I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew here. The Passo di Mortirolo is
one of the hardest climbs in Europe. It's not the longest, at only 13 kilometers,
but it is relentlessly steep. Lance Armstrong, in fact, famously called it the
hardest climb he'd ever done, and that was after he'd done it when he was,
how should we say, going well. Now, in 2015, it is again part of Giro d'Italia
and the riders, whether they're the GC guys at the front of the race or the
sprinters making up the grupetto, are all going to be using super low gears.
So, in all likelihood, they'll have a compact chain set at the front and then
maybe even something like a 32 cassette on the back, like I've got here.
But you don't have to go far back in history, and the guys were using 39/27,
maybe even just a 39/25. So, in the interest of you, the viewers,
I thought I'd try and compare the two setups. And to do that, I need to ride up
Mortirolo twice. Once, using this compact setup, 34/32. And then
again, but using, trying to use 35/29. I'll do the easy one first.
♪ [music] ♪
So this is a pretty relentlessly steep bit. Fortunately, I'm
managing to keep it to keep it below threshold. I think I'm in
34/28, so I haven't actually even had to go into 32 yet.
♪ [music] ♪
If only Marco could see me now. Who'd know what he'd think?
♪ [music] ♪
Now, one undeniable saving grace about these gears is that because I was able to
go a little bit steadier up the super steep section, even now when I'm
getting towards the top, I'm able to still keep pressing on.
♪ [music] ♪
Well, that is pretty hard. I'm pleased to say I didn't run out of gears at any
point, so that was good. And I managed to keep it technically below threshold
most of the way, but that is going to be really quite difficult doing it again
and on 39/25. Right, let's get going.
♪ [music] ♪
I think I might have bitten off more than I can chew here.
♪ [music] ♪
So, 1.5k in, it's not too bad at the minute, but I'm already in and out of
saddle, just to try and keep my tempo.
♪ [music] ♪
I'm having to ride this in a totally different way. Just snatching recovery.
Whenever the gradient eases and when I say eases, I mean drops
into single digits.
♪ [music] ♪
I'll tell you what's weird. My lower back is hurting. My lower back never hurts.
It's 40 RPM. It's killing me.
♪ [music] ♪
Doing 10% of this bit is like a holiday. It's going up to 13 again.
♪ [music] ♪
I know what you're thinking, Marco. This 39/25 will kill you. I'd just like to
point out that you weight 15 kilos less than me, and you also had twice the number
of red blood cells, just going to say. Look at me! 77 RPM, 77!
♪ [music] ♪
Pretty close now. Oh my word. That is pretty hard. I'm not going to say that was
any more enjoyable either. I thought honestly, before I started, it'd
be great. 39/25, like a real challenge, nah. So much better to have the right
gears so you can go the right tempo rather than smashing it in order to keep the
pedals turning and then just suffering for 11 kilometers. There's just no rest up
here. Now, I think the most interesting for me to come out of this is the
fact that you can just go significantly faster using the right gears as opposed to
harder gears. So it's perfectly reasonable to think that faster speeds up these
climbs nowadays compared to olden days is partly because of using compact gearing.
It's, I think, a simple fact. Now, if there was a moral to this story, and I
hope there is, having just ridden up Mortirolo twice, I'd say it's make sure
you've got the appropriate gears on your bike when tackling stupid climbs. Now, if
you need to know how to change gears on your bike, then you can click up there,
and I've taken you through all the steps and all the pitfalls of doing just that,
but if you need to know more about gear ratios full-stop, then Dan Lloyd takes you
through that. You can get through to his video just down there. Finally, before
going to either of those, subscribe to GCN if you haven't already. You can do that by
clicking on that rather nice view behind me.
[Foreign language].