Tour de France terminology question?

Question

When Paul and Phil say a 6.9% gradient what kind of pitch is that or degree of angle?

Answer 1

gipp is right.  for every 100 feet distance of road, you go up 6.9 feet.

personally, 6.9% is actually not bad.  its when you start getting 8.5%+  it starts hurting.  we have awesome 15% short explosive roads here, great for intervals and repeats.  it makes 5% feel flat.

Answer 2

on a road, it tells you the change in vertical feet for every hundred feet traveled. So in this case, for every 100' the riders travel, they've climbed an average 6.9'

EDIT- Good catch Glenn, it is based on the horizontal difference, not the distance traveled. I was just trying to keep it simple since for a 6.9% gradient the difference between horizontal and traveled distance is less the 4", which isnt very much over the course of 100'

Answer 3

It is the rise in relation to HORIZONTAL distance travelled. In most normal road situations this will be almost the same as the road distance travelled. It is quite uncommon to find a sealed road with a gradient over 15%.(8.5 degrees)

A 100% grade is 45 degrees,a 200% grade is 63.4 degrees. In both these situations the distance travelled would far exceed the horizontal distance.

A 6.9% gradient is equal to 3.95 degrees.(doesn't sound impressive does it?)

Here is a wiki link that covers it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slope

A topographical map shows gradient with contour lines. The closer the lines are together the steeper the slope. (Contour lines represent land at the same height above sea level.Usually in set intervals).  Counting the number of contour lines crossed per inch on the map is a simple way to measure gradient. (road builders do this)

Answer 4

Steep enough that you will using all your strength to make it at 6 mph.

Answer 5

Wow,, learn something new every day!!!

I always thought it was the steepness of the road. The higher the % of the gradiant the steeper the climb.  So, now I am guessing it's the degree of angle.