I've no idea about wattage. It sounds like you've simply calculated that it should be too hard, rather than actually experienced that it is.
Really? In the last 12 months I have cycled my bike in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and within the next month will add Denmark, Sweden and Norway to that list. I've done plenty of hills on these rides, and walked up a lot of them.
Yeah but how much are you spending on flights to get to these hills which as we know you live quite far away from...?
Where are these uber steep hills near amsterdam because I've never seen them!
So, lets start with this hill in Belgium:
The ascent up to the highest point of Belgium, it's a long drawn out climb, the first time I did it I took well over 2 hours almost 3.
Then we can move on to two climbs I did on a 300km BRM back in April,
This short, punchy climb was in the first 30km or so of the ride, I walked my bike up it, over taken by the whole field.
A few km further on I hit this climb:
I walked up it, grateful that the shade of the trees meant I had some protection from the 30°C heat.
A bit further on, after lunch, this utter bitch of a climb resulted in me walking:
At the top there was a secret control, and one of the other riders asked me if I wanted to scratch with him. I said no, and continued on. I eventually completed the 305km in 21:06. 66 minutes over time. After a collision with a fly resulted in me losing my lunch, and not being able to eat. I did 150km on an empty stomach. I walked up hills, I rode on the aerobars on the flat, I had to raid a water tap on the side of a house for water at 2 in the morning. But I bloody well finished the distance.
So yes, there are climbs, and no I don't need to fly to get to them. A simple 2 hour train ride to Maastricht, and then a ride into Belgium is enough, tho there are plenty of climbs to be had in Limburg too, such as the Cauberg, which the first time I climbed it I had to walk a bit of it.
I haven't taken an airplane flight in over a decade.
Are there hills you have actually tried to get up and found it a struggle, or do you just like the idea of theoretically being able to get up anything that you hypothetically might encounter without exceeding your target wattage? Sounds like the latter.
Yes, I can give more examples if you want. Or are these enough for you to actually believe me when I say that I find it hard to pedal up hills even with my low 28/34 gear ?
If you want low gears go to SPA cycles
https://www.spacycles.co.uk/m2b0s109p2002/SPA-CYCLES-XD-2-Touring-Triple-Chainset-with-TA-chainrings
I fitted one of these with a bar end for the front changer so I did not have index problems. Long cage cassette and a 12/30 cassette. But no matter how low the gears I still had to lift my fat arse up all the elevations.
Nice idea, I have one of those on my Brompton, except for the fact that now you're talking about moving away from the HTII bottom bracket that is likely to come with a stock bike, moving to JIS/Square taper, having to move away from STI, and having no chance if you want Di2. Sure some people will be ok doing that, but it ignores the basic premise that for a woman to be able to walk into a bike shop, buy a bike, and have it be low enough geared, the right size, on day 1. That isn't possible. Most men can walk into a bike shop, and find a bike that fits them and ride away with the bike. Most women can't.
So why is this an issue for an org like AUK? And why is it an issue for cycling in general.
Through twitter I discovered Emily Chappell's TCR attempt, she inspired me to go get a bike. So I toured a number of bike shops. In some I went in and they thought I'd walked into the wrong shop. Some I just got ignored, some they apologised they didn't have any bikes small enough, on the whole, I walked out with no bike, and felt particularly jaded. So I emailed Emily for advice, and she gave me lots of useful tips. The result is I built my own bike. It's a franken bike, mixing mtb parts, road parts, tri parts. If you ask Shimano the parts I am using will not work together. I've got 7000km on them so far, they work just fine, if you know what you're doing. As a result I can talk all day about compatibility, thread sizes, cable pull ratios, etc... It took me 3 months to get the parts together to assemble this bike. The only part I didn't do myself was build the wheels (these were built by Stephen Vis of red hook crit fame). The fact that I was able to roll out of Maastricht Youth Hostel on 26th of December, point my bike south and head off into the grey, and eventual rain and snow is because I ignored those saying I couldn't do it. I ignored those who seemed to not understand. I pushed my bike up the first climb listed above. I warmed myself up in a pub at the top, and then rode down the other side. I did 90km in horrible conditions on a bike I built myself. Because if I don't do it myself, no other fucker is. I am not your typical female cyclist.
When I tell people about my bike adventures the question I get is "who are you going with?" "noone" "but?" "noone else is crazy enough". Thing is I'd love to have some company on some of these trips. But the number of people willing to put up with the shit to get here is minimal, and finding them is even harder.
Until women can watch Marianna Vos win the TDF, all 21 stages of it, think "ooh, I wanna try that", walk into a bike shop on Monday morning, throw down 1000 of cycle to work money, and ride out with a bike that fits her, and she can get up the hills, even if it's grinding away at just fast enough to not fall over, until that is possible, the only women we're going to have in cycling are those who are so stubborn they will take no shit and ride despite others, not because of them, or those who have a partner who helps kick start them.
And this is why my rants about what women can buy is relevant to AUK. You can offer free entry to women, free massages at the end, and all you can eat chocolate cake at all the controls, but the result is that you won't get a noticeable increase in the number of women riding. Because it's so damn hard to buy a bike that fits, that can get up the hills, and is fun to ride.
I could rant about other aspects of cycling and audax that piss me off such as being asked by riders at Audax events if I'm there with my boyfriend... but I think they are just nit picks compared to the massive structural issues mentioned above.
And in all of this, the crazy thing is that once women find a way past all this shit that we have to put up with, we can meet the men on equal ground. Women like Sarah Hammond, and Lael Wilcox are absolutely brilliant. Sarah has twice now won the race so hard no man has ever won it, and Lael Wilcox's ride on TABR is the sort legends are made of. How many other Sarahs, and Laels are out there, but never get a chance to even try due to all the bloody gatekeeping?
J