What’s the distance of the VK at Chamonix?
True, although part of me thinks that the bike’s momentum and wheeled motion should level the playing field there perhaps??
Would love to understand it all. Guess maybe runners produce more power than cyclists? Looking on Strava at the power estimates with Stryd etc, they often seem a bit higher than bike powermeter figures?
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3.8km with av gradient of 26% but it also has switchbacks
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Thanks. Goes to show how much the switchbacks add, because from an eyeball perspective, I would not have said it’s that far in distance at all.
In purely vertical terms it’s 1km altitude gain from Brevent base station to Planpraz mid station
I used to love overtaking cyclists on long ascents on the hills near me - f73kers have all got electric assist now and cruise past me with no effort whatsoever
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Yeah I knew that, I was just curious to the overall distance because in VK terms, anything over 4km is considered a longer one (less steep) according to what James Ellson was saying.
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Remi Bonnet also has the record on the Manitou Incline - 615m of ascent in about 1 mile
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Remember in UK hill climbs you are specifically banned from putting a foot down at all, specifically because running up the hill carrying a bike is faster on most of the hills.
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I did like @gingerbongo’s idea of seeing how fast you can do 1000m on a treadmill
Might be one to try over the winter if the weather is awful
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interesting - didn’t know that
I’d recommend the stair climber I think.
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The stair master at our gym only records number of flights I think - not vertical metres but it’s a good point
Our gym now has something I’ve christened the mountainmill, it basically can go up to 50% gradient 
I’ve been doing some short sessions on it but only between 25-30% as it is low impact, and pace of around 4kph which is tougher than it sounds.
Good indoor training for long ascents but won’t help much descending.
Feels weird though when it goes back to 0%, you do feel like you are walking downhill 
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Tried walking backwards on it?
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Would probably end up with concussion to add to my woes
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Very true - it’s not the uphills that makes people withdraw from mountainous ultras - it’s the quads from the descending- when they are gone, they are not coming back
Never tried a treadmill with a declination ability but there are some out there - training the quads for me is either gym/hilly runs where I try and thrash the downhills a bit harder
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I have had a go one quite a few years ago but think it barely went to 2% so not really comparable to a long real descent. About the longest I can think of locally is barely 1.5k straight down, a couple more with twists and a few flat bits. Even something like Helvellyn isn’t as long as the ones on CCC.
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I remember the first time descending from Grand Col Ferret towards La Fouly wondering if the downhill would ever stop
Longest relatively close by for me is down the Llanberis Path from the summit of Snowdon - about 10km and 1000m
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A few were never ending, that’s a nice descent, did it at the Brutal half quite a few years ago on a perfect day, I could descend a bit better then! But I’ve just looked and the CR is 17:48 for the 6K segment, how do you get down so quick without a parachute or something!
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