bruce19

https://www.velonews.com/news/road/e...f-7bdd7d0283b6

WhyFi

Cool, but not a surprise - she's a beast. Just before she joined GCN, she did the same Taiwan KOM Challenge climb/race as Si and one of the other GCN boys and she crushed them.

bikemig 

That's a heck of a ride. McDonald's need to hire her as a spokeswoman.

berner

There is a climb in my area that is short, about 1/4 mile and quite steep. From the top it feels as if you are looking down into the Grand Canyon. Wondering about the actual steepness, I made a protractor like device and drove down the hill, stopping a number of times to measure the actual slope at different locations. It was about a 10% slope and no place steeper than 11 1/2%. I'm, not a strong or young cyclist but the bike is geared with 23 gear inches. It was pretty steep and at the top I forced myself to keep going with no rest. Those who can sustain, for hours, a climb of 13% or more are animals.

CAT7RDR

I always thought she was holding back on some of the GCN group rides so she would not embarrass the guys. Now I am certain she was being polite.

mgopack42 

I think that you are getting slope % and degree confused. slope % is the feet of rise you have for each 100 feet of travel. so a 13 % slope would be 13 feet of rise for each 100 feet of travel. You can use the Pythagorean theorem to calculate it, or use this online calculator HERE. 13% is an angle of 7.41 degrees.

berner

Nope.

2cam16

Love Emma! She's a boss!

DrIsotope

Absolutely no surprise at all that Pooley took the women's record. She's fast, and being the size of a mouse certainly helps with the hills.

All the same, the guys behind "official" Everesting really need to set it into two divisions. It's just pros and former pros setting and re-setting the record over and over. The men's has changed hands like half a dozen times in the past month.

atwl77

And Alberto Contador is now the current holder, lol.

canklecat

Emma is a mountain goat. One of the few cyclists who look as comfortable standing to pedal as seated pedaling. Watching her videos made me realize my breathing was all wrong for climbing. Just changing my breathing technique (more diaphragm, less chest) really helped.

berner

The whole breathing process is more interesting than I first thought. People who sing or play wind instruments and have had some training, are taught to use the diaphram. I happen to like opera and have attended performances at Lincoln Center in NYC. It is amazing that the unamplified voice can fill an entire music hall with sound.

I have a book on yoga anatomy with a detailed section on breathing which is important for yoga. The rib cage is crisscrossed with muscles, both on the inside and outside of the chest cavity. On the inhale, the exterior muscles act to enlarge the space for lung expansion. On the exhale, the interior muscles act to reduce the space and to expel air. To me the process is like pedaling in that we need to force the pedal down but relax so that on the following pedal stroke the down pushing leg is not used to raise the other leg. When I'm tired, toward the end of a long ride, I often catch myself using more energy to pedal than is actually necessary.

79pmooney

I got the breathing from a college swim instructor (also a grad student in physiology) to diaphragm breath and exhale to the max to swim freestyle. Those were equal breakthroughs for me. She stressed that if we exhaled completely, we freed the oxygen receptors deep n the lungs from the CO2 left when we don't inhale completely, With those receptors free, even with a very incomplete breath (which happens swimming freestyle!), that small amount of oxygen we do get is fully utilized. My mantra on hills - exhale! And blown up at the top of KOM efforts (not that I will ever get to the "K"), I exhale completely even though that sounds like the worst possible thing to do at that oxygen starved moment.

Ben

canklecat

I just noticed Emma rode her custom bike for the Everesting challenge. Last summer she got a fully custom WyndyMilla, built to suit her diminutive frame and unique proportions, including 650 wheels. So the bike looks normally proportioned and presumably suits her better. When she stands to pedal her position on the bike isn't dramatically different from her seated pedaling.

In that video last year, and a previous "custom bike" build video with GCN two years ago, she talked about riding whatever the teams/sponsors provided when she was a pro, so she didn't really think much about bike fit or proportions until later. Her previous "custom" bike wasn't really. It was an aluminum frame Bond.Bike, her size but on 700c wheels that didn't look properly proportioned to suit her. She said the WyndyMilla with 650 eliminated toe overlap with low speed turns, presumably something she might encounter on Everesting challenges that involve repeating loops where tight turns are made at the tops and bottoms of segments.

I might point that out to some women cycling friends who are around 5-foot-nuthin', or shorter. In the past when they complained about bikes with 700c wheels that were poorly proportioned for their sizes I suggested trying an old school Terry bike or the Centurion ladies model with smaller front wheel. But they seemed offended by the appearance of those "toy wheel" bikes. However seeing someone like Emma Pooley doing so well on a bike that's custom built to her proportions might reinvigorate the concept for this generation of cyclists.

I noticed on YouTube some comments about her weight and stomach. Emma's tummy always pooches and deflates, like a bullfrog's throat. That's her diaphragm breath control technique. On her even 5 lbs would be noticeable but she looked the same as usual.