Minuteman Road Club

I thought I'd pass this along. A couple guys have posted up on the Mt Washington Hill Climb Facebook page looking to transfer their spot to someone else. Both have said they are looking to get back $100 - $150 for their spot. That's a great deal, I paid $350. It's Aug 18th, start time is 8:30. I'm sure someone wants to suffer along with me.

Brian A.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2023501041225137/

Hey Brian I think I'll take one of those spots if its $100

Robbie, contact the guy through Facebook. I don't personally know him but saw his post and thought someone here might be interested. That link should take you to the first guys post and in that post someone else says they are also looking to sell.

Brian

Looks like Tucker and I are doing Washington now! He took the other guy's spot.

Sweet!

Robbie, you'll be fine with just the 53/39 and a 12-25 cassette!!

Take off the 53 ring, the left shifter, front derailleur and the 12-13-14-15-16-17 cogs. You can save weight and you won't need them. You probably can remove your front brake caliper too.

Yeah I'll have to figure it out soon now. I doubt I can comfortably make it up with my current gearing

Find a 110 crank and slap a 34 on there. If you disable/remove the front shifting you can get away with a large cassette in the back (even with your road short cage derailleur) because you won’t have to worry about the big/big combo.

You can also hopefully get away with NOT changing chain length since you are going smaller in the front. The chain might be too slack in the 34/11 but just don’t ever go there.

I have a 34t 110bcd chainring if you need it but unfortunately you need to find a crank

for me, I definitely needed a the 34 rear that my rental bike came with on my recent granfondo with a HC climb. My FTP is 275 (about 3.9 w/kg) and on the steeper sections of 14-15% my cadence was in the 50s (around minute 33 in the video below and at 39 I hit a 19-20% section), so stronger guys will likely be able to spin more comfortably. I was using left sided pedals, and my average power on a 0.3 mile section at 15% was 211w with a cadence of 54, I don't quite believe that, I must have been really right leg dominant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjdv4Sv7js

https://www.bicycling.com/skills-tips/a ... -for-koms/

The Training
. . . For example: If I need to do 400 watts for an hour, my coach will give me a workout with 6 sets of 10 minutes at 400 watts one day, then 3 sets of 20 minutes at 400 watts on another, and then 2x30

Some time ago I posted about Phil's power after reading about his 'Worst Retirement Ever.' He can actually do 400+ watts for an hour — Insane power!!!

Want to cut weight? Check-out Phil's KOM-hunting Super-Six EVO: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/phi ... o-gallery/ (The first pic is on Mt. Washington)

Nice deal on the registrations and good luck to you all! I did this race a few times, my quickest was back in 2012 at 1:27, that was Newton's Revenge in July. I didn't have heart-rate or a power meter for reference, but I think my gearing was fine at 34x27 and then shifting into 28 when it really got steep. Having that one extra gear for sure helped mentally. I agree you're going to want a 34 up front. The last time I road it was a couple years ago, I wasn't in as good in shape but also rode a 34x25 on Fulcrum Racing Zero's. I could have used a few extra cogs in back, that was a slog, even on those wheels, which were awesome for climbing. Of course back then we didn't have the massive road cassettes like now, so if you can put bigger gears on the back I would consider it. At least go with a 34 up front if you can.

Here's a link to my Strava from 2012, that was my quickest time up the road.
https://www.strava.com/activities/12894862

If you're not familiar with the road itself, get in a really good warmup. It goes from flat to like 14% and holds that really steady for the first couple miles. There aren't really good spots to just ride around for warming up. On rt 16 you're either climbing or descending, so I'd recommend a trainer for the parking lot.

I found once I passed mile 2 I could settle in more and just focus on holding the pace. It "rolls" a little more after that, with some brief moments of being under 10% incline. Very brief.

I just drove up the road last week and the dirt section was actually in pretty good shape. It wasn't as loose on the surface as I've seen it in the past, hopefully it holds up well until race day.

Once you get close to the top it flattens out a bit before the last kick of somewhere over 25%. That would take I think somewhere around 30-45 seconds. There's usually a large crowd there which helps!

Get in some Pack Monadnock repeats if you can prior to race day, it's the perfect training climb for Washington.

Have fun!