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Im wisconsin hill grade
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Was wondering if anyone knows what percent the grade is on the out and back hill they had at im wisconsin last year.

2020 Team Zoot MTN
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [tsdogma] [ In reply to ]
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You have to be a bit more specific since there are fair number of hills. If you are talking about Barlow..... the full hill is 2% over 1.8 miles. If you want just the steep part it is 7% at .4 miles according to Strava. I didn't think it was 'the worst thing ever' or worth getting a different cassette for it.
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [cayennne92] [ In reply to ]
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Sorry about that. I am talking about that one hill everyone was dreading to climb. Not sure of the name but thanks for the help. I didn't even think about checking strava.

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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [tsdogma] [ In reply to ]
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It's Barlow...it's only on loop one and I showed 8% at steepest point with 2-3% on the climb up to the steep section. It's big...I'm not a big hill climber and made it up every training ride, but burned a lot of matches.

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
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [Am00re34] [ In reply to ]
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Awesome thanks for clarifying that. Yeah during the race I struggled more than during my practice runs. Wanted to see how bad it actually was...

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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [Am00re34] [ In reply to ]
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I just looked at my strava data from the last race and it showed that segment "full Barlow" has a grade of 18%? Is that wrong?

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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [tsdogma] [ In reply to ]
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I did it last year. Barlow is steep. It's easily steeper than 8% at times but likely averages about that for the entire climb. I've ridden a lot of Wisconsin's coulee country climbs and done some mountain climbs including Pikes Peak. Barlow is about as steep as anything I've ridden.

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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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [tsdogma] [ In reply to ]
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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.


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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [tsdogma] [ In reply to ]
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I raced Wisconsin last year. They are right Marlow is a hard hill. Most were walking when I got there. I am 74 climbed with 39 front and 11-28 rear. Young dudes that climb a lot could get away with 25 on the rear
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [Am00re34] [ In reply to ]
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Am00re34 wrote:
It's Barlow...it's only on loop one and I showed 8% at steepest point with 2-3% on the climb up to the steep section. It's big...I'm not a big hill climber and made it up every training ride, but burned a lot of matches.

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.
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [badgertri] [ In reply to ]
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badgertri wrote:
Am00re34 wrote:
. 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.


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"
Last edited by: gary p: May 25, 17 8:26
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [badgertri] [ In reply to ]
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badgertri wrote:
Am00re34 wrote:
It's Barlow...it's only on loop one and I showed 8% at steepest point with 2-3% on the climb up to the steep section. It's big...I'm not a big hill climber and made it up every training ride, but burned a lot of matches.

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.
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Re: Im wisconsin hill grade [gary p] [ In reply to ]
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gary p wrote:
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."

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.
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