I’m heading to Colorado on vacation in a few weeks. We do not have thin air here in WI so obviously when I get the chance to be a mountain goat I jump at it!
I’m wondering if anyone here has done Pikes? I’d like to do the entire climb from Manitou Springs and then brag about on Strava and Facebook like all my roadie friends. That’s the way it’s done around here
Anyway some setup details. My bike will be 2014 Madone 5.9 with rxl wheels. Not a feather light, but sub 16# at UCI spec. I’m assuming I may have to attempt to carry some clothes, but will have a ride waiting at the top. I rode up to about 9500’ last year and that’s my highest ride so this will be a new ball game. I will be there for a couple days and will attempt to acclimate the best I can.
I’m kind of sweating gears. I ride my bike around here with 52-38. That setup requires me over 300 watts at 69kg at 15% grade. I have a 34 on hand. I have a 11-28 cassette. I can borrow 11-32. I’m led to believe even being a stronger cyclist this gearing may test my abilities up top in the steep sections. My FTP is about 4.8 w/kg and since I don’t feel the need to be 100% all out on this I would like to not run out of gears and be forced to attempt 300 watts at 13000’ a couple hours into a ride. Not sure if this is a modest challenge or if I’m going to really need my big boy pants for this one. I do have HC climb experience and simply found it to be as hard as I made it. But it didn’t have 15-20% grades like rumored on Pikes.
Any experience / recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
I rode up to about 9500’ last year and that’s my highest ride
I’ve been to the top of Pikes Peak, took the train, and did Mt. Whitney a couple years back. 9,500 ft is a joke compared to 14k feet with regards to the thinness of the air. On Whitney, it was easy peasey until ~12k, then a sufferfest the rest of the way, that was walking (slowly) and no significant grade.
I’d get the lowest gearing you can reasonably procure - like the guys who climb Mauna Kea - if I was going to do it, I’d throw my mtb crankset on and run a single ring setup with something small like a 28t.
I rode up pikes peak last fall with a 39/25 on a TT bike. Do not recommend. I have a similar FTP, almost cried when I reached the top. Literally had to stand up and really exert myself to push 140watts near the end, and I have an FTP of ~300
I’ve never ridden Pikes Peak (road hasn’t been open to cyclist for too many years) but have ridden Mt. Evans numerous times, both when I lived in Colorado and since I’ve visited from Wisconsin. The high altitude is definitely a game changer when you are coming from the lowlands. Just try to stay steady. If you red line at altitude it is really, really, really unpleasant trying to recover.
I’m from ohio and visited my daughter in castle rock. I had a trek oclv with compact 50/34 and 12-26. I made 8,000 with that combo. But I would need a lot different gearing to go much higher. I recommend the incline at manitou springs also. nice challenge but fun. I ran the trail back down. Enjoy Colorado.
I live in the Springs and have ridden and raced the Peak several times. A 32 tooth rear sprocket will be nice unless you like low cadence sustained pedaling. I often use a 34/28, but would prefer a 30 or 32 rear. It’s the constant grade that wears on you, especially up high when your power output takes a hit.
Tried a couple of years ago. Only had one night at altitude in Colorado Springs (coming from Ohio), rented a bike and had to ride from the shop a shop in town to get there since I was with 4 others and we couldn’t fit bikes in the rental car.
Quite a bit of riding/climbing on dicey highway to get to the gate and then it kicks up right away. Suffered to the 6 mile mark where the stop is and couldn’t believe it was only 6 or 7 more to the top. Turns out that was the typical start of the ride. Made it up past 10,000 ft to the tree line into the switchbacks and really started to suffer. Had to turn around in order to get the bikes back by shop closing time, but don’t know I would have made it much farther. Every 100 yards was killing, starting to see stars.
The grade changes regularly. Just when I’d hit a steep section and start to crumble it would ease up. That is until the switch backs up near 10,000 ft.
Bike shop guys thought we were crazy to try from where we started and being unacclimated, and were impressed that a couple of us made it as high as we did. Really want to go back and finish it.
Reading some of these replies is funny. My wife will drive to the top to meet me. Heck if I still feel good maybe I’ll go back down to 11 k and back up for a full 10k feet of climbing.
I rode to the top from the Biltmore last fall. Was about 64mi round trip and ~ 9000ft gain. I rode a rented trek madone with a standard crank and 11-28 cassette. I never felt that the grade was too severe. I had warming sleeves and full finger gloves for the descent. Don’t miss the fudge and hot donuts at the top. Awesome ride.
I rode Mt. Evans (~14,200 ft) from Idaho Springs a few years ago. Be prepared for schizo weather behavior. At the start of our ride, it was 70 and sunny, and at the peak and during the descent, it was freezing and hailed.
+1. the weather changes dramatically at high elevation especially after around noon. If you do plan to do the ride get out as early as possible. Storms up there can be brutal and quick moving. I’ve ridden up to the lodge at Pikes (~11,500) and it was brutal. The grade wasnt horrible yet but the elevation messed with me (4th month living here…). Beautiful coming down though.
Don’t even think about anything other than the 34x32. Your FTP will take a 30% hit from sea level at 14,000’. Run it through bikecalculator.com to see how fast your climb at FTP-30% on 10% grades. Then look at a gear chart. I think it will be pretty obvious.
I have a friend who moved to Denver from my area. He’s got a sea level FTP of around 5 W/kg. After living there a while he did it with a 36x28 and wished he had a 32…
(edited to fix a horrible “you’re”, “your” error…)
