# What do you consider flat or hilly?



## andorany (Sep 25, 2012)

I know it varies by region and I feel like I live in the flattest of flat areas, sometimes I can't seem to find a hill if I search.

For example the other day on a charity ride of 25 miles they had 64 feet of total climbing...I don't think I could find something flatter if I tried

On my average "25 milers" I tend to go about 600-700 Feet climbed, Its basically a bunch of little hills, no real climbs or anything, mole hills really.

All this according to strava of course 

so what would you consider flat for you? What would be a hilly ride in your area?


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## martinrjensen (Sep 23, 2007)

Depends on length. 25 miles I usually consider 3-400 ft el gain pretty flat. actually up to 5 or 600 ft now that I think about it. I don't think I have a ride around here that is much less than 5-600ft in el gain. (Seattle)
If I ride up my street I gain about 200 ft or so (but that's all within a half mile or so, (it's anything but flat!)


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## J.R. (Sep 14, 2009)

Yesterday's I went on a 3 hr endurance ride. I wasn't particularly looking for hills.

According to Garmin Connect - 45miles, 3688'. Strava - 45 miles 4026'

If I'm targeting hills it will be >100' per mile. This is in Central PA. The only "flat" sections are in the valleys.


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## tihsepa (Nov 27, 2008)

Uphill= hilly.

Downhill= flat.


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## Princeton_Tiger (Dec 5, 2009)

J.R. said:


> >100' per mile. .


+1 - This


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## cyclingsivells (Aug 1, 2012)

Anything that has 100 ft of climbing per mile is hilly. A century with 10,000 ft of climbing is some real climbing , in my opinion.


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## mpre53 (Oct 25, 2011)

In my area, a "hilly" ride would have 2000' of climbing and consist almost exclusively of rolling hills. I might get a "climb" of 200-300' over 1 to 1.5 miles. This is Cape Cod/SE Mass.


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## J.R. (Sep 14, 2009)

Here's a pic of a "hilly ride"  from this spring.


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## Doug B (Sep 11, 2009)

I would say anything more than about 50 feet of rise per mile is "hilly". That would equate to a hill about twice the size of a standard interstate hill every mile. 

But it's all relative.


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## mtnroadie (Jul 6, 2010)

My usual elevation gain is about 1000ft+/- per 20miles. I recently did some riding in Europe where my rides tended to linger between 2500-7000ft elevation gain per 20-50miles. This somewhat changed my definition for hilly.

My biggest climb ride to date was 6000ft elevation gain in 25miles.


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## Mapei (Feb 3, 2004)

I consider a ride to be hilly if it climbs a thousand feet every ten or so miles.


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## Flac Vest (Jul 16, 2012)

If ypu arent constantly climbing, then it's flat. Ill go out and take a 27 mile ride that has 1000 feet of climbs, but thats over the entire length. 

If you arent climbing something, then it's flat; IMO.


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## gamara (May 20, 2002)

I did the Centurion Ellicottville this summer. It had around 6,000ft of total climbing for 100 miles. There was a lot of flat sections & there was a lot of big hills. The flat sections were the ones that allows me to ride pretty much in the big ring the whole time.

I know its hilly when I'm in my bailout 39x27 doing 9km/hr at times & I've already been climbing for 10 minutes and the climb just keeps going still. You really know its hilly when the thought of getting off the bike & walking up the rest of the way keeps popping into your head.


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## Lelandjt (Sep 11, 2008)

At the end of a ride I notice my average speed more often than elevation gain. Flat rides I have no problem averaging 23-24. It was hilly if I have to work to average 18-20.

Edit: Looking at my Stava rides it appears I consider anythin less than 1000ft a flat ride. Living in HI & CO that's as flat as it gets.


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## benroe1000 (Jun 25, 2012)

I consider 800-1000ft gain in 20 miles hilly. I try to find loops that have a 1000ft elevation gain over this distance to make a fun ride but I live in an area with small rolling hills.


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## TwntyOneTwlv (Mar 18, 2012)

Living in Northeast Ohio, my typical 20 mile ride consists of about 400 ft, but that's just the route I take. Thanks to the national park that's right in Akron's backyard, I can make a 20 miler have a couple thousand if I wanted to, but none of the individual hills ever reach even 300 ft by themselves. The most climbing I've ever done in one ride has only been about 1800 ft in 24 miles.


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## looigi (Nov 24, 2010)

FWIW, another consideration is the length vs number of hills. The total elevation gain may have been the same but out West I did a lot of rides that were up up up up up down down down down. In New England its more up down up down up down up down. They both might have 4000' of gain, but it can be one hill in the mountains where in New England it's 20 hills of 200'.


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## SlyCross01 (Nov 5, 2008)

I guess the definition of hilly is dependent upon what the norm is for where you live. My average ride is ~ 75 ft gain/mile, i.e. one popular route is 2.3K ft over 30 miles. 100 ft gain/mile average rides are definitely hilly. Add another 30 ft/mile average to that and you have a Gran Fondo. I worry more about individual grades than I do overall elevation gain.

My hat is off to you flatlanders: windy Century rides with <1K ft gain are among the hardest rides I've ever done.


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## Guod (Jun 9, 2011)

Living in central AL, I'm able to create rides that can have 100ft per mile. None of the hills are really all that big, but they can add up. There's a 1.1mi 6.8%avg hill right near my house, so I can cross that valley and ridge area several times and get alot of elevation in a very short distance.


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## BostonG (Apr 13, 2010)

MA here - lots of rollers. I gain about 1k feet over every 25 miles or thereabouts on a typical ride. I do have routes that are more hilly (gain of 2k every 25 miles) and others that I consider flat (gain of 500 or less every 25 miles). 

It's not hard to find a good hill for repeats and rollers can be a lot of fun to ride (especially when you are hammering them) but I too need to drive to get to any great climbs that are more than 1 mile. 

I rode in upstate NY a few times this past season - it was amazingly awesome. Plenty of long and short hills with varying grades (nice climbs and rewarding descents), little traffic, nice roads, beautiful scenery, tons of farms - easily the best rides of my year. Kind of like riding in the Concord, MA area but on steriods.


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## Schneiderguy (Jan 9, 2005)

70 miles north of Houston. Rides vary from 1500 feet in 50-60 miles to 3000 feet in that distance. 3000 feet=up,down, up, down. short rollers from 4-7%. A few will be 11%. Only a few go for 1 to 2 miles and they "stairstep". Sprinte and strong guys'gals do great on them; not climbers hills. But it is a pain trying to do long LT intervals on the road due to the "up, down". I've due the Tour de Hugle in Austin. 107 miles and around 13000 feet of climbing with 5-6 climbs 22-24%-pain :cryin:


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## Oxtox (Aug 16, 2006)

anything I can ride seated is 'flat.'

if I have to come out of the saddle, it's 'hilly'...


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## JoePAz (Jul 20, 2012)

andorany said:


> I know it varies by region and I feel like I live in the flattest of flat areas, sometimes I can't seem to find a hill if I search.
> 
> For example the other day on a charity ride of 25 miles they had 64 feet of total climbing...I don't think I could find something flatter if I tried
> 
> ...


My typical road rides have been short in the neighborhood. I get about 600 feet elevataion gain per Strava on my 18 mile loop and about 900 on my 22 mile loop. Those numbers seem pretty small to me as my other than one steep, but very short section it mostly just a little hills. You know when you are climbing and when you are not, but I don't consider it really hilly. If I can run up a short climb at 16 mph it is not really big climb especially it is less than 5 minues. My steepest section drops me about 10-11 mph, but only lastest maybe 2 minutes. 

My mtn bike rides tend have 1200 to 2200 feet of elevation gain in 15-25 miles. Those rides have some real climbs where you need to really drop the speed and spin away for 15 minutes at 5-8 mph.


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## f3rg (May 11, 2008)

I live in a moderately hilly area, and I average about 1,000ft climbed per 20mi of distance. It can be more or less depending on which side of the city I hit but, like I said, this is average.

I have several 100-150ft climbs over a distance of .5 to .7mi, and I consider them to be decent hills. The worst is a 218ft climb over a distance of about .4mi.

I'm a hill climber, so I don't mind any of them.


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## DEK (Feb 12, 2005)

Another name for a hill in Florida is an overpass. There's very little in the way of hills here. Just did a metric century and someone in my group said we climbed about 700' total. For Florida, that's hilly.


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## Jay Strongbow (May 8, 2010)

looigi said:


> FWIW, another consideration is the length vs number of hills. The total elevation gain may have been the same but out West I did a lot of rides that were up up up up up down down down down. In New England its more up down up down up down up down. They both might have 4000' of gain, but it can be one hill in the mountains where in New England it's 20 hills of 200'.


yeah, that also captures the difference between northern and southern New England. Oddly enough I find I clock faster rides in the big mountains (by NE standards) of NH and VT as compared to the constant up/down further south. Im sure part of that is the relative lack of intersections and stops up north but also it's really hard to develop any type of flow when the climbs and descents are shorter. 

Anyway, if it seems like I'm either riding < 15 or > 30 mph most of the time I consider it a hilly ride.


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## tlg (May 11, 2011)

andorany said:


> so what would you consider flat for you?


Flat for me is <50ft/mi. 
I did a ride this summer in Lancaster PA. 70.4 mi +1,730 ft (24ft/mi). Uggg that was boringly flat.



> What would be a hilly ride in your area?


In my area you can't ride more than 10mi without averaging over 50ft/mi. 
50-70ft/mi is pretty normal. 
>80ft/mi is hilly



f3rg said:


> I have several 100-150ft climbs over a distance of .5 to .7mi, and I consider them to be decent hills. The worst is a 218ft climb over a distance of about .4mi.


I had one of those this weekend. Over .4mi was +233ft. And about half of that was at 18%.


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## LuckyB (Sep 9, 2012)

What these hills you speak off? I live in the flattest county in Indiana, and the bordering counties don't have hills either. We have a constant wind.

One man's hill is another man's mountain.


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## gumbafish (Jan 11, 2011)

A hilly ride around here is when I go over the only inclines in the area (road overpasses). My 'hills' come from the nonstop wind coming off of the great lakes...


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## Chef Tony (Mar 2, 2004)

SF bay area seems to average @ 500 - 800 ft of climbing per 10 miles no matter where you ride. You can easily do more, but for anything less you have to stay really close to the shoreline.


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## poff (Jul 21, 2007)

I climb approx. 125ft per mi on average in East Bay. Can easily do 200ft per mile, but then it is just masochism.


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## RayfromTX (May 18, 2011)

less than 50' per mile is not hilly. Over 100' per mile is a hill climbing ride. Between those two is where I live. I am very grateful for that. Hill climbing monday ride is 31.3 miles with 2814 feet of climbing. There are several flat sections and many sections that run 16-22%. Doing that ride twice a week at a suffering pace will make a very strong rider. I mix that with long rides at 50-60% of my HRR.


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## bryon (Sep 4, 2012)

I am just starting out road bike ridibg. Last sat i road 43 miles with a buddy and we had just over 2400 ft of gain. They are several cat 2 climbs within easy riding distance where I live. I am just not ready to tackle them yet. Those are goibg from the valley at 900 ft to tje plateau at 2000 ft.


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## f3rg (May 11, 2008)

tlg said:


> I had one of those this weekend. Over .4mi was +233ft. And about half of that was at 18%.


Ours is similar, with the steepest section being about 22%. It's a bear, but once you climb it, you're happy that you put out the effort.

Stats from tonight's ride, which is typical for this time of year, heading out for a short ride right after work:

22.59mi, 1,458ft, 01:11:13, 19.1mph avg.


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## Jesse D Smith (Jun 11, 2005)

--------flat________________________________________________________hilly--------


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## "Fred" (Oct 20, 2006)

Under 50ft per mile = flat or close to flat.
50-75 ft per mile = light hills.
75-100 ft per mile = hilly
Over 100 ft per mile = very hilly


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## w-g (Mar 9, 2006)

poff said:


> I climb approx. 125ft per mi on average in East Bay. Can easily do 200ft per mile, but then it is just masochism.


Diablo? I think that's about my average too. My standard ride is about 2300' at mile 20. 3400 if feeling like summiting the remaining 5+ miles. Climb to get to the fun decents.


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## poff (Jul 21, 2007)

w-g said:


> Diablo? I think that's about my average too. My standard ride is about 2300' at mile 20. 3400 if feeling like summiting the remaining 5+ miles. Climb to get to the fun decents.


Something like this:
Bike Ride Profile | 49miles near Berkeley | Times and Records | Strava


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