Today's average grade was about 8% -- they say that at about 10% grade running becomes faster than biking....Having personally ridden extended stretches above 15% I can attest to that...
I was very happy with the results on a personal level... I have done very simillar climbs to the one that they did today, and I'm happy because I wouldn't have finished last if I was in the tour... The last guy took 54 minutes, only averaging about 10 MPH... On the most simillar climb that I've ridden over here, I've ridden at about 9MPH, but that was at the very beginning of a very long(128 mile) day, so I wasn't really trying to go fast, just conserve my legs for the rest of the ride.