MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge. Ends June 14th!

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remad
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MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge. Ends June 14th!

Post by remad »

Ends June 14th!
I have enjoyed the first 2 MRC COVID 19 challenges, so I am adding one of my own. I am posting this up early and the rules may change a little before the challenge starts, so if there are any changes that should be made, let me know.

Let me start by stealing Jeremy's disclaimer and say:

1) This is not sponsored by Minuteman Road Club or Rees Madsen in any way shape or form
2) If you attempt this challenge, you assume all liability and MRC and/or Rees Madsen are not liable for any injuries or damages you cause or incur. Basically, you are on your own. And since this is not an MRC sponsored event or group ride, you will not be eligible to receive USAC insurance benefits via the MRC policy.
3) In light of the current pandemic situation, please practice social distancing. Bonus if you wear an MRC buff, which performed well in recent wind tunnel testing.

Dates: this will run the first 2 weeks of June 2020. Anything from June 1st through June 14th will be accepted.

Prize Purse: $60
1st place $30
2nd place $20
3rd place $10

The challenge: Climbing as high as you can in 1 minute! Measured in feet via strava analysis. Example below.
Sorry metric lovers, I assumed most of us were using imperial on our stravas.

To try and make it more fair, I am taking away feet based on road racing category and adding bonus feet based on racing age (your age at the end of this calendar year).

For each category above cat 4, you get a 6 foot penalty
Cat 4/5: No penalty.
Cat 3: -5 feet
Cat 2: -10 feet
Cat 1: -15 feet
Pro: -20 feet
*If you a are a masters racer 35+, then your maximum road category will be a cat 3 (Pare is Cat2 35+, but will count as a Cat3 for this challenge)

Those 35 and older get a bonus of 4 feet.
Those 50 and older get a bonus of 8 feet.
Those 65 and older get a bonus of 12 feet.
Those 75 and older get a bonus of 16 feet.

Any females that attempt the challenge get a bonus 15 feet.

The Category bonuses and the gender bonus are roughly estimated from this chart:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/cyclinganalyti ... -table.png

Ties:
If there is a tie, then whoever entered their 1 minute effort with a slower speed wins.
If that is also a Tie, then the person with the higher average speed for their 1 minute wins.

Other rules, must be a solo effort, UCI road race legal gear only (no bikes under 6.8kg!). Any hill anywhere is fine, running starts are fine. Must be a MRC club member in good standing.
To make the research more crucial in finding your hill, no one can use a hill that's been already used.
No throwing your GPS unit!

Example entry: You must include a link with the time analysis, that way it is easy to verify. Also include your racing age and category.
Racing age Under 35, Cat 2.
https://www.strava.com/activities/34910 ... /4837/4897
103 ft climb -10 feet for being cat 2 = 93 feet

It will require that people get on their strava and analyzing their ride, but I thought a challenge that can be done anywhere (except for Florida) would be fun.
Last edited by remad on Mon Jun 08, 2020 7:57 am, edited 5 times in total.
djming
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by djming »

remad wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 3:17 pm For each category above cat 4, you get a 6 foot penalty
Cat 3: -6 feet
Cat 2: -12 feet
YES, a solid reason why I didn't upgrade last year :D
That plus my old(er) age 10' bonus just might give me a chance..
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remad
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

djming wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 4:30 pm
remad wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 3:17 pm For each category above cat 4, you get a 6 foot penalty
Cat 3: -6 feet
Cat 2: -12 feet
YES, a solid reason why I didn't upgrade last year :D
That plus my old(er) age 10' bonus just might give me a chance..
While making these rules, I did think of you as the odds on favorite for 1st. Maybe we need to give you a mandatory upgrade for this challenge!
Really, I am just hoping that the bonus feet make it a little more competitive.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by jraguin »

Ooooh, nice job designing this one Rees. I need to work on my short power so this is a good one to encourage that training!

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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by Jacob »

Racing age Over 35, Cat 3.
https://www.strava.com/activities/34983 ... /3508/3568
133 ft climb -6 feet for being cat 3 +5 feet for being over 35 = 132 feet

(edit: moving my start time 6 seconds later gained me an additional 9 feet)
Last edited by Jacob on Sun May 24, 2020 3:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by KTeves »

Jacob wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 3:48 pm Racing age Over 35, Cat 3.
https://www.strava.com/activities/34983 ... /3502/3562
124 ft climb -6 feet for being cat 3 +5 feet for being over 35 = 123 feet
"Anything from June 1st through June 14th will be accepted." 😲
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remad
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

KTeves wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 3:58 pm
Jacob wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 3:48 pm Racing age Over 35, Cat 3.
https://www.strava.com/activities/34983 ... /3502/3562
124 ft climb -6 feet for being cat 3 +5 feet for being over 35 = 123 feet
"Anything from June 1st through June 14th will be accepted." 😲
You are a little early. The challenge has not started yet, but that would be a really good result.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by Jacob »

remad wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 4:33 pm
KTeves wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 3:58 pm
Jacob wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 3:48 pm Racing age Over 35, Cat 3.
https://www.strava.com/activities/34983 ... /3502/3562
124 ft climb -6 feet for being cat 3 +5 feet for being over 35 = 123 feet
"Anything from June 1st through June 14th will be accepted." 😲
You are a little early. The challenge has not started yet, but that would be a really good result.
No problem!
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JeremyC
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by JeremyC »

Quick question, if the segment is longer than 1 minute, what's the best way to determine how many feet you climbed during the "best" 1 minute?
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by Fintan »

One way is to zoom in to a one minute window on the Analysis screen. The height is displayed on the right.
The trick, William Potter, is not minding that it hurts.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

JeremyC wrote: Tue May 26, 2020 11:35 am Quick question, if the segment is longer than 1 minute, what's the best way to determine how many feet you climbed during the "best" 1 minute?
When analyzing your ride you can highlight a section of the ride to view. In my example:

https://www.strava.com/activities/3491062503/analysis/4837/4897

You can see the two numbers 4837 and 4897 (I made them red for clarity, but that also makes it so that the link is not clickable), you can shift these, keeping them 60 (seconds) apart to try and maximize your gain. Your net elevation change will be on the screen next to the word "selection". The strava phone app is not able to do this type of analysis, so you will need to do it from a computer.

It is this net elevation number that will be used, so any downhill in the effort will count against you.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by strat »

Erm...is a Strava subscription needed to access this feature?
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

strat wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 3:08 am Erm...is a Strava subscription needed to access this feature?
No, it’s not. You can analyze your ride with the free version.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

With there being some confusion about how to analyse strava for this challenge, I will plan on making a short tutorial video to post up before the start of the challenge.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

Or I can let GPLama do the tutorial for me! the 20 second clip from 10:10 to 10:30 shows most of what you need. He zooms into a section that is 4 minutes long, but you can continue zooming in until you have a 1 minute section selected.

Once you have zoomed into a 1 minute section, I would suggest editing your URL to make small, 1 second adjustments, to try and maximize your gain.

https://youtu.be/RlNf2u-FiXE?t=610
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by JeremyC »

Your initial tutorial worked, although it took me 97 tries to drag the window to exactly 1 minute. I think one of our software programers should write a script to automatically extract this data from the ride URL.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

After some discussion, a "Pare Clause" has been added, as well as a slight reduction in the bonus/penalty points. The rules are still subject to change until the challenge starts. If there are any changes that you think need to be made to make the challenge more fair, there is still time to let me know (I would prefer a direct message).
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by strat »

remad wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 7:05 am
strat wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 3:08 am Erm...is a Strava subscription needed to access this feature?
No, it’s not. You can analyze your ride with the free version.
Thanks Rees. Now I know how my parents must've felt every time they asked me to set the VCR for them!!
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by jraguin »

strat wrote: Thu May 28, 2020 1:11 am
remad wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 7:05 am
strat wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 3:08 am Erm...is a Strava subscription needed to access this feature?
No, it’s not. You can analyze your ride with the free version.
Thanks Rees. Now I know how my parents must've felt every time they asked me to set the VCR for them!!
Just pay for the subscription. It is worth it.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by BikeRider »

remad wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 11:00 am After some discussion, a "Pare Clause" has been added, as well as a slight reduction in the bonus/penalty points.
Where might I find out more details about this "Pare Clause" you've referenced.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by djming »

Rees amended the original post with the rules to add it but here it is:
* If you a are a masters racer 35+, then your maximum road category will be a cat 3 (Pare is Cat2 35+, but will count as a Cat3 for this challenge)
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by KTeves »

jraguin wrote: Thu May 28, 2020 8:54 am Just pay for the subscription. It is worth it.
^^^ditto what he said; it's $5 / month!
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by BikeRider »

djming wrote: Fri May 29, 2020 8:32 pm Rees amended the original post with the rules to add it but here it is:
* If you a are a masters racer 35+, then your maximum road category will be a cat 3 (Pare is Cat2 35+, but will count as a Cat3 for this challenge)
Thanks, Dave. I was looking for a footnote or stand-alone clause. Totally missed that one.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by remad »

This challenge starts tomorrow and the rules are locked in! Good luck everyone!
I also wanted to remind everyone to ride safe. The top prize is only $30 and that is NOT worth taking any risks with a high speed entry.
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Re: MRC COVID 19 Climbing Challenge.

Post by JeremyC »

remad wrote: Sun May 31, 2020 8:47 pm This challenge starts tomorrow and the rules are locked in! Good luck everyone!
I also wanted to remind everyone to ride safe. The top prize is only $30 and that is NOT worth taking any risks with a high speed entry.
Life is risk
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