#SEABASE1910

[Jonah]

"Fixie [sic] cyclist Patrick Seabase will take on the challenge of his life on June 3, 2015. He intends to ride the first mountain stage of the 1910 Tour de France in the French Pyrenees in a single day from Bagnères de Luchon to Bayonne – through five passes, with nearly 7,000m of climbing and a distance of over 300 kilometres.  All this with one gear only, and no brakes".


Anyone ever ridden this stage with or without gears (brakes, Red Bull, or a moustache)?

[marcusjb]

M'arse is hurting just thinking about descending 7000m fixed. 

I have not ridden the route, but have ridden bits of it and climbed a little under that in a day (about 6700m). That was on gears.

Everything about climbing in the big mountains is different to here! You are basically looking at putting out big power for an hour or more, descending for half an hour and then repeat. First day of the Super Randonnee I did in the Pyrenees had 6 or 7 passes and it really was about the toughest day on a bike I have ever had. 

But, the descents. Man, that would hurt. I had never feared going downhill before, but on PBP, I dreaded going downhill again!

[Jonah]

Hoe does it compare to the Kingdom of Wessex?  What are the gradients like?

[marcusjb]

Very rare to get much over 8-10%, and often only 5%, but goes on forever. Many of the big climbs are 20km+

I would love to climb stuff like that on fixed. Long shallow climbs are just ace - I loved stuff like Le Roc from Brest and totally crushed it on fixed (though that is only 3 or so % and much shorter than something like tourmalet at 20km of 7% average).

But I hated descending for long times, just so hard on your body.  I could almost concede that single speed is a good idea for hilly terrain........

It is so different to anything you will have ridden here, especially Wessex. Nothing short and sharp, all very long and shallow.  As I said, you basically spend the day putting in hour plus hard efforts, followed by 20-30 mins of descending (on gears), repeat, repeat, repeat.

Anyway, the real true joy of the mountains is sweeping down the other side at 80-90kph!

[Jonah]

Reportage!