You are reading a single comment by @bluebikerider and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
London Fixed Gear and Single-Speed is a community of predominantly fixed gear and single-speed cyclists in and around London, UK.
This site is supported almost exclusively by donations. Please consider donating a small amount regularly.
bluebikerider
I think you're looking at different measurements and treating them the same.
The sign is a road sign, and will give the worst incline not the average. It is there to signal to drivers (in vehicles that may struggle) which is the worst incline so that they know whether they are likely to make it up.
The 9% on the TdF stages is the average incline over the given section, not the maximum within the section.
So a 9% on a road sign here is max, and 9% on the TdF profile is average.
It is steeper overall, for longer, long enough to be the average rather than peak incline.
At least, that's the way I understand it.