The first two stages of the Amgen Tour of California are sprinter-friendly stages with little hill climbing, Today's Stage 2 has one climb of 2,500 feet, with a total of 6,000 feet. Mark Cavendish outdueled Peter Sagan for the Stage 1 win in Sacremento. In my mind beating Mark Cavendish head-to-head in a finish-sprint is just about impossible. He has such pure acceleration. To me, Peter Sagan is an opportunist, where if other sprinters lead-out trains are not effective, then he can succeed. Beginning in Stage 3 the hills will begin and the real competition will begin.
For those new to pro cycling here is a brief explanation of the hill categories that tv commentators will be talking about in Stages 3 (San Jose), 5 (Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita) and 7 (Ontario to Mt. Baldy), the queen stage of the week-long race. The grade of a hill is an essential element of a hill or climb. The grade is equal to the rise divided by the run multiplied by 100. When a road rises 10 feet over 100 feet of distance, the road has a 10% slope, or grade. For comparison, the standard railroad grade is only 2%, and the US Interstate standard grade is 6 to 7%. Cyclists tackle grades up to 20% or more. The grade of the climb, the length of the climb and the elevation gain define the category of the climb. Categories help determine the ‘King of the Mountain’ competition within cycling races. Initially race officials sorted climbs into four categories, with points awarded to cyclists going over the top of the mountain pass first. Category 4, or Cat 4, the smallest categorized hill is typically less than 2km, or 1.2 miles, in length and rise to 500 feet. Cat 1 climbs are more than 10 km or 6 miles long and have more than 3.000 feet of elevation gain. An additional category, Hors Catégorie, French for ‘beyond categorization’, was added in 1979. These tough climbs are more than 20 km or 12 miles of climbing, have more than a 10% grade or have more than 5,000 feet of elevation gain. Strava has developed a hill category calculation that they use instead of the subjective judgements: “To decide the category of a climb we multiply the length of the climb (in meters) with the grade of the climb in percent. If that number is greater than 8000 than it is a categorized climb. The minimum percent grade must be 3% or higher. So, for a 4% average grade climb, it has to be 2km at least to categorize; Cat 3 = 16,000, Cat 2 = 32,000, Cat 1=64,000, HC=80,000.”
For those new to pro cycling here is a brief explanation of the hill categories that tv commentators will be talking about in Stages 3 (San Jose), 5 (Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita) and 7 (Ontario to Mt. Baldy), the queen stage of the week-long race. The grade of a hill is an essential element of a hill or climb. The grade is equal to the rise divided by the run multiplied by 100. When a road rises 10 feet over 100 feet of distance, the road has a 10% slope, or grade. For comparison, the standard railroad grade is only 2%, and the US Interstate standard grade is 6 to 7%. Cyclists tackle grades up to 20% or more. The grade of the climb, the length of the climb and the elevation gain define the category of the climb. Categories help determine the ‘King of the Mountain’ competition within cycling races. Initially race officials sorted climbs into four categories, with points awarded to cyclists going over the top of the mountain pass first. Category 4, or Cat 4, the smallest categorized hill is typically less than 2km, or 1.2 miles, in length and rise to 500 feet. Cat 1 climbs are more than 10 km or 6 miles long and have more than 3.000 feet of elevation gain. An additional category, Hors Catégorie, French for ‘beyond categorization’, was added in 1979. These tough climbs are more than 20 km or 12 miles of climbing, have more than a 10% grade or have more than 5,000 feet of elevation gain. Strava has developed a hill category calculation that they use instead of the subjective judgements: “To decide the category of a climb we multiply the length of the climb (in meters) with the grade of the climb in percent. If that number is greater than 8000 than it is a categorized climb. The minimum percent grade must be 3% or higher. So, for a 4% average grade climb, it has to be 2km at least to categorize; Cat 3 = 16,000, Cat 2 = 32,000, Cat 1=64,000, HC=80,000.”
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