Lots of climbing stats

Today was quite a combination of rides — hitting a new personal record of shortest distance to 5,000′ of vertical gain on the way into work and then hitting 5,000′ ft again in less than 30 miles on the way home from work. Both rides were pretty slow with lots of weaving on the steep parts and several roller coaster repeats. The best thing about the roller coaster repeats is that they are insanely fast in the 53×11 on the descents and then nearly instantly into the 39×28 — that’s a lot of wear and tear on the derailleurs. No wonder I have broken three front and one rear derailleur in the past year and snapped several cables.

Morning ride (annotated) – click to enlarge

Afternoon ride topocreator map – annotated – click to enlarge

Annotated ibike data from morning ride (click to enlarge)

Annotated ibike data from afternoon ride (click to enlarge)

Finally, here are the garmin screenshots:

skyland dr rollers in the morning

one to two climbing ratio plus opposite maxed out acceleration (this is on the s brookwood roller coaster)

new record 5,000′ vertical feet in 23.7 miles

26 miles to climb one vertical mile (5280′)

one to two climbing ratio on top of vestavia dr late in my morning commute

morning ride – ride stats, temp, max speed, avg speed, avg heartrate, distance

morning ride – climbing ratio

Fast max speeds in the afternoon (annotated)

Elevation profile with max speeds indicated

Less than 30 miles to 5,000 ft of climbing on my afternoon commute

Afternoon commute ride stats – climbing ratio

Rouge Roubaix heartrate data and topocreator maps

Two more things to add to this year’s Rouge Roubaix race report: annotated heartrate data and topocreator maps (2D and 3D). Check them out below!

Heart rate zone summary

Annotated heartrate/speed/power curve (click to enlarge)

2D annotated topocreator map of the entire rouge roubaix course (click to enlarge) … or click here to download ultra hi-res version.

3D topocreator map of entire route (click to enlarge)

3D topocreator map of blockhouse hill (click to enlarge)

3D topocreator map of tunica hills (click to enlarge)

Southern Cross hi-res 2D and 3D topo maps

I don’t know why I never thought of making one of these before for the Southern Cross race course, but the topography is really cool and it certainly shows in the maps below … enjoy! Also, I noticed while doing the maps that the course enters 4 different counties. With a slight route change, it could be a five county race!

Southern Cross 2D map (click to enlarge)

Southern Cross 3D map (click to enlarge)

Southern Cross Weekend Wrap-up

Panoramic view from a grassy knoll just below the summit of Brasstown Bald – the highest point in Georgia at just under 4800′

Wrapping up a wonderful weekend of riding, racing, and climbing in the beautiful North Georgia mountains outside of Dahlonega that included the Southern Cross Ultracross race, I headed out for one last ride right after the nice breakfast provided by the awesome folks at the Hiker Hostel. My daughter’s church choir program was at 5PM back in Birmingham, and I really wanted to be back in time for it – so my original plan of 85 miles and 11-12,000 feet of climbing got scaled back to 65 miles and 9,000 feet of climbing.

Having thrown out my original route plan, I decided on a modified route that included 4 major climbs (Cat 2 or higher) and a few smaller climbs (Cat 3 or lower). I climbed Woody Gap from the R&R ranch and then proceeded backwards on the Six Gap century course climbing over Wolf Pen, then heading out to Jack’s Gap and taking the 180 spur all the way to the top of Brasstown, turning around at the top and reversing my course but this time heading up Neel’s Gap on US129. The final climb of the day back to the Hiker Hostel had the steepest gradients with a crazy steep driveway access road that climbs up and over a couple mini-ridges before turning into a dirt power-line trail with gradients well over the 30% that ended up getting recorded on my iBike.

iBike data for the ride

3D map of the route annotated with gaps and mountains (click to enlarge)

2D annotated map with roads and mountains labeled (click to enlarge)

Maps from Cheaha

I forgot to post the maps I made for the weekend of riding … if you are curious about the topography of the entire area, then download the super hires ultra resolution (20MB) map of my Cheaha ride (the last map).

Three days, just under 300 miles of riding

Read my ride recaps and see the photos I took for each day here –

Day 1 – 72.1 miles – commute into work and ride from samford to pell city
Day 2 – 81.1 miles – exploring the oxford – anniston – jacksonville ridge line
Day 3 – 141.6 miles – riding from oxford back home to hoover via mt cheaha

Really fun route from Oxford to Anniston to Jacksonville and back via Fort McClellan – includes two Cat 2 climbs

Oxford to Hoover via Mount Cheaha – mountains of eastern alabama annotated Or click here to download the super hi-res 20MB version of this map.