Mount Diablo Challenge Pre Ride with Commentary

This video covers the entire South Gate to Summit climb up Mt Diablo at about 3x speed to give you a first hand feel for the climb. Having ridden it many times and having set some fast times up the climb, I comment on my thoughts about how to pace it and a few strategic tips about hot to approach pacing and drafting if you're doing the Challenge or riding it with people.
Even just watching the climb, knowing the turns, and seeing how steep it is throughout the climb can be very helpful. I would always recommend pre-riding climbs or time trial courses at least a couple of times before you try to do your best possible effort on a specific climb or course.
Here are a few extra tips beyond the commentary in the video...
Power: If you have a power meter, then use it to set a mostly steady power output throughout the ride. If you don't know what power you should be doing, aim for 80% of your peak 10-12m power, or about 90% of your 20-25m peak power.
Heart Rate: Aim for your 1h peak heart rate, but allow yourself at least 5-8 minutes for your heart rate to settle in that region. Try to let your heart rate recover a bit when it's flat by letting up on your power. These small moments of recovery can help you to go harder when it's steeper and harder.
Perceived effort: Doing an all-out effort up a tall mountain is hard, but try to stay as focused and relaxed as possible. Breathe deeply. Try not to let your heart rate or breathing get out of control.
Drink mix: I would definitely recommend riding up the mountain with a bottle of mix. Water is fine for hydration, but a sweet, carbohydrate rich drink mix will help you to perform your best if you're really going for it.
Training: Of course, the best way to be sure that you can do a good ride on Mount Diablo or any long climb is to train for it. I'll put out more material about that in the future, but of course, riding up Mount Diablo in training is the best preparation for racing up it at the Diablo Challenge. Having previously held the Strava KOM on Mount Diablo and having many elsewhere, I know that it always comes down to effective and specific training to get you to reach your potential. This is true whether you're climbing mountains, sprinting, or anything else. So keep at it and train smart, or get some guidance to help you to do so.
englishenduran...
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[@brianchristenson6055]

I’m going to have to go and do that one. Thanks mate!)

[@annukun7318]

good commentary on how to actally climb it....im gonna use low gear and keep cadence high to avoid leg fatigue

[@englishendurance]

Glad it was helpful... In general, go with a cadence that feels pretty natural most of the time, and feel free to mix it up a little. Sometimes it can be nice to get out of the saddle to give your muscles a break, or to change gearing intermittently to spin at a higher cadence. As far as training goes, it's good to work on having the strength-endurance to push a bigger gear and the neuromuscular skill and the cardiovascular fitness to spin at a higher cadence. For many people who don't race, it's not as imperative, but it can help your fitness to have the strength to do good power at 60-70 rpm as well as 100-110 rpm, even if the optimal cadence may be 80 or 90 for many of the harder climbing efforts we may do.

[@8rk]

Hey Nate! Just to make sure, at the end when you say "it goes left right here" Does the challenge go the wrong way like the strava segment suggests? I've always ridden it like in the video and summited on the right side but I always get the strava segment that says "wrong way at the top" So a little confused about what the official thing is.

[@englishendurance]

So, that last short pitch is one-way, so usually in training with traffic you'd go up the right side. The Diablo Challenge has traditionally been held with closed roads and they finish up the left side of that split, going against the usual flow of traffic. That way people can be finishing up the left while others who have already finished can drop down the right to the parking area right below the summit without any cross traffic between cyclists. Sometimes the Strava segments will register regardless of which side you went up, but that's just a fluke of the GPS data and Strava segment picking... But yes, usually you'd train by going up the right side, and if you do the Diablo Challenge, you can ride over the center line on the way up if you want (closed to traffic) and you'll go up the left side at the very summit.

[@8rk]

@@englishendurance Ah! Good to know. Thank you :)

[@jfiggins2682]

Very helpful - thank you!

[@englishendurance]

You're welcome! Happy it's useful. :)

[@BumSkidley]

How many miles is the climb? What is a decent average mph?

[@englishendurance]

South Gate to the Summit is 10.18 miles and 5.7% avg gradient. For a lot of people, going under an hour is a big accomplishment. It depends on what your fitness level is. Among avid cyclists, under 1:20 is pretty decent. For Cat 3 cyclists many should be able to get up in around an hour. For good climbers, under an hour... You can check the results on Strava. www.strava.com/segments/609257

[@juanruiz8641]

Nice mi friend