Glossary

Average gradient

How steep the climb is. The gradient is the slope of the climb, or the ratio between the elevation difference and the distance. A common misconception is that the gradient represents the angle of the road (even though it is actually the tangent of that angle.)

Climb categories

A measure of the difficulty of the climb. It is calculated by multiplying the average gradient by the distance of the climb. A climb can be categorized as 4, 3, 2, 1, and HC, where 4 is the easiest and HC (which stands for beyond categorization in French) is the hardest.

Elevation difference

The elevation you gained at the end of a hill. It is the difference between the elevation at the start and the elevation at the end of a climb. This measure is great to get a general idea of how hard the climb will be.

Elevation gain

The total amount of climbing in a route. It is the height of all the uphill section of a route combined.

Hilliness

A measure how hilly a route is in feet of climbing per mile. It is the ratio between the distance and the elevation gain. This is a great measure of the difficulty of the ride.

Moving time

The moving time is the time spent actually riding your bike. It does not include any rest stops or breaks.

A, B, and C pace

Many local rides, mainly those organised by the Finger Lakes Cycling Club, categorise the pace of different riders as A, B, or C. These categories are somewhat subjective, but rough estimates of the pace for each category are:

• C pace: 12 mph
• B pace: 13-15 mph
• A pace: 15+ mph

For example, a "C ride" would be a ride where the average pace of the riders is around 12 mph.

Summit elevation

The elevation at the end of the climb.