Big hill turns many riders into walkers
Sat, Jul 31, 2010 | by ElizabethOwens
Graf, Ia. — A tense silence fell over RAGBRAI riders Saturday morning as they pedaled out of this northeast Iowa valley town.
Everyone knew what lay ahead: Potter Hill. The big one. The winding, pedal-grinding, mile-long climb out of the valley, on the final leg of the 2010 Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa.
“People have been talking about it all week,” said Stacey Whipple, 38, of Indianola. “This is the big test.”
The tree-lined hill rises with an average 6 percent grade — although certain parts are steeper — and curves out of sight about halfway up. Riders unfamiliar with the area have no way to know when it will end, until they’ve almost reached the top.
Potter Hill was easily the steepest climb on the third-flattest overall route in RAGBRAI history. Late Saturday morning, as temperatures reached the 80s, at least two-thirds of the riders hopped off and walked.
Jeff Kohn of Phoenix stopped in Graf to wait for his teammates, who pedaled slower to conserve their energy for Potter Hill. The veteran bicyclist rides in the Arizona mountains, and said the grade wasn’t a problem for him.
“You just have to stand on those pedals, breathe hard and grind,” said Kohn, 53.
The random chatter typically heard on RAGBRAI ended as bicyclists began the ascent. At several points, the only noise was hard gear-shifting and heavy breathing.
A cardboard sign with a frowny-face greeted bikers: “Welcome to Potter Hell.”
“Don’t look up,” one woman muttered to herself, panting, as she clawed her way up. “Don’t look up.”
The 48-mile ride from Manchester to Dubuque challenged riders with some of the week’s steepest hills. Riders barreled into Graf at speeds around 35 to 45 mph.
Potter Hill was named after Charles “Zenda” and Grace Potter, a couple who bought a farm at the top in 1942.
Residents and local law enforcement referred to the hill as Potter Hill, and the name stuck.
Their grandson, Kurt Potter, said he sees bicyclists on the hill at least once a week from the house where he now lives.
“You’d be surprised,” said Potter, 40, as he watched bikers crest the hill. “People come up, they turn around, and they go back down.”
At the top, bikers pulled to the side to buy smoothies, beer and water at roadside stands. Some posed for pictures in front of a poster that read, “I survived Potter Hill.”
John Lounsberry and Rory Dolan slumped on a porch at the hilltop, beers in hand, and looked at each other.
“That made me feel really old,” said Dolan, 32, of Jesup.
Lounsberry, 64, of Cedar Falls took a drink. “It reminded me that I am old.”
— Grant Schulte
Kona mountain bike. My lowest gear is 22 x 34. At my cadence, I get 3.5 mph in that gear. Took awhile, but I rode the whole thing.
I ended up riding over the top of Potter Hill, but needed to walk for about 100 yards because….
1) I was saving Granny-gear for when I REALLY needed it. But, on the steepest part of the hill, when I went to get it, I realized I was already there. Quite demoralizing!
2) Then, right at the point I realized I didn’t have another gear to get, someone started switch-backing right in front of me. I completely lost all momentum because I would have hit them if I’d kept riding.
…That’s my story and I’m sticking with it!
That’s nuthin, I biked up that bump in the road backwords while texting my 4* recruits!
Did anyone make it up the hill on a fixed gear bike ?
I made it up that hill, but I did not hear of anyone doing it on a one speed.I was grannied down for the last two hundred yards.The part that helped me was the music that my bike stereo was playing(I used it as a cadence).If you did make it up you was cheered on a the last hundred feet at the top.Overall I would say about 98 percent of the people I seen were walking it, not that I would say that walking looked any easier.
We rode up potter hill during 2010 on our tandem with the tandem trail-a-bike with our 5 and 8 year old children on the back. It was hard but not terrible. The kids just learned they had to do some of the work too.
Potters Hill was a test for sure…talk about Granny gear! Thank you Lord I have one! I was concentrating so hard and felt like I was crawling, felt great to get to the top! Never did get the pictures from the top though! Bummer!
Is this on the 2011 route? I will be riding fixed
Yes,
There was one person from our group on a fixed (or he may have flopped to the free wheel) that did make it up the hill.
Wimps. 6 percent for a mile? That’s a frigging joke. Any mountain stater could ride that on the top ring, and mid three cogs. Blindfolded. While eating pancakes. And doing a crossword puzzle.
Not sure where they came up with the 6% grade. I was told it 19%. Someone better check and see. will hurt my pride if it was only 6% since I was one of the few in our group who rode the whole thing.
I almost never walk a hill, too much work pushing the bike…but Potter Hill beat me at about 1/2 way I think. I looked around and was pleased to note that there were only a couple people in the crowd still on their bikes. I have been on the ride since 1984 and I have never seen that many people walking a hill, never…
The peak incline rate of Potter’s Hill is 19% and at least 500 yards of it is well over 15%. The 6% average takes into account the 2-5% incline that exists for the a good 40% of the hill, then it turns ugly. So unless you’re in superior shape, the best most people could do is conquer the hill on their lowest gear. So Hercules, it’s definately no joke, 1500 feet at 15-19% is a good challenge for anyone! Plus it doesn’t help matters when we all hit the hill having biked over 420 miles in the prior 6 1/2 days just to get to the hill!
More people should do this. I am sitting at a car dealership waiting on a repair, and there are people in the waiting area who are literally nearly as wide as they are tall. I saw one woman (?… possibly a cow in a woman suit) with a butt literally (again) over a meter wide. It’s truly revolting. There are two sitting behind me who each must weigh upwards of 300 pounds. Makes me feel like a string-bean at 95kg and 1.8m tall. America… lard of the free, home of the grotesquely, super-morbidly obese. I doubt any of these people could survive WALKING up the hill, forget about biking it. Moooo…
Where exactly is Potter Hill? I would like to check it out sometime when I am in the area. Thanks.
Rangermutt: Potter’s hill is in Dubuque County, inside a triangle made by Centralia, Graf, and Twin Springs. I found this link that has it marked on a map: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=51297. You can zoom in or out to get the overview and specifics that you need to find it. Good luck! I was new to biking and that was my first-ever RAGBRAI experience. Mary Pickering is right — walking it was challenging, too!