Mount Greylock is the highest road and hardest bike climb in Massachusetts! The hill climb occurs in early September off the back of the fearsome Ascutney, Kearsarge, Washington trifecta, and is a great opportunity to use your Washington fitness to score some important points in the Bumps series.

The Climb

Greylock averages 5.7%, but 17% of the climb is above 10% mostly as you gain the ridge through some gorgeous switchbacks, and then flattens out as you approach the summit, with a final kick to the iconic Veterans’ War Monument.

Rough estimates using Best Bike Split with this segment and including bike weight into the w/kg calculation.

w/kg	Time
4.5	40m 20s
4.0	44m 22s
3.5	49m 52s
3.0	56m 44s
2.5	1h 06m 56s
2.0	1h 21m 58s

Bike Setup

Gearing on Greylock is fairly straight forward. Have gears to handle 2 miles at 9%+, with a quarter mile at 12%, and then the fast sections from mile 6 on. For this climb, if you’re not sure what to run, I recommend a 2x setup with the biggest cassette you can run. For a more scientific approach, plug your data into Best Bike Split and looking at your min and max speeds and picking gearing that’ll work, (I’ll be posting more about this in a future guide!).

Marginal gains can be had by optimizing weight and aero. As w/kg improves, aero becomes more important, and should be noted, but neither should be prioritized over comfortably getting through the steep sections.

Pacing Plan

This is one of the rare races where ‘going out too hard and hang on’ won’t ruin your race. There are a few spots where the gradient drops and you can get some recovery and not hemorrhage time.

Based on your estimated duration lock in a target power or RPE. In the beginning, there are 2 downhill / flat sections, mile .84 to 1, and mile 1.3 to 1.8, during these sections you’ll drop power or RPE 20-30%, while keeping your speed high. As the gradients increase, ramp the power back up and dig a little, but not much more than 5%. There are 3 more sections along the climb where the gradients will ease along with your effort, mile 4.6 to 4.8, 6.2 to 6.7, and 7.3 to 8.1. Don’t ease off more than 15% here as the effort will ramp back up once the gradient goes back up. At mile 8 you’ll come to a T intersection where you make a hard left, and have 1 mile at 6% to finish off the race.

Pre Race

The parking lot is a dirt / gravel lot, and has plenty of space to warm up, and is right by the registration. There’s a wide window for start times, so usually registration isn’t overwhelmed, and you don’t need to give yourself additional time to find parking and wait in line. The roads in the area are decent enough to warm up on. The main road, Route 8, is a good one to warmup on as it’s relatively flat and uninterrupted with a good shoulder.

They will have a summit car that you can put a bag in, so at least think about a jacket and warm gloves, because you’ll probably be at the top for a little while hanging out, and the descent can get pretty chilly.

Riders are set off in 20 second intervals so enjoy being the hunter and the hunted. The road is not closed, and given the short intervals and relatively high speeds, do pay attention if you make a pass. Also the road before you enter the park can be pretty rough so keep your eyes on the road.

Post Race

There’s usually a crew of helpful volunteers passing out snacks and drinks, when I did it in 2021 they had some delicious hot chocolate! Take a few minutes to grab some food and cool down, before putting on your warm clothing and walking around to enjoy the view of the monument and the surrounding area.

Back at the base there are some fantastic roads for bonus miles and plenty of good restaurants to fill up before making the trek back home.