Coach Rob and I have been talking about gearing lately, in particular what would be the best for Haute Route. My initial thought was that I had no initial thoughts, just assuming that my Compact set-up (50/34 – 12/27) would be just right. However, there could possibly be an advantage to getting more top-end speed on the descents (I max out at around 55 kph while pedaling right now).

To be honest, I don’t think this is going to be a real issue for me because I’ll probably be happy to rest the legs on most descents and not worry about pedaling if I’m traveling faster than that. I’ve never been in a group on the flat that has rolled at 55 kph for any length of time either, so I still think the compact is the way to go for me.

But all this got me wondering what others might be considering. I already know that one of my teammates on Team Vicious Cycle was looking for a chainring in between Standard and Compact, so I’m sure he’s not the only one. Will the best (Rich, maybe you could enlighten us on this?) be riding standard gearing? I shudder to think about how strong you’d need to be to accomplish this.

Here’s a poll, but you are free to leave a longer answer in the Comments section.