Hilly Billy Roubaix 2012, Simulation

So we think we've got the right tires for Hilly Billy Roubaix 2012 (see the Idea and Planning posts) and I'm

pretty excited about how my new Stans Aplha Comp Tubeless wheels are performing.

Its time for the simulation...

But wait!  How do you simulate the hilliest place on earth in your fairly hilly town?  THE Potapsco Valley can help.

i sent this email to Pat and Adam:
"i'd be lying if i said i wasn't proud of this newest route.

it follows a simple set of rules which makes it way easier to remember where to go next.

and it is 43 miles instead of 45 miles.

and it is 7200 feet of climbing instead of 6200 feet.

and it does each trail climb twice now instead of once.

the key was to ignore KOM shopping and focus on climbing the most possible in the smallest amount of distance.

this is going to be epic!"

http://www.mappedometer.com/?maproute=98304

Pat could not do it with us because he was doing Stoopid 50.  *(He did amazing, 5th)!

But Sug and I were in.  Here is the Strava output:

http://app.strava.com/rides/11017880

My email review to Pat and Adam after the simulation:

Intro:

We completed about 2/3 of the Hilly Billy distance and about 2/3 of the total elevation.

I'm not sure why the elevation was so much lower than we expected.

I was expecting that we had missed about 1,000 feet of climbing.  but it turned out to be almost 2,000 feet less.

This was a positive for me, because i was cracking on our final 2 climbs (waterbars and gun road).

More climbing would have been detrimental.

hill stats:

Most of the climbs that we did were roughly 200 feet of elevation and roughly .5 miles long.  Some quick stats:

waterbars = .3mi, 175 feet (trail, done twice)

vineyard = .7mi, 252 feet (trail, done twice)

nunery = .3mi, 208 feet (trail, done twice)

hilltop = .5mi, 233 feet

fred/thistle/hilltop = 1.6mi, 299 feet

westchester = .6mi, 218 feet

oella/westchester = 1.8mi, 325 feet

ellicott mills = .6 mi, 192 feet

old columbia pike = .7mi, 196 feet

college = .9mi, 255 feet

ilchester = .8mi, 326 feet

gun rd. = .8mi, 280 feet

not surprisingly hilltop and ilchester are the most bang for your buck in terms of distance and elevation.

according to bernie's strava output for hilly billy 2011, the climbs roughly avg .7mi long and roughly 300 feet of elevation.

if i click on the segments then i see that the grades for some of these hover around 15%.

like this bigger one: http://app.strava.com/segments/740813

and this shorter nastier one (25% grades): http://app.strava.com/segments/725060 

rockiness:

Sug and I were wondering about the rockiness/graveliness and "how bad could it get".  because descending

nunery and waterbars is just darn painful on a cx bike at 60psi.

According to blog posts some of the loose gravel is "eggbeater-sized" with potholes.  and i found these picks:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bstephens83/4738731248/in/set-72157624240489909

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bstephens83/4738733868/in/set-72157624240489909

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bstephens83/4738102993/in/set-72157624240489909

So some of these descents are going to be bumpy.  but not as bad as nunery (hopefully).

hydration and eating:

i went through 2 water bottles during this ride.  but it was 59 degrees at the start and maybe 65 by the finish.

so I need more liquid than 3 bottles to get through a 70-80 degree ride.

i ate 2 gels and 1 probar.  i should have eaten more gels earlier but forget (bad).  eating the probar was fine.

effort:

i have to keep away from zone 5b, which i saw on almost every climb during the sim.

And i need to avoid zone 5a as much as possible to do all 70 miles well.

That means i gotta let u guys go do ur super climbing thing.  And I gotta do my good climbing thing.

equipment:

braking is tough on the long/harry descents like vineyard.

my brakes are going to need to be near perfect to save as much energy as possible and to be able to descend as fast as possible.

i discovered that my back wheel skewer had come loose on the second climb up waterbars.  so lock down ur skewers extra tight because we are going to be up against a lot of vibration!