was half tongue in cheek. I google segments sometimes and out of curiosity will see how I rank against my peer group for bench marking purposes to see if maybe I can improve. But with that comes artificial start and end points.
Next year I may do the French Alps so looking at combining segments into something that might possibly approximate a longish climb at a particular gradient. Bear Mountain repeats don't cut it because the gradient is not the right steepness for what I'm trying to accomplish.
Wow, I sure hope you get to go to the Alps. I'd love to go to Europe, whether the Alps, the Dolomites, the Pyrenees, or the tourist version of the Ronde ... Unfortunately, you know, life ...
There are many steep climbs around here, but other than Bear Mtn there's not much that is more than about 20 min. or so. I can't think of anything that would take longer than Arden Valley, other than Bear Mtn starting from 9W, and as you point out that isn't very steep.
However, if you're coming up from NYC, I would think that repeats of Bear Mountain after a long ride would be a fair approximation, or you could just push a higher gear to simulate a steeper grade. You won't be doing this at altitude, though the Alps aren't that high, around 8,000 ft max, I think???
Maybe a trip out West, though my impression is that, although long and at high altitudes, most climbs in the Rockies are not as steep as the climbs in the Alps.
I think that, as long as you plan for gears that are low enough, you should be fine even without being able to train on long climbs. You might take a ride or so to get into rhythm, but after that you should be OK. I visited W. Penn, and the terrain was VERY different, lots of rolling terrain - short, sharp descents and ascents. At first that was really kicking my butt, but after about an hour or so I got used to the rhythm and then it didn't bother me. I suspect that getting accustomed to the long Alpine climbs will be similar.
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