I’m training for a 153km (93mi?) Gran Fondo, I have read about pacing for such events but I can’t find anything on pacing for a pure climbing event like this (It’s almost like it’s just one big long climb that gets progressively steeper all the way to the end I uploaded (or at least I tried) a picture with the elevation profile).
I was wondering if you can help me with pacing and other tips. It’s my first Gran Fondo so my goal is to finish it without dying, im not looking for medals. I have a power meter on my bike that I can use for pacing during the event.
I was thinking on saving energy for the stepper climbs at the end but I don’t know how to plan it on FTP% and how to manage it during the whole Fondo.
Yikes! I’d say ride the whole thing at low to mid Tempo (~75-85% FTP) and make sure you have enough gears to do so at a comfortable cadence. That steep section comes near the end of the climb so if you do happen to feel good you can push it a bit more there I guess. This doesn’t look like the kind of ride where there is any chance at all of getting to the end and wishing you’d pushed harder at the start…
Enjoy and don’t overthink it. Although I have a power meter now, I don’t think I have had one for any of the hilly sportive I’ve done. You don’t really need one. With the atmosphere, crowd, food stops etc on the day you’ll be drawn along and if you’re not going for intermediate sprints or a set time you won’t burn any matches. Good luck
You may want to have gradient as one of the datafields, and use this to drive your pacing.
The first 75 km looks like it is false flat (0.5% gradient?). It looks and feels flat here, but you can end working harder than you think to keep a “reasonable speed”, so keep it at about 70-75% here. Unless you decide it is worthwhile to go a bit harder to take advantage of a fast-moving paceline. If you are, you may want to look at Intensity Factor rather than power, to smooth things out between when you are rolling turns, and drafting.
75-117.5 km the gradient picks up - maybe 2-3%? So perhaps take it to 75-80%. But ggoing too hard here iwhile you are still feeling gfresh can reallly hurt you. The cCondores looks seriuously steep - especially the friist half - try to keep it just under threshold, aand back it off once the gradient slackens in the 2nd half.
Once you get to the top of Condores, at 1930m altitude may come into play , so you want to keep it at around 85% except tfor the steeper ramps. The la Zorra looks like it will really sting at the end , but you will know you are nearly there and can empty the tank.
Looks like a seriously challenging day out - enjoy the ride!!
