Originally Posted by
CheGiantForLife
Yea, that's not the point.
Maybe a picture will help you understand.
Are these all equally difficult to ride?
They are not the same thing, but 'inherently harder' is not an answerable question. If your intent is to go and Time Trial that flat at your absolute best effort, that is one thing (and that is EXTREMELY difficult, by definition). If you go out and do an easy (Z2) ride - that is something else. If the ups are not too steep for your strength and gearing and you don't push yourself going up, that is not going to be hard. If you are on a single speed bike and the ups are steep then that is probably going to be hard no matter what you do short of walking up some hills.
How hard is this flat ride is purely a function of how hard you rode it (or maybe wind conditions in some extreme cases). Up and down - it depends.
dave
ps. The are that I ride is very rolling terrain. There are pretty much no long flats and you never go up or down for very long. I vacationed for a week in Naples, Fl. earlier this year and I took my bike. Total elevation gain on a 25 mile ride in the 10-20 feet range. It did not strike me as being either harder or easier.