A bit Old but I am sure Great Tips for A2A

In reply to Athens to Atlanta A2A Skate Strategy Guide:

A bit Old but I am sure Great Tips for A2A Thanks for sharing. I'll be doing the 52m A2A this year
GustavoAMH

A2A 2006 Photos: Life at the Front!

In reply to Post A2A 2006 All Safe Plus Photo Links:

Thanks to Emerald Coast Speed for putting up these fabulous photos of life at the front (fast people). Good pics that capture the excitement and day break at the start line.

http://www.emeraldcoast-speed.com/pictures/a2a_06/index.html

Tyler Hamilton and Tom Danielson

In reply to Tyler Hamilton wins Mount Washington bike race:

The report on Cyclingnews has a lot more about the event. It points out that it's a charity ride and is "very emphatically a non-sanctioned event" so the ban wouldn't apply. It also notes that the climb attracted more attention when Hamilton rode it in 1997 and took six minutes off the record time. And that current Discovery up-and-comer Tom Danielson punched his ticket to Europe by knocking almost another minute off Hamilton's record time in 2002.

Apparently it's quite a brutal road. I'm impressed that it took him over 50 minutes to go 7.6 miles. That must be pretty steep.

Silver Hill Road and Cobb Parkway

In reply to How do the US10K Classic Hills compare to Silver Hill at A2A?:

A couple of points come to my mind:

I think the uphills are comparable to skating up Silver Hill, were you to do that for some sick reason :-). Silver Hill is a much further downhill than those on the US10K Classic, approximately 3/4 mile for SH and just less than 1/2 mile on some of the US10k hills. I believe the steepness is about the same. The speed is slightly less on the US10k's hills because they are shorter. You pick up alot of speed on Silver Hill because it's in 2-3 steps. You go down a ways, pick up speed, then - whoop - you go down more and pick up even more speed, then repeat, on Silver Hill.

To me it seems that I'm not going as fast on the US10k classic's downhills as on Silver Hill, because Cobb Parkway is like a runway, it's so wide, and void of cars in both directions, with businesses flung far either side. Silver Hill falls through a posh residential area on a two lane road, with a turn enough in the road to obscure your view of oncoming traffic for a while at the top 1/3 of the hill. Therefore, due to the narrower road and possible proximity to a motor-vehicle or other skaters, it seems faster (and sometimes scarier) to me. So I guess I'm not sure if I am actually going faster on Silver Hill or if I'm reacting adrenaline-wise to the danger aspect.

Boy what a complicated answer! I think if your only problem on fast downhills is the unpredictability of other skaters in front of you, you won't have a problem on the US10k because you have loads of room to miss people. If you're still worried about your own speed wobbles, however, this would be a great event to perfect your downhill stability and boost your confidence before A2A.

To get some idea of Silver Hill, you could check out one of Blake's movies,

http://roadskater.net/movies/d2a2004.mpg

which captures the idea of the 'steps' I mentioned. When you see the "Limited Sight Distance" sign in the movie, with Mark Nash of Grayson, GA in the red shorts & red helmet, that's just after the very top of the hill. We pick up speed and not catch him, then it looks like the hill is leveling off, then it drops down again at the 45 mph sign, and we still don't catch him and you think it's leveling off again, and whee down it goes again even more after that. I thought we were gonna cream 'im, but Mark was as steady as he could be! On the US10K, the hills are pretty much just like any other huge steep downhill you've done, just within the safety of a closed course. It'll be an even greater experience if you're able to keep up with all those indoorsy-types!

RoadSkater.Net - Comments for "national level"

A bit Old but I am sure Great Tips for A2A

A2A 2006 Photos: Life at the Front!

Tyler Hamilton and Tom Danielson

Silver Hill Road and Cobb Parkway