I have been working with an athlete who is competing in Haute Route Asheville so been looking at the courses to dial in the training. I noticed the last days TT is the same to a TT I did back in 2012 on Town Mountain. I was driving down to South Carolina on the way to a wedding and asked if we could stop. So basically just jumped out of the car and raced.
Town Mountain TT segment
https://www.strava.com/segments/1212145
Now that Frank, Jackson and some of you are doing it I thought I would share some advice I have.
So the climb starts out pretty steep. But after 1.5 miles it really levels off. I remember at this point I put it in the big ring and got the speed up. Looking at the file my speed average was over 20 mph so staying aero will help! It looks to be just over a mile at 2.2%. Than it ramps up for a 3/4 of mile with an average gradient of 5.3%. At this point I kept it in the big ring and just powered through. Just stayed on it as long as possible as it leveled off to get the speed up. After that the last mile includes a little descent and average gradient is under 2%. I do remember not having much left here, but the time was already made over the course. Again speed average was over 20mph for this last mile.
Comparing my time on Strava to some who did it last year at Haute Route I did make up a lot of time by powering this first flat section.
