 10,000 feet of climbing and almost as much
descending in there. I'd be pleased to finish it in 20 hours.
Looking at Aspenmike's statistics from
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42300 he took at
least 8.5 hours elapsed time to do 65 miles under similar conditions,
and I don't think the French / Swiss riders are much quicker up the
hills, so currently I can't think of anyone who'd be in with a chance
of making the cutoffs.
The massive gears on road bikes are useful if you're a super-fit road
biker who'll be riding up 10% gradients flat out in nearly the top
gear. Unfortunately most of the entrants in l'Etape are super-fit road
bikers and the cutoff times are set based on this. There's also over
6000 feet of descent that some road bikers will probably be taking at
60 miles an hour in parts, even if the road is winding.
The other thing to remember is that being a road bike event, it may be
run under UCI rules, which ban anything odd straight out, even
recumbent bikes aren't allowed in UCI rule events. It'd also be a bit
silly, doing it in the actual event, because the roads will be crowded,
and you'll get in the way, this isn't a charity event like the London
to Brighton or something, this is serious nutter road bikers, unless
you're right at the back people really would push you off if you're in
the way. If on the first uphill you managed to beat some bikers, or
they had mechanicals or whatever, you'd be right in the way on the
downhill. It'd also be a big risk to just enter and turn up, as it's
£115 to enter (something like $200).
Joe
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