I wouldn't worry about the elevation gain, if I were you. I would just keep praying that a hurricane doesn't hit again. For those of us who continued to ride into the eye of Tammy, we can honestly say that a few thousand foot climb on a nice day is like a picnic in comparison!
i agree the hill climbs are nothing compare to the rain that we had to ride in.....don't worry about the climbs just hope that we have no heavy rain...........
At the bottom of each map there is a profile showing the elevation gain/loss for each day. There is an overall route map showing the overall distance and elevation gain/loss.
So currently I have the entire route being:
395 miles Total elevation gain (climbing) 20,300 feet Total elevation loss (decending) 24,000 feet
It looks like we spend the first day dropping about 3000 feet (nice!) and then spend the rest of the trip winding through the rollers of the pedmont down to the flats of the coast.
Thanks that helps!! We are not able to do CNC this year... I do agree that the climbing was much more enjoyable than the rain... we finished the whole ride last year and it was by far the wettest riding we've ever done... We're thinking about doing GABA in AZ and the total climbing is 35,000 feet.. so, i just wanted some kind of comparison/idea as to what we did last year... seemed like a lot of climbing... we loved the ride and will come back to CNC !!!!
I rode through the Phonix area during my transam cycle ride. There is a popular route from Phonix up through Fountain Hill into Payson and eventually into Showlow... It was not easy... It was three very large passes up from Fountian Hill to Payson... Uppppppp and then DOWN... and then uuuuuuppppppp and "down" (note the ups were LONG and the downs were quick
The "RIM" is where you end up on the way from Payson to Showlow. That was also VERY steep... Of course I was lugging a 60 pound loaded touring bike under my feet but I could tell it was a good haul even if I didn't have the weight.
I would suspect that with it being more "up" than down than going mountain to coast that the GABA trip would probably be tougher...