Alyn 2010

They've published the routes, and included an elevation profile. The Challenge is always difficult but this year the end of day 1 is an incredible climb.  It's hard to say exactly the distance from the graph.  but the elevation change of 354.7 meters is quite clear. Oh sure, there's a short recovery after 177.4 meters of climbing followed by more steep climbing. Looks like the whole climb is over perhaps 6 Km distance.  That only computes to a 6% grade but the catch is that downhill on the elevation chart. One thinks one could just hit 72 kph and roll up at least part of the way, but the  route makes it quite clear: you're riding down the crater wall, then turning around and climbing right back up.  The day is "only" 51 miles, and I suppose I could bail and take the bus back up the wall.  For sure at this moment I'm not in shape to handle this but I've got 4 months to get in shape.