Benchmark for completing 235km, 4000m elevation ride (Peaks Challenge Falls Creek)

Training
21

My lowest gear was 39/28, last time I’ve done it. It was doable, but a proper grind.

Something like 36/30 or better yet 34/32 would be a much better proposition on that climb.

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22

Thank you for the input! Nothing worse than hitting the shifter only to realise your at the end of the cassette.

Watch out for a few more 3peak questions closer to the time!

I’m over in Perth, so we struggle here to get any decent climbs in comparative to the peaks!

Kind regards

23

You have plenty of shorter climbs. Just do repeats of those and you’ll be fine.

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24

Gearing is personal thing and after 200km, can be a disaster if you have any issues, niggles.

I had 50/34 and 11-32 and a sore knee going in. Wish I had 34 or 36 on the back. Was having a great ride on pace for sub 10 then went down hill when my knee flared up, finishing 11 hours 15 ish in rain and clouds. IMHO, dont skimp on gears.

We did a week long trip over there in Nov and doing daily rides was easy, Back of Falls the top section of Hotham are completely different when done during the event. Easy to spin and keep moving as opposed to cramping and having to stop.

But everyone is different

Hugh

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25

36/32 works out to be 70 rpm for 10 km/h and around 3.0 W/kg.

I’ll have to get a long cage derailleur for that combo, right? Max capacity for the SS 6800 RD is 33, less than (52-36) + (32-11) = 37.

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26

I ran 50/34 + 11/30 on DA9000 short cage. Coach Jonathan’s mate used a wolf tooth road link (during Everesting attempt episode) to allow for larger cassette compatability. Wolf Tooth RoadLink Derailleur Hanger Extension – Wolf Tooth Components.

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27

Hi Gary. Sub-10 is a good time for 3Peaks, again, have a sound nutrition plan and if you’re aiming for 10h use the 9h Bicycle Network pacing crew as your domestiques. Seriously, let them take the wind for most of the ride, and the on the Back of Falls give it your all. The reason I say that is I used the 8 hour guys, and their pacing through the false flat from “The Meg” to Hotham was unreal, I rode it solo the year before, but with them I was averaging 5-10km/h faster. A lot of time can be lost on that stretch. They’re also invaluable on the section from Dinner Plain, through Omeo, and through Alpine National Park. Using them and/or the other group will save a lot of time, if you’re aiming for 10 hours, pacing the 9 hour group will give you a buffer.

Last word of advice, watch the clock at the refill stations, minutes can tick over quickly, which you might find to be the reason you don’t make your goal time. Eat/drink on the bike as much as possible, even if it’s cruising waiting for the next group to jump on.

My FTP when I did 8:30 would have been around 4.5w/kg, not too stellar, but was pretty fit then (70kg / 315 FTP).

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28

Thanks again for all the shared experiences. It is really valuable.
I’m currently at about 3.8w/kg, so will lean up a little closer to the time, and push up to low to mid 4w.

29

We traveled from NZ to do it, and the longest local climb i had was 20 min. Lots of repeats are good as Tim said, but the other thing we did was extract the GPX files for Hotham & Back of Falls from Strava and rode these in the Tacx Desktop App on our trainers. We knew the legs were good for 1 1/2 hours of straight climbing at tempo+ with no rest

There are other apps that you could do this in i expect

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30

Thanks.
I was going to look into this closer to the time.

31

Yes, and if you’re is in NSW, Macquarie Pass is a good one to practice as it is 10km long.

32

I was 3.5w/kg when I did 9:45 and 2.9w/kg when I did 11:30.

You’ll smash it at 3.8 to 4.

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33

Good luck to all for Sunday, hoping for a good day out and capitalising on the months of training :grin:

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34

Thanks. Same to you. The weather forecast is keeping me on my toes!