2020 Team Zoot MTN
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2020 Team Zoot MTN
2020 Team Zoot MTN
The problem is the smaller hills leading to the big one. You have no speed so the climb is just all power, no momentum. Anyone who tells you it's no big deal is a liar and trying to sound tough. I cheered on the hill last year and I'd say 60-70% walked and of those who didn't probably 80% of them were maxing hR. You need to be a good climber to get up without hurting the rest of your day
2020 Team Zoot MTN
2020 Team Zoot MTN
So based on everything I've done and the data I can provide I'd guess Barlow peaks about 15%. There are likely sections that sustain about 10-12% for 30 seconds or more at a time.
How I rode it:
So I had the 3rd fastest bike split in the field last year. I ran 39-28 gearing. I was passed 3 times on Barlow and that was the only place I was ever passed on the bike course. 2 of those passes were pro women that I passed back at the top. The other was a dude I passed a bit down the road. I planned to stand and climb most of it. I was able to hold about 300 at slow cadence no problem. Yup...I did a little paperboying my way back and forth. I simply did what it took to burn as few matches as possible. I got up the hill with no matches burned :)
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It gets steep... steeper than 8%... Here are the two strava segments for it:
https://www.strava.com/...51351?filter=overall
https://www.strava.com/...55174?filter=overall
The first is the full climb, which includes the hills leading into it and shows a max grade around 20%, the second is just the main hill and shows a max grade of 15.2%. I have no idea why those are different since the second segment is contained within the first segment so take those numbers with a grain of salt.
I have watched my garmin going up the climb with the grade data field and seen it at 13%.
There you have it... Three varying data points for the same climb. All I can say is that it is steep and takes a bit of effort to get up, although I was certainly not maxed out. Looking at my last ride up Barlow and looking at the main climb only, I averaged 300 watts on the climb (I weigh about 175lbs). For the steep section I averaged about 370w. This effort pushed me into Z3 HR at the end of the steep section before settling back to Z2 for the remainder of the climb.
The problem is the smaller hills leading to the big one. You have no speed so the climb is just all power, no momentum. Anyone who tells you it's no big deal is a liar and trying to sound tough. I cheered on the hill last year and I'd say 60-70% walked and of those who didn't probably 80% of them were maxing hR. You need to be a good climber to get up without hurting the rest of your day
This is very surprising to me. I would expect that a compact crank with a 28 rear at a low cadence would get most people up Barlow with no matches burnt.
This is very surprising to me. I would expect that a compact crank with a 28 rear at a low cadence would get most people up Barlow with no matches burnt.
You're not a flatlander, are you?
The last 2/10ths of a mile of that hill are a ~9% grade. You have to be able to push ~2.5 watts/kilo (for ~2.5 minutes) to get up that at 5mph. Slower than that, many people find it hard to keep balance and easier to walk. Especially if you're not used to climbing steep grades out of the saddle.
2.5 watts/kilo may not seem like a lot to an Ironman competitor, but it's definitely "burning matches" zone for many Ironman "completers."
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"
The problem is the smaller hills leading to the big one. You have no speed so the climb is just all power, no momentum. Anyone who tells you it's no big deal is a liar and trying to sound tough. I cheered on the hill last year and I'd say 60-70% walked and of those who didn't probably 80% of them were maxing hR. You need to be a good climber to get up without hurting the rest of your day
This is very surprising to me. I would expect that a compact crank with a 28 rear at a low cadence would get most people up Barlow with no matches burnt.
I did it last year. Compact crank and 11/28 cassette in the rear. Going up Barlow at a cadence of 55-65, I was at 350W and Vo2max territory.
That hill is a beast and easily about 20% grade but short and only on first loop.
The last 2/10ths of a mile of that hill are a ~9* grade. You have to be able to push ~2.5 watts/kilo (for ~2.5 minutes) to get up that at 5mph. Slower than that, many people find it hard to keep balance and easier to walk. Especially if you're not used to climbing steep grades out of the saddle.
2.5 watts/kilo may not seem like a lot to an Ironman competitor, but it's definitely "burning matches" zone for many Ironman "completers."
I live in Madison so I ride these hills frequently. I also do a lot of low gear/low cadence work on them to manage watts. I agree with your assessment of competitor vs. completer but anyone with decent cycling fitness should be able to manage Barlow with no harm done. I think the bigger issue is that people aren't comfortable going 5mph at 50rpms. In my opinion, anyone that does a hilly IM needs to find anything that even resembles a hill and work on going slow on low rpms...it's more muscular strength than muscular endurance and getting your muscles prepared for that will save you a lot of lactic acid build up. If you can find a 50 foot "bump" start at the bottom of it from a stand still (this could mean bridges or parking garages for some parts of the country). Vice-versa you can mimic it on a trainer as well.