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How much climbing did you do in 2022?

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Road Cycling “It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway

How much climbing did you do in 2022?

Old 12-27-22, 10:46 AM
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Originally Posted by mschwett
354k today, should manage to hit 360k which was the target. around 60 feet per mile. commutes excluded.

this is pretty impressive, you really do not deviate much from your goal. mine on the other hand looks a bit different...

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Old 12-27-22, 10:48 AM
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Originally Posted by rsbob
Appears that the majority climb 200,000’ to 300,000’ with a few over achievers, whom can be excused for their exuberance. And we can rightly safely assume that anyone not responding to this thread, but opened it to look, are so humiliated, so broken, so humbled that they are considering changing sports to shuffleboard or lawn bowling.
are there hills in shuffleboard?
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Old 12-27-22, 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by Jedneck
550000ft gain and 11000ish miles. Most (80-90%) are commuting miles. And to add to the pissin contest temperature range of -10*f to 100*f
Commuting miles are cheating😳
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Old 12-27-22, 11:38 AM
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Originally Posted by spelger
this is pretty impressive, you really do not deviate much from your goal. mine on the other hand looks a bit different...

i'd say it's more impressive to be that far ahead of your goal!!

my being so close is probably because i could have done just a bit more, although i was 10k behind on climbing a few weeks ago. need a better chart.
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Old 12-27-22, 11:43 AM
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Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
Strava says 276,319 ft, which is probably a little light given the occasional ride i didn’t record.

Not bad living in Florida

That's a lot of trips across the Acosta.
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Old 12-27-22, 11:47 AM
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Originally Posted by cinelliguy
Elev Gain 420,072 ft, Distance 5,440.4 mi so far, probably not much more to add for the year. 68 yrs.
77’/ mile! Not bad for 68. At 62 with 259,000’ @ 66’/ mile I hope you are retired!
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Old 12-27-22, 12:00 PM
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Originally Posted by waters60
77’/ mile! Not bad for 68. At 62 with 259,000’ @ 66’/ mile I hope you are retired!
Sort of retired. I have a one person, me, cottage business making and selling my own line of flywheels/clutch systems for four cylinder race cars. Takes up about 10-15 hrs per week, not enough mess with my riding!
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Old 12-27-22, 12:10 PM
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Elevation gain without total distance is not a complete metric.

I maintained my average of over 100ft gained per mile. All road cycling, no gravel/mountain bike. Overall stats lower this year since I decided to switch to running (now training for a marathon).
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Old 12-27-22, 12:52 PM
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My Zwift fraction has been pretty high since the early pandemic, so probably not much. I do ride with trainer difficulty at 100%, so I shift through the gears like I would outside, but my physical displacement is zero for all that time spent on the hamster wheel.

Outdoors, I think ~30% of my miles were spent on the track or on the TT bike, where there isn't a whole lot of climbing. Outside of that, I get plenty of climbing in on my road bike and MTB. But, in sum it's fairly low.

TL;DR, plenty of time spent pedaling a bicycle, but my real-world distance and elevation isn't anything to write home about. As a fit, 65 kg rider, I do climb decently quickly when I need to, but I prefer going fast.
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Old 12-27-22, 02:09 PM
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Originally Posted by mschwett
i'd say it's more impressive to be that far ahead of your goal!!

my being so close is probably because i could have done just a bit more, although i was 10k behind on climbing a few weeks ago. need a better chart.
its the warmer months that do it for me. i have a relatively flat 9 mile ride to work. the ride home is 40 with 2100 feet of climb. its not hard but it is a bit tiring after work, still better than driving back home and finding an excuse not to ride. the excuse is usually too much wind.
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Old 12-27-22, 02:27 PM
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35ft of climbing per mile ridden in 2022 - if you include Zwift. I don't know how to separate out non-virtual in my Strava stats, but I'd guess at least 75% of my total elevation comes from Zwift, if not more.

To give you an idea of what I'm dealing with - the biggest outdoor elevation ride I had in 2022 was a 76 mile ride that had 840ft of total elevation.
My daily commute from home to the office has a grand total of 24ft of elevation change.

Chicago - for those that are wondering.
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Old 12-27-22, 02:32 PM
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Originally Posted by msu2001la
35ft of climbing per mile ridden in 2022 - if you include Zwift. I don't know how to separate out non-virtual in my Strava stats, but I'd guess at least 75% of my total elevation comes from Zwift, if not more.

To give you an idea of what I'm dealing with - the biggest outdoor elevation ride I had in 2022 was a 76 mile ride that had 840ft of total elevation.
My daily commute from home to the office has a grand total of 24ft of elevation change.

Chicago - for those that are wondering.
I grew up in suburban Chicago. I feel your (lack of) pain.

I think one reason gas-pipe Schwinn bikes were so popular was the lack of hills to climb. Now my most local ride is 115 ft/mile.
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Old 12-27-22, 04:44 PM
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Only enough to get home.
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Old 12-27-22, 07:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Polaris OBark
What was your total elevation gain (in units of miles or km)?
First off: The year ain't over.
Secondly: Elevation gain is usually measured in feet or meters...and while it's easy enough to convert meters to kilometers, us imperialists ain't got time to do the math for a mileage conversion.

That being said, as of today, with four more days left in the year (at least three of which should be rideable if the weather forecasts are to be believed) I have 304,889 feet of elevation gain for calendar year 2022.
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Old 12-27-22, 09:14 PM
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Originally Posted by TomM
That's a lot of trips across the Acosta.

Definitely. A few months in western North Carolina, and Haute Route Alps helped the numbers.

the Acosta bridge is the local bridge repeat ride, and we even have Mt Acosta, which is a 3 hour race back and forth across the bridge. So the Acosta bridge reference is very cool.
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Old 12-27-22, 09:20 PM
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Originally Posted by rsbob
Appears that the majority climb 200,000’ to 300,000’ with a few over achievers, whom can be excused for their exuberance. And we can rightly safely assume that anyone not responding to this thread, but opened it to look, are so humiliated, so broken, so humbled that they are considering changing sports to shuffleboard or lawn bowling.
i think there is a huge self selection bias in responding to this poll. I would wager that even 200,000 puts one in a top percentile, even amongst relatively active cyclists.
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Old 12-27-22, 10:02 PM
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Originally Posted by Bob Ross
First off: The year ain't over.
Secondly: Elevation gain is usually measured in feet or meters...and while it's easy enough to convert meters to kilometers, us imperialists ain't got time to do the math for a mileage conversion.

That being said, as of today, with four more days left in the year (at least three of which should be rideable if the weather forecasts are to be believed) I have 304,889 feet of elevation gain for calendar year 2022.
Sorry, I just assumed the last few days of the year would be devoted to avoiding bad weather and cranking out the quota of nature paintings.

Also, we must recall:

Rule 24 // Speeds and distances shall be referred to and measured in kilometers.This includes while discussing cycling in the workplace with your non-cycling coworkers, serving to further mystify our sport in the web of their Neanderthalic cognitive capabilities. As the confused expression spreads across their unibrowed faces, casually mention your shaved legs. All of cycling’s monuments are measured in the metric system and as such the English system is forbidden.
and

Rule 68 // Rides are to be measured by quality, not quantity. Rides are to be measured by the quality of their distance and never by distance alone. For climbing rides, distances should be referred to by the amount of vertical covered; flat and rolling rides should be referred to by their distance and average speed. For example, declaring “We rode 4km” would assert that 4000m were climbed during the ride, with the distance being irrelevant.
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Old 12-28-22, 12:16 AM
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Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
i think there is a huge self selection bias in responding to this poll. I would wager that even 200,000 puts one in a top percentile, even amongst relatively active cyclists.
This is a definite. Strava put me in the top 4% for cyclists based on activity, mileage and climbing. I really don’t believe the accuracy since there are plenty of local people on Strava that do far more in all regards. They must be in the top 1% - yeah right when ya look world-wide.
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Old 12-28-22, 03:19 PM
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Originally Posted by rsbob
This is a definite. Strava put me in the top 4% for cyclists based on activity, mileage and climbing. I really don’t believe the accuracy since there are plenty of local people on Strava that do far more in all regards. They must be in the top 1% - yeah right when ya look world-wide.

my year end Strava report also has me in the top 4%. I figure there a lot of casual Strava users that post activities rarely if at all, that skews that number.

However, if you ride 5000 miles a year your circle of cycling friends is likely not a representative sample of cyclists. So cyclists above 250,000 feet and 5,000 miles are likely. Pretty small percentage of all the people who ride bikes.
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Old 12-28-22, 03:26 PM
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Originally Posted by Koyote
In the middle of the year, I moved from a very hilly area to a flat area. In the hilly area I was usually around 7k-8k miles per year with around 450k feet of climbing. I expect that my first full year here on the flatlands (2023) will probably be under 100k climbing.

Fun story: back in the hilly part of the country, I once went out on a big climbing event (group ride, but a big one) that is always held right before Christmas- so, right near the year's end. After the ride, we were in the parking lot, looking at our computers, and a guy said, "Hey, I hit 10,000 miles today...And a million feet of climbing." That impressed the hell out of me.
​​​​​​This is a goal every year for me. A very aspirational goal. I include all my activity in this; hiking and skiing involve a ton of elevation gain for me. Probably more than cycling the last few years.
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Old 12-28-22, 03:27 PM
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Originally Posted by Jedneck
550000ft gain and 11000ish miles. Most (80-90%) are commuting miles. And to add to the pissin contest temperature range of -10*f to 100*f
-15F to 102F this year for me. During activity. About -25F for walking back from the car.
​​​​​​
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Old 12-28-22, 03:35 PM
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125 riders in one chart
Here's a link to my chart from the BF 2013 "pissing contest" thread. I plotted the first 125 riders for that year's reports, miles vs elevation. It's interesting to see the wide range of miles and/or elevation.

I wonder if the lower gearing that's typical on modern bikes affects the rider's chosen routes. It has for me. My favorite local routes are around 50 to 60 feet per mile, and these are way better with decently low gearing.

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Old 12-28-22, 04:42 PM
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Originally Posted by rm -rf
125 riders in one chart
Here's a link to my chart from the BF 2013 "pissing contest" thread. I plotted the first 125 riders for that year's reports, miles vs elevation. It's interesting to see the wide range of miles and/or elevation.

I wonder if the lower gearing that's typical on modern bikes affects the rider's chosen routes. It has for me. My favorite local routes are around 50 to 60 feet per mile, and these are way better with decently low gearing.
I try to ride every possible route in about a 30 square mile area of the local hills and mountains and gear my bike for the steepest 13% grades. I use a 46/30 crank and 10-33 or 10-36 cassette so I can ride anywhere near me. The 30/36 allows me to pedal seated on 13% grades. With a 30/33 it would be harder, but so is pedaling out of the saddle in a 30/28.
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Old 12-28-22, 05:21 PM
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New metric, 43.5’/mile.
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Old 12-28-22, 05:24 PM
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Originally Posted by merlinextraligh
my year end Strava report also has me in the top 4%. I figure there a lot of casual Strava users that post activities rarely if at all, that skews that number.

However, if you ride 5000 miles a year your circle of cycling friends is likely not a representative sample of cyclists. So cyclists above 250,000 feet and 5,000 miles are likely. Pretty small percentage of all the people who ride bikes.
Nailed it. 5,000+ change and 217.000 feet
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