2013 Santos Tour Down Under Stage 5: McLaren Vale -> Old Wilunga Hill, 151.5km

[jens_attacks]

^^absolutely. intelligent,good sense of humour, plenty of knowledge, articulate and passionate too.at the moment,one of my favourite commentators of cycling.


by the way,here are the fastest old willunga ascents of last 4 years:

http://climbing-records.blogspot.ro/2013/01/huge-speed-up-old-willunga-hill.html

kind of a an extraordinary feat this year.

 

[cineteq]

by the way,here are the fastest old willunga ascents of last 4 years:

http://climbing-records.blogspot.ro/2013/01/huge-speed-up-old-willunga-hill.html

kind of a an extraordinary feat this year.

give credit to sky. i guess thomas doesn't give a ****.

 

[will10]

^^absolutely. intelligent,good sense of humour, plenty of knowledge, articulate and passionate too.at the moment,one of my favourite commentators of cycling.


by the way,here are the fastest old willunga ascents of last 4 years:

http://climbing-records.blogspot.ro/2013/01/huge-speed-up-old-willunga-hill.html

kind of a an extraordinary feat this year.

Yikes

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Slagter

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

And then they say Willunga would be too long a climb for Slagter

 

[auscyclefan94]

^^absolutely. intelligent,good sense of humour, plenty of knowledge, articulate and passionate too.at the moment,one of my favourite commentators of cycling.


by the way,here are the fastest old willunga ascents of last 4 years:

http://climbing-records.blogspot.ro/2013/01/huge-speed-up-old-willunga-hill.html

kind of a an extraordinary feat this year.

Bad comparison. For the majority of the climb, both Slagter and Gerrans were sitting in the wheel and the stage finished on the climb. If you compare that to 2010, where the leaders were over 20k's from the top to the finish and had attacked a lot earlier on the climb, the climbing speed isn't as impressive.

 

[theyoungest]

Bad comparison. For the majority of the climb, both Slagter and Gerrans were sitting in the wheel and the stage finished on the climb. If you compare that to 2010, where the leaders were over 20k's from the top to the finish and had attacked a lot earlier on the climb, the climbing speed isn't as impressive.

Blablabla. All I conclude from these numbers is that Slagter > Evans.

 

[jens_attacks]

Bad comparison. For the majority of the climb, both Slagter and Gerrans were sitting in the wheel and the stage finished on the climb. If you compare that to 2010, where the leaders were over 20k's from the top to the finish and had attacked a lot earlier on the climb, the climbing speed isn't as impressive.

trust me,i took that into account when i said "huge speed". and the headwind from last year too.
still, this was enormously fast.especially from this time of the year.


go and ride up one time up old willunga and tell us your time then you will realize how impressive that was

 

[theyoungest]

trust me,i took that into account when i said "huge speed". and the headwind from last year too.
still, this was enormously fast.especially from this time of the year.


go and ride up one time up old willunga and tell us your time then you will realize how impressive that was

There was a headwind this year too. Phil Liggett spoke of a 'tornado'. And if he says so, you know it's true.

Of course all the circumstances for a fast climb were there: attacks from the bottom, a good pace in the group to cover these attacks until the final k, and then a full on sprint to the top.

 

[maltiv]

Bad comparison. For the majority of the climb, both Slagter and Gerrans were sitting in the wheel and the stage finished on the climb. If you compare that to 2010, where the leaders were over 20k's from the top to the finish and had attacked a lot earlier on the climb, the climbing speed isn't as impressive.

Also in 2012 they had raced really hard before the final climb, if I remember correctly there were only 20-30 guys or so left in the peloton when the final climb started.

 

[greenedge]

There was a headwind this year too. Phil Liggett spoke of a 'tornado'. And if he says so, you know it's true.

. I rode up the climb before the riders came through for the 2nd time and it did not at all feel like there was a headwind- maybe because of the crowds blocking it but still.

 

[auscyclefan94]

trust me,i took that into account when i said "huge speed". and the headwind from last year too.
still, this was enormously fast.especially from this time of the year.


go and ride up one time up old willunga and tell us your time then you will realize how impressive that was

No **** it is going to seem impressive when you compare the speed I ride it with the professional riders. It was a fast climb. But when looking at the circumstances of other years, it brings the 'impressive speed' into perspective.

 

[badboyberty]

I wasn't on the hill itself on Saturday, but there were short gusts of quite strong breeze blowing in this area that arvo. I assume one of those were Phil Liggett's "tornado" but... the top of the climb is really well shaded and is hardly exposed at all.

The main thing we find when playing on Willy Hill is that surges at the bottom in the steep section can cause havoc with your total time. Watching the tv here it looked like the main group took it pretty steady through the town and through the steep lower sections. The fast guys waited till close to the last kilometre where the gradient drops right off before turning on the turbos, which is supposedly the best way to guarantee a quick time up the hill. It's hard to compare the time as the Strava segment (which is based on the Red Devil's TT) starts at the top of the town, but scaling that to that climbing records site data (which measures from the bottom of High Street) gives Slagter and Gerrans VAMs of very close to 2000.

What I'm trying to say is, Slagter and Gerrans had the perfect launch while Evans and Valverde attacked a lot lower on the hill, exposing themselves to more wind and potentially put themselves near the red in the middle section, but they were ridiculously fast regardless.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I wasn't on the hill itself on Saturday, but there were short gusts of quite strong breeze blowing in this area that arvo. I assume one of those were Phil Liggett's "tornado" but... the top of the climb is really well shaded and is hardly exposed at all.

The main thing we find when playing on Willy Hill is that surges at the bottom in the steep section can cause havoc with your total time. Watching the tv here it looked like the main group took it pretty steady through the town and through the steep lower sections. The fast guys waited till close to the last kilometre where the gradient drops right off before turning on the turbos, which is supposedly the best way to guarantee a quick time up the hill. It's hard to compare the time as the Strava segment (which is based on the Red Devil's TT) starts at the top of the town, but scaling that to that climbing records site data (which measures from the bottom of High Street) gives Slagter and Gerrans VAMs of very close to 2000.

What I'm trying to say is, Slagter and Gerrans had the perfect launch while Evans and Valverde attacked a lot lower on the hill, exposing themselves to more wind and potentially put themselves near the red in the middle section, but they were ridiculously fast regardless.

That is another factor, the wind. Also the distance from the finish is to be considered.

 

[jens_attacks]

absolutely guys,absolutely.
i always said that it's just statistics those time ascents i take. not accurate for a scientific point of view almost at all.
of course cadel storming on his own, in the big ring very early on willunga was in terms of watts superior to what slagter and gerrans did.the drafting at 27 km/h is hugely important and they drafted this year a lot.
i wasn't comparing them at all.
BUT it really was a very fast ascent.according to veikkanen,ellisonde did 6,7 w/kg. and it's january.