I had never really given much thought to the ratios of my gear set up until the prospect of riding for an hour an a half continuously uphill started to loom ever closer.
I consulted with a few fellow riders to find out what gear ranges they used and it became apparent that I was putting in way more effort than I ought to be. Of course, that was to my advantage while I was in the training phase. No one that I spoke to was going to be attempting to ride the Etape with a front gear set up of 52/39 which is the standard. Everyone had moved to a compact front crank.
I scrambled to my laptop to scan ebay for a suitable replacement crank. After a week or so I finally landed a Shimano FC-R700 Compact Chainset with a 50/34 gearing.
I popped over to Noah's Ark cycle workshop and had them fit the new crank before heading straight out to the hills to try it out.
It was a pleasant surprise to find that going up Frocester Hill was no longer an absolute grind. I could actually get a higher cadence going. It did not result in a massive gain in time but I was faster up the hill and expended slightly less effort.
The fact that I have a 25/11 range on the rear means that I don't have an "escape" gear that allows me to completely relax but I have enough now to confidently get up the Tourmalet, albeit at a slow pace.
Once back from the Etape though I will switch back to the regular chainset to get the most out of my training. That is based on the assumption that I will still want to ride my bike afterwards.
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