2014 Kill Bill Century: May 4, 2014 at 7am

@Dirt 83289 wrote:

Honestly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen on this route was hozn going for and getting the KOM on Jay Miller Dr. (arguably the toughest climb on the route) close to mile 90 of the route. If I’m not mistaken, that KOM stands to this day…. though me publicizing that may have some people shooting for it.

Heh, Sean put me up to it. I think it may still stand? But I hope someone raises the bar (inevitably someone will) so I have to work to get it back!

@Dirt 83288 wrote:

Over the 5+ years of the routes existence, the elevation has gone up from about 10,800 to my estimate of 12,800.

I have usually talked about it with educated guesses for the elevation gain because Ride With GPS doesn’t accurately calculate it.

Today I looked at the actual elevation data recorded on 4 different types of devices by 12 different people on many occasions over the last 3 years. The lowest measured elevation gain was 10,800. The highest was 13,200. I’ve ridden the loop 20 times in the last 5 years and pretty consistently come up with numbers that tend to validate the mid-upper 12,000 estimate. It takes me a little while to calculate that because I generally ride for an hour before and after the ride so my legs don’t explode. I rarely take the time to subtract out the pre and post ride elevation.

Does that help?

Eesh. That 40 mile gravel grinder we did had about 2900 feet and that pretty much killed me. I can’t imagine doing 4 times that

@americancyclo 83309 wrote:

It took a heroic effort from me and a lot of goading from pete to get up that climb at 10 mph. Seeing Hozn climb it at 13 mph was awe-inspiring and soul crushing at the same time.

Well, you dominated the last climb of the day, so you shouldn’t feel too soul-crushed!

It seemed like hozn was going up Jay Miller at 16mph+ by that time of the ride. I like climbing but most of Barcroft was a hazy blur last year. No way I could’ve made it through that ride without the social group support. (And checking the ride data, I was actually going less than 1/2 the speed of hozn.)

@KelOnWheels 83308 wrote:

Eesh. That 40 mile gravel grinder we did had about 2900 feet and that pretty much killed me. I can’t imagine doing 4 times that

That was a tough route, and climbing gravel is harder than climbing roads. (And descending gravel is sometimes harder too!)

@Dirt 83288 wrote:

Over the 5+ years of the routes existence, the elevation has gone up from about 10,800 to my estimate of 12,800.

I have usually talked about it with educated guesses for the elevation gain because Ride With GPS doesn’t accurately calculate it.

Today I looked at the actual elevation data recorded on 4 different types of devices by 12 different people on many occasions over the last 3 years. The lowest measured elevation gain was 10,800. The highest was 13,200. I’ve ridden the loop 20 times in the last 5 years and pretty consistently come up with numbers that tend to validate the mid-upper 12,000 estimate. It takes me a little while to calculate that because I generally ride for an hour before and after the ride so my legs don’t explode. I rarely take the time to subtract out the pre and post ride elevation.

Does that help?

The elevation doesn’t really count if you don’t come to a screeching halt at the bottom of each hill to ensure you don’t use momentum to help you up. I presume that’s part of the protocol.

I’ll try to join in for part of it–the route goes near my house at miles 2, 5, 15, 47, and 64. I’m not sure what activities my kids have going on later that day, and I’m not in shape right now to do a full hundred.

@Dirt 83245 wrote:

I think this is the 6th time I’ve lead (sic) the ride and it never gets old with me.

A Freudian slip for those struggling up all the hills, perhaps?

I will be neck deep in two final papers, so I’m not even going to say I’m tentatively in.

@hozn 83341 wrote:

Yes, don’t worry; there are very few hills that I remember really having a nice run-up from a downhill. I think Dirt described it as “death by a thousand cuts”, which sounds about right. But fun cuts!

The uphill always follows a sharp right hand turn.