TdF v ToB climb standard ????

ilikebikes said:

A bit of a follow up from an earlier post really....
Does some international body rate the category of difficulty of climbs or
does the organisation running the event judge this? For example, someone
told be that the Glossop Snakes Pass climb was rated at Cat 1 (by who?).
Would the TdF people likewise grade it as such?

AFAIK TdF (and others) classify climbs also as a function of their position
during the stage. The same climb can be HC if close to the end of the stage
and CAT 1 if close to the start of the stage.

Joke says that they take a 2CV and take the climb at full speed. The category
is given by the lowest gear the driverhas to push in, HC if it does not make it.

Ciao,
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ilikebikes said:

Hi,
A bit of a follow up from an earlier post really....
Does some international body rate the category of difficulty of climbs or
does the organisation running the event judge this? For example, someone
told be that the Glossop Snakes Pass climb was rated at Cat 1 (by who?).
Would the TdF people likewise grade it as such?

Not sure - climbs on the big continental races like the Tour or the
Giro tend to be vicious due to length as much as gradient [1]. So a
steep UK hill (like the Hermitage in Shropshire from my post the other
day) might only make cat. 3 or 4 on Le Tour, due to being comparatively
short - incidentally, what was Ditchling Beacon rated as when the TdF
went up it back in 1994?

David Belcher

[1] Though in the days of the Leeds Classic, apparently even some of
the top overseas pros dreaded the prospect of riding Holme Moss....

in message <[email hidden]>, David

E. Belcher (') said:

ilikebikes said:

Hi,
A bit of a follow up from an earlier post really....
Does some international body rate the category of difficulty of climbs
or
does the organisation running the event judge this? For example,
someone told be that the Glossop Snakes Pass climb was rated at Cat 1
(by who?). Would the TdF people likewise grade it as such?

Not sure - climbs on the big continental races like the Tour or the
Giro tend to be vicious due to length as much as gradient [1]. So a
steep UK hill (like the Hermitage in Shropshire from my post the other
day) might only make cat. 3 or 4 on Le Tour, due to being comparatively
short - incidentally, what was Ditchling Beacon rated as when the TdF
went up it back in 1994?

There is - or was - an Italian website which graded climbs thoughout
Europe, including the UK, according to some formula. Anyone remember
what I mean? Hang on [fx: rummage] yes, here it is:

http://ciclismo.sitiasp.it/motore.aspx?sid=1ca5fa330d90402ab410398c7bdae78b&quanti=20&ID=2&da=az&come=af&lingua=eng&commenti=False

or, for convenience, http://tinyurl.com/4llw2

That gives the Galibier a 'difficulty' rating of 184,37 and Mont Ventoux
a difficulty between 99,97 and 165,98 depending on which route you take.
Mind you, of course, those are both hors categorie. For comparison, they
rate the hardest climb in England as the Hard Knott at 105,07 and the
hardest in Scotland the Bealach na Ba at 120,57.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;;Drivers in the UK kill more people every single year than
;; Al Qaeda have ever killed in any single year.

In article <[email hidden]>, Roberto Divia

() said:

ilikebikes said:

A bit of a follow up from an earlier post really....
Does some international body rate the category of difficulty of climbs or
does the organisation running the event judge this? For example, someone
told be that the Glossop Snakes Pass climb was rated at Cat 1 (by who?).
Would the TdF people likewise grade it as such?

AFAIK TdF (and others) classify climbs also as a function of their position
during the stage. The same climb can be HC if close to the end of the stage
and CAT 1 if close to the start of the stage.

Joke says that they take a 2CV and take the climb at full speed. The category
is given by the lowest gear the driverhas to push in, HC if it does not make it.

Bruce Hildenbrand's informative article "Rating the climbs of the Tour
de France" may be found here:

<URL:http://www.torelli.com/kom/tdf/rating_climbs.htm>

--
Dave Larrington - <http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/>
I thought I saw his name on a jar of marmalade the other day, but when I
looked more closely, I saw it read 'thick cut'.