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Anyone ridden Salzkammergut that can give me some pointers and experience?
Looks like this is going to be the major challenge for next year.
At this stage I'm pretty worried about the altitude and the climbing, niether of which are going to be easily dealt with by living the flatlands of London town. Any suggestions??
Nothing you can do about the altitude. Personal experience is above 2000m it is noticeable, above 2500m it becomes hard work and approaching 3000m its very tough.
How high does Salzkammergut go? Also thinking about it for next year, it's been on the to-do list for a while.
stand corrected but I think its up to 2000m (maybe a little higher). Which is still higher than Ive ever raced. But maybe not the issue I was worried it might be.
Its been on my list for a while and finally commitments and other "stuff" have aligned to make it possible. Now just need to figure out how to train for that much climbing. spinning around the surrey hills probably wont cut it.
There isn't anything in the UK that can really prepare you for 1-2hrs of solid climbing.
You might be surprised how much of it is just mental though. Wales/Scotland is about as good as it would get, although even something like SDW where is rolls constantly will help.
not ridden it, only Cristalp, but the bits i have picked up weather expect anything.
Euro races aren't really into singletrack, there will be some but alot will be on loose gravel, gradients tend not to be savage, just very very long!!
for climbing do timetrials, constant efforts for 10miles is as close as you can try.
heard of vicious 1hr long climbing intervals on the trainer, which I discarded as an absurd idea but maybe thats what I'm looking at.
mtbmatt - my mental game and yours are probably slightly at odds (like as in on total opposite sides of the spectrum), but I get where you are going (just a LOT slower than how you get there).
Ridden the SDW a few times now but at only 3k climbing and only 10hrs on the bike its not giving me that much confidence. maybe just time to get a dose of MTFU
TT idea might be worth looking into. I'm sure there are a few events around which might help with motivation.
Ridden it twice ..
First time entered long distance and race was stopped due to extreme weather conditions .. blizzarding snow.
Second time did the 120km ish distance
One of the best organised events I have ever attended... altitude is not an issue the ability to sit in and climb for an hour or so at a time is 🙂
Plenty of feed stations and alot of locals out on the course to give support ... great section along cliff through tunnels ... not very technical but interesting enough.
not ridden it, only Cristalp
Another excellent euro race. 20 odd years on the same course and the year I enter they decide to extend it by 20km and 800m more climbing. Thanks!
Some european races have great singletrack, but with thousands of riders the options are pretty limited. Austrian and German races tend to be fireroad fests though, but still challenging enough to make them enjoyable.
I don't think 1hr intervals on a trainer would be much use to be honest. Better off heading to Afan, Cwmcarn, Glentress/Innerleithen, etc where they have a climb that is at least 30min long. Find the shortest/quickest route down then repeat x2/3/4.
Don't disregard speed. XC races would be a great way to get some speed/threshold work.
Paul, sounds like exactly what I'm after.
Rode the transportugal after your blog about it many moons ago, so I'm guessing we value some of the same things in a race.
Altitude no longer a big worry but hour long climbs are going to be "fun"
mtbmatt - will definitely build in some training weekends away (wales most definitely) but cannot do that on a regular basis. Will have to try get creative for longer hill reps.
Interesting call on the XC races as I'm convinced thats where Ive made the mistake before. Focusing on getting distance into my legs Ive foregone XC racing or racing in general and I'm convinced that my performance has suffered as a result.
Don't disregard speed. XC races would be a great way to get some speed/threshold work.
+1
plan for the coming year is XC races and commuting with a few longer rides as prep for Cristalp.
Buzzard, just get some long days in the saddle, having completed Transportugal this will not be an issue for you 🙂