As I have entered my first 200km audax ride (the Rutland Ramble) next weekend and I am thinking of riding it on fixed wheel, I thought that I should try riding over the hilly section beforehand, to give me a little confidence that fixed is not a stupid idea.
I mapped out the 200km ride last night and reckoned that the third 50km from Wistow to Elton would be the hilliest. As that is quite close to me, I decided to ride out to Wiston (just south of Leicester) and back as a DIY-by-GPS 100km audax covering the hilliest section of the Rutland Ramble from km96 to km134.
The gear I have installed at the moment is 63″ (48×20), which is on the low side but I am working on improving leg speed and general cadio fitness rather than achieving the best road speed. Quite a good gear for hills, going up that is, currently the worst thing about cycling up a steep hill is knowing that there will be a downhill on the other side! I am comfortable up to 25mph, and can manage 28mph happily as long as I can see the end of the hill. The max top speed in this gear is around 30mph, but for only short periods of time as this equates to almost 180rpm.
Down into Harringworth.
Although the steepest hill today was a 1:7 (one arrow on the OS map), it didn’t have a sign so I only snapped the two gradient signs I did see. I went both up and down all three hills – down was worse!