Mountain Goats "Vacation" series (Wed, 6 pm UK)

The Mountain Goats is a long-running series of hillclimbs presented by Richard Gill. It’s been held every Wednesday @ 6 PM UK time (typically 10 am Pacific Time, US). Richard just announced he’s taking a well-earned break from running his series.

So we present for you: Mountain Goats Vacation, a series of climbs at same time. And as was the case with the Mountain Goats series, there will be an Australian version of each climb, hosted by Lynda Van Dyke, a bit later (check RGTDB.com for details)

  • Double Spiral Mountain is an example of too much fun with math. It should be fun. It’s in tradition of the Power Series – not too steep, but gradients changing all the time. Two climbs, two descents, so 4x the fun.

  • Zion National Park is an historic road with absolutely stunning scenery. It’s another power climb, with a long gradual run to the finish.

  • Flagstaff in Boulder (or “Super Flag”) is a challenging climb ending with a very steep final kilometer or so. Many locals stop at a parking lot before this segment. But this is Mountain Goats so we ride on! Thanks to Jan Deca for featuring this in his under-appreciated Colorado Thursdays series.

  • Brasstown Bald in Georgia featured in the defunct Tour of Georgia. It had another steep finish, a nice contrast to the Power series.

Then at the end of June we have the Bike Hut Classic: Mountain Goats edition. it’s an amazing scenic climb thru farmland and then dense redwoods on the peninsula south of San Francisco, a ride to raise awareness of Bike Hut, which provides free service to cyclists 100 meters before the start of this event. There will also be versions of this event on the preceding Saturday, 24 June, at 10 am and 6 pm Pacific Time.

The next week, we’re back to vacation time, with another fantasy route, Hexagon Climb. This route was generated by randomly connecting nodes on a hexagonal grid, then adding a randomly generated altitude profile. The result is a route with variable gradient with frequent turns. There’s a few bits over 10% but nothing too serious.

After this, we have a 3-week series covering the major climbs from the “Lombardia” stage 15 of the 2023 Giro d’Italia. Be ready for some steep gradients and a lot of switchbacks.

  • Wed, May 31, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Double Spiral RGTDb
  • Wed, Jun 7, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Zion National Park RGTDb
  • Wed, Jun 14, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Flagstaff Boulder RGTDb
  • Wed, Jun 21, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Brasstown Bald Georgia RGTDb
  • Wed, Jun 28, 2023 Bike Hut Classic: Mountain Goats RGTDb
  • Wed, Jul 5, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Hexagon Climb RGTDb
  • Wed, Jul 5, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Hexagon Climb RGTDb
  • Wed, Jul 12, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Giro stage 15 Valcava RGTDb
  • Wed, Jul 19, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Giro stage 15 Selvino RGTDb
  • Wed, Jul 26, 2023 Mountain Goats Vacation: Giro stage 15 Roncola RGTDb
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I previewed the Hexagon climb yesterday, and it really turned out well. It and next week’s “Double Spiral” are the two fantasy climbs on the schedule so far.

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I have a series page here:

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@Dan_Connelly This looks cool. How is the scenery generated? I thought that Magic Road rides just had a few scenery alternatives versus the Just Ride roads.

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The scenery is generated in your imagination :).

I’m afraid on the screen it will just be the usual trees and goats…

Yes – I’d love a scene builder in RGT… not yet.

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Here’s a comparison of the RGT view on the steepest portion of the Valcana climb, comparing RGT to IRL. This is part of the 3-week series on climbs from stage 15 of the 2023 Giro.

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  1. Double Spiral fantasy climb today, 6 pm UK. This is a lot of fun… if you consider over under interval sets “fun”….
    Mountain Goats Vacation: Double Spiral
  2. Aussie version at 12:30 Pacific. (typically a bit lower turnout)
    Mountain Goats Aus/NZ

At least click on the link to look at the map, which I find somewhat mesmerizing… it almost appears to spin.