- 1 minute ago
Alp D'Huez is the most famous road cycling climb in the world so when we were out filming some of the best road bikes, Cycling Weekly videographer Ed fancied a go at the famous pro cycling climb. He rode a gravel bike to a very respectable 1:07 up the alp but wondered if he could climb Alp D'Huez in under an hour...
In this video we make some bike upgrades to make Ed's faster at climbing hills and look for other ways in which to climb faster on the bike - Can he climb Alp D'Huez in under an hour?
In this video we make some bike upgrades to make Ed's faster at climbing hills and look for other ways in which to climb faster on the bike - Can he climb Alp D'Huez in under an hour?
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00:00Come on!
00:01Up! Up! Up!
00:09This is Ed.
00:11I'm so hot!
00:12Come on, you'll normally find him behind a camera, just like he is now.
00:17Ed likes riding his bike, but isn't usually overly concerned about the tech on it.
00:23However, we're currently on a trip to Alp Juez,
00:26and after an effort up the famous climb yesterday, he's got a target.
00:31Can he go sub one hour?
00:33So, how much quicker at climbing can we make him?
00:36Make sure you're subscribed and let's find out.
00:43Yesterday, Ed decided to take on the world's most famous climb, Alp Juez.
00:4821 switchbacks of pure French emotion and gurning.
00:53And it's safe to say that we were surprised.
00:55He did it in a very respectable time of one hour, seven minutes and 31 seconds.
01:00The only issue is it's a little bit too respectable and a little bit too close to going under an
01:06hour.
01:06A target for many an amateur cyclist.
01:09So today we rest and tomorrow when the fog clears, we go again.
01:15In order to try and hit his target, we've come up with a plan.
01:17A, he's going to pace it better. More on that in a minute.
01:21And B, I've been tasked with trying to make him and his bike as fast as possible.
01:26So I've dug around and I'm pulling out all the stops because I just know that it's going to be
01:31a very long drive back to the UK if he doesn't manage it.
01:43So the bike, this is what he used for his first effort.
01:49It's a Pearson on and on gravel bike, which I know Ed's been absolutely loving and has been using for
01:55all sorts of riding.
01:56From bikepacking across Europe to commuting and of course some road riding too.
02:02Now this probably isn't the bike from Pearson's locker that they would put forwards first for a hill climb effort.
02:09But it is what Ed's used to and so I think it's definitely worth sticking with it.
02:13There are a few things though that we can definitely hill climb-ify.
02:18So let's go through it and I'll tell you some of the time savings that I expect each upgrade to
02:23make.
02:25Right, firstly, and I think this is where the biggest gains are going to come from, the wheels and the
02:31tyres.
02:32I literally have no idea where Ed found these tyres but let's just say I'm pretty sure they were chosen
02:38based on maybe their colour?
02:42Maybe their puncture protection rather than any kind of performance characteristic.
02:47So we're going to switch them out for something much, much lighter and hopefully much faster.
02:52So these brown monstrosities are designed for touring and the average budget wire beaded 32mm touring tyre will produce around
03:0328 watts of rolling resistance per tyre at 28.8km per hour.
03:08Now, this is a Continental GP5000 STR and as you can see it has no wire bead.
03:16It is a folding tyre, in fact the most popular folding tyre in the World Tour Peloton.
03:21And this has something more like the rolling resistance of 10 watts per tyre at 28.8km per hour.
03:28So, by changing these I reckon we're going to save Ed around 18 watts at 12km per hour.
03:36Now that is not to be scoffed at as I think it can make him around 3.5 minutes quicker
03:42over this hour long climb in rolling resistance alone.
03:45Now, as he's riding at a constant speed with no accelerations, I'll also work out how much time we think
03:52he can save by weight savings altogether in a minute.
03:55Now, another nice big chunk of weight saving can come from your wheels.
04:01Ed has been using a set of 45mm Deep Vision SC wheels which are certainly no slouch.
04:07These, however, are Vision's latest Metron 45 RS wheels.
04:12The most popular wheels in the pro peloton.
04:16And the choice of no fewer than four men's world tour teams.
04:21Why?
04:21Well, they are really light.
04:23Sub 1,300g in fact.
04:26A full 250g lighter than the ones that they replace.
04:31They also have carbon fibre spokes for maximum stiffness and power transfer.
04:36They've got ceramic bearings to make sure they spin as freely as possible.
04:40And this aerodynamic profile which has been proven to be very stable in crosswinds as well.
04:46Now, I'm not sure that the aerodynamics are going to be the biggest issue that Ed faces whilst going up
04:51out of duez.
04:52On his last all out effort, Ed managed 10.7km per hour.
04:57And his target speed for the next one is 12km per hour.
05:01They should give him a nice boost on the descent though.
05:04And that leads me onto one other upgrade that we're making.
05:07Ed was previously using standard butyl inner tubes.
05:11But I'm replacing them with a set of these.
05:14TPU tubes.
05:16Now, TPU tubes are not only significantly lighter, but they also should roll a bit quicker.
05:22And a pair of these are around 250g lighter than the ones that they replace.
05:27And you know what they say, every little helps.
05:30Now, we'll top that saving up in a moment.
05:34But, I reckon from a rolling resistance point of view, probably one to two watts.
05:41It's not a lot, but it might be a few seconds.
05:46Right, Ed, come over here.
05:48So, I've downloaded your previous effort and compared it against a time which has got an hour, okay?
05:54What happened here was you can see that you were very quick for the first K and a half.
06:01Yeah.
06:01And then I think, well, this bit here, I think there might have been a bit of a blow up.
06:05Yeah.
06:06Yeah?
06:06There's that sort of…
06:07Yeah.
06:07The issue with the climb of Alc-Duez is that you can see it actually starts off pretty steep,
06:13and then sort of gets a little bit shallower as you go on.
06:16Yeah.
06:16Now, what that means, there is more time to be gained when you're travelling slower.
06:21When you're travelling faster on the flatter sections, there's more aerodynamic drag,
06:25and that's a… it's not exponential, but we're not getting into that.
06:29On the steeper bits, you do need to ride a little bit harder, but probably not as hard as you
06:33did, okay?
06:34So, you might have also noticed that I've made some changes to your bike.
06:39Yeah.
06:39Hopefully, they will help.
06:40I reckon they could help to the tune of, like, around five minutes.
06:44Yeah.
06:45I will believe that when I see it.
06:47It still leaves you with at least two minutes, maybe two and a half minutes of extra…
06:53That I have to do, really.
06:54Yeah, exactly.
06:55So, if I do exactly the same thing you did last time, mathematically, I'd go five minutes faster.
07:00Yes.
07:00So, I need to find another two and a half minutes in myself.
07:03You do indeed.
07:04Right.
07:05Let's get you to the bottom.
07:07Yeah, let's do it.
07:07Get on with it.
07:08Yep.
07:15Question.
07:16I was thinking about this while I was, well, failing to get to sleep last night.
07:21Line choice, right?
07:22Line choice?
07:23Yeah.
07:24So, if I'm going around the hairpins, what I did last time, because they're flat, I was like,
07:27oh, great, I'll use this to recover.
07:28I went as wide as possible, but technically, that'll cover more distance.
07:32So, if I go tighter in on a hairpin, then technically, it's a shorter distance, right?
07:40I think we're clutching at straws, Ed.
07:42Clutching at straws?
07:43The things that we've been tweaking on the bike, we're taking the bottle cage off, for
07:47God's sake.
07:48Yeah.
07:48You asked me if I could shave my legs yesterday.
07:50Yeah, and you haven't.
07:51No, I'm not going to, because I'm not a poser.
07:53Don't start taking it seriously now, if you're not going to shave your legs.
07:55I've only got about four hairs on them anyway, what difference would it make?
07:59You know, when you crash and you need Matt to give you a deep tissue massage, don't come
08:06crying to me when it hurts.
08:17Don't need that.
08:21Spent six quid on that.
08:28Yeah.
08:29See you later, then.
08:29Come and get.
08:36They roll well.
08:37Yeah.
08:38Yeah.
08:39Cool.
08:39Come with my bike.
09:02I can't work out if I've gone out too hard or not.
09:04I think it's better than last time.
09:06It's hard to say though.
09:18It's actually relatively easy up this pit.
09:19You're catching someone.
09:21Oh, let's go up again.
09:36Come on.
09:37Come on.
09:38Come on.
09:39Just chuck it when you're done with it.
09:45You're over halfway.
09:47Keep it up.
09:48Yeah.
09:50It says Ed on the road somewhere up here.
09:53And Baptiste.
09:54Good last night.
10:14All right.
10:16Let's do it.
10:16Well done.
10:21Next time.
10:22Go ahead.
10:22Shut up.
10:34Sticky bottle.
11:04Come on! Up! Up! Up!
11:14I'm going to take a seat. Oh, man. Thank you very much.
11:20Nice. That looks hard.
11:26I feel like I did it faster. I don't know if I did it seven minutes faster.
11:29Well, let's have a look.
11:32Break the news gently. There's a cliff right there.
11:38Okay. On the lap.
11:42No way.
11:45So I was 31 seconds off, I forgot to say.
11:48I was 16 seconds slower than you.
11:51Right, where's that cliff?
11:52Yeah.
11:58Thanks to Vision for sponsoring this video and helping us make Ed a full seven minutes quicker
12:03in just two days.
12:05If you want to get faster on your bike or just want to check out these World Tour favourite
12:08wheels, then we'll pop a link down in the description below.
12:11Or, there is a whole range of Vision wheels to suit a whole range of budgets.
12:15Vision's range spans from the Team I23 wheels to the SC range, the very popular Metron SL
12:21wheels, and of course the carbon-spoke Metron RS wheels, which feature the brand's latest
12:27ratchet system in the tallest lightweight rear hub.
12:31We're pretty confident that they've got all bases covered.
12:34To discover the whole range, there's a link in the description below.
12:37Right, back to the video.
12:42Well, you climbed quite a long way, didn't you?
12:44It's amazing on the first hairpins how you sort of feel like, oh God, I've got so much
12:48left.
12:48Now you look down, you're like, I've actually covered quite a lot.
12:51Yeah, just the three first hairpins.
12:53Yeah, yeah.
12:54That's probably bigger than most climbs in the UK.
12:56And then you've got another 18.
12:58So you're not too disappointed, are you?
13:00No, I'm not disappointed at all.
13:01Like, there's a part of me thinking, where could I have saved 31 seconds?
13:06Well, next year we'll come back, we'll find an excuse to come back to Alpe d'Huez.
13:10Yeah.
13:10And you can give it another go.
13:11We'll film it for you guys and see if you can go under an hour.
13:15I'll see if there's anything else we can upgrade on the bike.
13:18Yeah.
13:19I mean, we saved seven minutes over the course of the last two days.
13:24Seven minutes and two days.
13:25If we did come back next year and I make a few lifestyle changes, then, you know, I should
13:32be able to do it a sub-hour.
13:33Yeah, yeah, definitely.
13:34And how did the bike feel?
13:35The bike felt great.
13:37I mean, I love this bike anyway.
13:38I love it with the other tyres because they're a lot of my touring tyres and whatnot.
13:40But with the wheel and tyre swap, like it did, I'm not going to say it felt like it was
13:43flying because I was absolutely shattered, but like it was very, very noticeable.
13:48Yeah.
13:48And considering, you know, this is like a gravel adventure frame, you know, I've taken it
13:53for a two week long tour with penny racks and whatnot.
13:55So you can have it as that and then you can make a few changes to it and then do
13:59a sub,
14:00okay, an hour and 31 minute, but you could probably do a sub one hour outdoors on it for the
14:05same
14:05bike that can also take 45 mil tyres.
14:08That's pretty impressive.
14:09Yeah.
14:09Like it just shows how much, how versatile a frame can be.
14:12Yeah.
14:12And I think I would definitely rather upgrade my wheels and tyres than my frame.
14:17Yeah, definitely.
14:18And it seems like that is where the...
14:19Where a lot of the gains are made, especially if we're, if we are now to do a flat time
14:23trial,
14:24like a deeper wheel, a more aerodynamic wheel.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Will, will have a, have a double benefit there as well.
14:31Yeah, absolutely.
14:32And it's a, you know, potentially a more cost-effective upgrade than upgrading your frame.
14:38And an easy one to make too.
14:39Yeah.
14:39Just buy them, bolt them on.
14:41There's certainly less waste for them just buying a whole new bike.
14:44Yeah.
14:45Well, if you want to see more of this bike, then we do actually have another video coming
14:49up with Ed talking about how versatile gravel bikes are.
14:52So if you don't want to miss that, then please make sure you're subscribed.
14:55If you enjoyed this type of content, then please give it a like.
14:59Leave a comment down below on how we can make Ed even faster.
15:03And we'll see you next time.
15:06Right.
15:06Let's go and get you warm.
15:07Yep.
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