Well, that isn’t strictly true; the summer holidays are here for everybody with children at school and to avoid hassle with overly busy roads, long delays in traffic and finding accommodation I’m putting the hill climbing on hold until September. Travelling between the hills is time consuming, and sometimes stressful, enough and I could do without adding to that by having to deal with tourist traffic. I’m also entering a phase in this challenge when I will need to spend several days away from home in order to tick of the climbs in different parts of the UK now that I have pretty much finished the South West. Finding somewhere to stay at the height of the tourist season will be difficult, and pricey, so I think it is better to spend August preparing for the next phase of my 100 climbs challenge and be ready to start making progress again in the autumn. That isn’t to say that I’ll be taking it easy on the beach with a beer in the meantime. In fact August is going to be a pretty busy month as I prepare to take on the climbs in Wales.
From September I’m intending to start taking on the 80 of the remaining climbs region by region with Wales as the first target. The planning has started and I’m already past the stage of plotting out where the climbs are and the route to follow. I’m going to start with the climbs in South Wales on one trip and then return to Wales to tackle the climbs in the North. Some of the Welsh climbs are pretty fearsome combining steep gradients with some pretty lengthy sections of road. Suffice to say I’ll be doing some fairly serious training rides during August in an attempt to prepare. I’ll probably still end up wheezing my way to the top of every Welsh climb in bottom gear at one mile an hour but at least I’ll be well prepared!
One thing you need when taking on the 100 climbs is a lot of maps. Just as well I like looking at them.
As well as spending a lot of time grinding my way up the steepest hills North Devon can offer for training I’ve got a new bike to build. It was my intention to use my old Bianchi road bike as a lightweight hill climbing machine. Unfortunately the build has been problematic and I’ve ended up with a bike I’m not overly happy with. Using my Surly Cross Check for the first 20 climbs has taught me a lot about the sort of bike I’m happy with in the hills and I’ve made the decision to strip the Bianchi down and use most of the components on it to build up something completely different based on a frame and fork I picked up cheap off the interweb. More details will be released soon but I think I’ve made the right call. The Cross Check will be kept as a spare bike. In fact it is three years since I first built it up and the poor thing is looking and feeling rather tired. At some point in the next few weeks I’m going to give it a complete overhaul and maybe even finally get around to cutting down the steerer tube to an aesthetically pleasing length.
I need to get some new kit sorted out over the summer as well. One of the most important things I need to sort out is a replacement for Ass Cam which sadly died only a few rides into the 100 climbs. Having a rearward facing camera is really good for showing the gradient on the climbs and also makes my slow moving videos slightly more interesting. I’ve found a camera I think will do the job but I’ll need to spend some time testing it and getting the mounting on the bike right. Perhaps unsurprisingly camera makers don’t make seat post mounts and some improvisation will be required.
Anyway, after a productive weekend getting in some useful training rides I’m off to undo all the good work with a couple of beers…
I was hoping that this would be a write up of how I ticked Weston Hill and Dover’s Hill off the list within 24 hours of each other. Unfortunately my plans to ride Weston Hill in Bath didn’t quite work out.
The plan was simple, I had a couple of days meetings in Oxfordshire planned and I would take on Weston Hill on my way to the first and then Dover’s Hill the following day after my meetings finished. My day started well enough and I left the house nice and early but my journey into Bath took longer than was ideal and the closer I got the slower I went. By the time I got to the foot of Weston Hill time was against me and it was clear that I wouldn’t have time to complete the ride, find somewhere to get changed and then get to my meeting. Work had to come first so I had to abort. The good thing is I got to scope out the climb, find a decent place to park near the top. I also thankfully found a quicker route to get to the climb for when I have the time to go back.
Dover’s Hill was a lot more straightforward. After a day sat on my backside in meetings I only had to drive about thirty miles, do the climb and then go home. Of course that was the theory. My first main problem after leaving work was finding somewhere to get changed. I was on a tight schedule so decided that it would be more time efficient to get as close to the climb as possible before getting changed in a lay by. Changing out of office attire into cycling gear requires a certain amount of nakedness and finding a quiet lay by was difficult. I had to get changed using the door mirrors to figure out when cars were passing. I also managed to drop a sock in a puddle which was less than ideal. It isn’t an experience I’m looking to repeat anytime soon!
Once I had managed the most stressful change in clothes in history I drove onto Dover’s Hill and after finding it (I naturally drove past it the first time) got parked up and rode down to the start. I’m glad I didn’t wait until getting to the hill before getting changed as it seems Dover’s Hill is a popular spot with early evening dog walkers.
Dover’s Hill is actually quite a pretty little climb out of an attractive Gloucestershire village. Sadly I wasn’t able to fully appreciate it as two days in meetings had left me feeling below par. The legs were working OK and the climb isn’t particularly steep but I huffed and puffed my way to the top like a 60 a day smoker. It probably didn’t help that there had been a heavy shower before I got to Dover’s Hill and as I coasted down to the start I got completely soaked. Despite the now familiar soundtrack of my laboured breathing I actually found the climb pretty easy to complete and it was nice to drive back to Devon knowing that I had completed the 20th climb out of the 100. Driving for three hours in damp cycling shorts isn’t something I intend to repeat but after the earlier hassle of getting changed in public I couldn’t face going through the experience all over again.
I thought it was high time I finished off the climbs in Devon and so set off early on Saturday the 30th to take on Haytor Vale and Salcombe Hill. Setting off early is pretty essential when riding on Dartmoor at this time of year as the tourist traffic can get pretty heavy. I prefer to do my uphill suffering without having to dodge caravans.
I parked up at the top of Haytor around 8am and coasted down to the start. It was a good opportunity to scope out the climb and the gradient and I was quite pleased to see that the gradient varied a lot along the length of the climb. This sort of variable longer climb suits me better as I like the chance to ease off on the flatter bits. A longer climb also lets me get a bit more settled into a decent pace.
The ride up to Haytor has two distinct sections. The first is made up of the lower slopes where the majority of the 12% sections lurk. This part of the climb is quite sheltered and there was a lot of water on the road surface from the recent heavy rain. The lower section of the climb I found out is also sheltered from the wind and I was able to make good progress and managed to last a bit longer than I usually do before dropping down into bottom gear. My gears gave me a bit of hassle just after starting off and an unplanned pit stop was required to fiddle around with the front derailleur. It was fairly easy to resolve although I did need to make some further adjustments once I’d reached the top of the climb. Apart from that the only other thing I wasn’t expecting on the way up the climb was encountering wheel spin on a cattle grid. I would like to say it was because I was riding so hard that my back tyre broke traction. In reality the surface of the metal cattle grid was soaking wet. Gave me a bit of a shock though.
The second section of the climb is made up of the upper slopes and is much more exposed. Unfortunately the exposed nature of the climb meant that I had to deal with a nasty head wind which really slowed my progress up the final stretch. I was relieved to get back to the car as the final drag up to the car park at the summit was made far harder than it needed to be by the strengthening wind.
Haytor, looks impressive and sadly so was the strength of the head wind
After a quick breather at the top I loaded the bike into the car and headed off to Sidmouth to complete the final climb in Devon; Salcombe Hill.
Salcombe Hill is quite representative of the sort of climb I dislike. It is sort and steep, reaching a gradient of 20% at the top. The road up to the summit also proved to be very busy and it would seem the residents of Sidmouth don’t care much for cyclists and I grew pretty fed up with not being left much space by passing cars. Despite the steepness of the climb and the idiotic driving of a few motorists the climb was at least sheltered from the wind that had been an unpleasant feature of the top of Haytor Vale.
The gradient steadily ramps up as you ride up Salcombe Hill and perhaps unsurprisingly I got slower and slower the further up I went. Thankfully just as I thought I was about to explode I reached the top of the climb. Salcombe Hill was much shorter than I was expecting it to be and after a brief cool down on the flatter section of road at the top I was able to stick the bike back in the car and get home in time to watch the start of the Tour de France.
As I'm not doing any rides this weekend I thought I would post up the following video. It is another chance to see the impressive Winnats Pass. It took me far less time to get back down to my car than it did to get to the top although my less than polished descending technique nearly failed me at one point and I came close to overcooking it entering the final left hand bend.
Next weekend I intend to tackle the two remaining climbs in Devon that I have not yet been able to get around to doing. Hopefully by this time next week I'll be busy editing videos of my efforts to climb Haytor Vale and Salcombe Hill. After that I will only have a further two climbs to complete in the South West. Wales will be my focus after I've reached that milestone. The ferocious nature of some of the Welsh Climbs is partly the reason why I wasn't out ticking off more of the 100 climbs this weekend; I'm going to need to up my game considerably and so some more measured training rides were required.
Day two of my time in Derbyshire started early, very early. 5.30am early in fact. I planned to do Bank Road and Riber then drive across to the climb at Peaslows before driving home to Devon. Seeing as how Bank Road is in the middle of Matlock and I had a full day planned I reasoned it would be best to see off that climb, and the one up to Riber Castle, before the roads got too busy. Bank Road is after all one of the main streets in Matlock and a steep hill is bad enough without being buzzed by lots of traffic.
In order to make sure I could get up and out of where I was staying with as few delays as possible I built the Cross Check up the night before. That way I could get up, get dressed, wheel the bike out to the car and then onto the first climb of the day. Thankfully every Travelodge room seems to have some dead space in it's layout and I managed to fit the bike into an already crowded room with no bother. Not sure what the receptionist made of a portly bloke wheeling a bike past her desk first thing in the morning but I didn't hang around to find out. I was tempted to ride it out to the car park but thought better of it at the last minute.
Very thoughtful of Travelodge to provide a space for a bicycle in every room
My early start meant I was able to get into Matlock and the foot of the first climb just before 6.30am. Bank Road itself is quite an intimidating climb. It is a relatively straight bit of road that just rises up in front of you with a gradient that slowly gets steeper as you get closer to the top. There is no opportunity to ease off and you have no option but to dig in and get on with it.
It was a bit of a shock to the system starting a climb so early in the morning but I managed to winch my way up to the top in bottom gear without too much trouble. After a lot of driving and hill climbing the day before I actually felt quite fresh. I can only assume I'm either getting slightly better at this hill climbing lark or I was just still half asleep and wasn't fully aware of what I was doing. Either way after the ususal heavy breathing and slow pedalling routine I made it to the top and then descended back to the car with the intention of tackling the climb up to Riber Castle. It was on the road up to Riber I decided to alter my plans for the day.
The climb up to Riber is a steep one and ranked as a 9/10. As my underpowered Fiat struggled up to the top and I woke up half of Matlock by redlining it's puny engine in first gear I realised I wasn't going to be able to do the climb justice. Riber is a brute of a climb. If I was having trouble getting up it in my car I was almost certainly going to have a hard time on the bike. I've got to travel up to the area to complete a few of the other climbs in the book (most notably the Cat and Fiddle) at some point in the future and I was reluctant to tackle Riber knowing that I would in all probability grind to a halt half way up and have to resort to pushing my bike up. The final part of the climb has several savage hairpin bends that I know would have gotten the better of me at my current level of fitness. Stop on the upper section of the climb and the gradient, road surface and narrowness of the climb mean you will in all likelihood be unable to get going again. If I'm going to tackle that climb I want to do it properly and so I decided that Peaslows would be my next and final climb of the day. When I feel fitter and more up to the challenge I shall take on Riber but for now it can wait. No point in making a half arsed attempt when I know I can do better with a bit more training.
This decision to tackle only two climbs meant I was able to get back to the Travelodge at Alfreton, have breakfast, complete my packing and travel across to the climb up Peaslows by just after 10.30. The climb itself was a bit awkward to find, mainly because I relied on my crap nav and not the map, and so I was feeling a bit harassed as I started my descent from the car down to the start. Peaslows has a fairly steady 12% gradient all the way to the top. It is only ranked as a 4/10 but I struggled to get going on it. I was starting to feel a little fatigued by the combination of driving and cycling and it took until half way up the climb before I found any sort of regular rhythm. Just as I started hitting what I consider to be my stride my ride was interrupted by a small dog running out into the road to say hello. It was a very small dog and I was worried I might run it over so I had to stop. I didn't complain too much as a chance for a breather when cycling up a steep hill is always to be appreciated and it didn't take long before the dogs owner carried it away and I could get restarted.
If I'm being totally honest I found Peaslows a bit of a boring climb. The gradient isn't too bad but there isn't anything particularly interesting about the climb. It just drags uphill for longer than seems necessary and you eventually end up next to a rather unassuming reservoir. It wasn't one of my better efforts but it is one more to tick off the list and by the end of my time in Derbyshire I had bagged six climbs and upped my overall total to 17. I felt knackered but fairly happy as I drove back to Devon.
All I need to do now is finish off the rest of the climbs in the South West and then move onto the Welsh climbs. If I'm being honest I'm not looking forward to Wales. Some of the climbs are quite fearsome and I'm going to have to up my game if I'm to do them any justice. Before I even get there however the bike is going to need a bit of TLC. I built it up three years ago and it could do with a partial rebuild. Slinging it in and out of the car on numerous occastions over the last few months hasn't done it any favours either.
On the 11th June I loaded my bike, my dad and the dog into the car and headed up to the Peak District for a couple of days of hill climbing action. My intention was to tick off seven climbs in two days. I only managed to tackle six in the end (more of which later) but all in all I’m quite pleased with how things went. Despite being June the weather was dry and my legs and bike managed to keep going long enough to get the job done.
The little black book of pain has quite a few climbs in Derbyshire and it made sense to base myself just outside Matlock in a Travelodge over a couple of days and take on as many of the climbs as I could. On the first day just over 80 miles of driving got me to the base of 4 separate climbs. If you want to minimise fatigue cutting down on the driving involved between climbs is a great way to do it.
When mutilple climbs fit onto the same map you know you're onto a winner
After driving up on the 11th and getting no sleep (sharing a room with a homesick Cocker Spaniel will do that) my first climb was Monsal Head on the 12th June.
Climbing HQ for the next couple of days with an apparently very interesting bin. The beer is purely for medicinal purposes...
Monsal Head is only a short climb and proved a good warm up for the day ahead. It isn’t too hard a climb being rated only a 3/10 and is over very quickly. After spending some time putting my bike together on a car park (some swearing and cursing was involved) I coasted down the hill and got stuck in after a brief warm up.
Pedalling slowly uphill since 2012
I think it is fair to say that Malcolm Elliott’s time of 1m 14.2 is safe but I span my way up fairly easily and found I had an audience of bikers (of the motorised kind) and hikers as I crested the top of the climb. Not sure what they made of the panting cyclist gurning his way up the hill at 2 mph but I had achieved what I needed to, slung the bike back in the car and set the sat nav for Castleton and Winnats Pass.
My crap nav has a very idiosyncratic way of finding a suitable route, especially in rural areas, and the journey to Castleton took in some very steep and narrow roads (including a few that Simon Warren may want to consider if he ever writes a third 100 Climbs book). At one point it tried to direct me into a quarry but despite creeping down some very steep single track roads we eventually got to the foot of the climb. Castleton itself is a busy tourist hub for the Peak District and Winnats Pass proved easy to find once there. It rises up impressively over the town and from a distance looks quite daunting. I drove up the pass to scope it out before parking up and it is as impressive as it’s name suggests. It is also a busy tourist route which is a bit of a nuisance as you constantly have to deal with confused tourists weaving past you as they try to find a pub/ shop/ public toilet.
Starting the climb up Winnats Pass
The gradient stays fairly constant at about 14% all of the way up but the fantastic surroundings help take your mind off the challenge ahead. Having had the chance to drive up and down the pass before parking up I knew exactly what to expect and how many sweeping corners there were to negotiate before reaching the top. I won’t say it was an easy climb because it wasn’t (in fact it is deserving of it’s 8/10 rating) but it took me far less time than I thought it would (about 15 minutes) and I felt quite positive about the two climbs I had to take on in the afternoon.
I can now take this bike apart and put it back together with my eyes closed
After a quick breather at the top the descent back to the car was great fun but I came very close to overcooking it on one of the bends which shook off any complacency.
After having lunch in Castleton (a place full of pubs, tea rooms and gift shops and seemingly nothing else) it was onto the climb at Curbar Edge. I have learnt that a 6/10 rating for a climb is one to be treated with caution and as I drove up to the top of Curbar Edge it became clear that this would be a tough little climb. The gradient starts off relatively steep and doesn’t really back off all of the way up. To finish off the climb has a few sharpish turns at the top where the road steepens before easing off at the summit. Getting to the foot of the climb from the top was fun but getting back up took a fair bit longer that I expected it too. Curbar Edge is a very popular place with ramblers and at one point I had visions of pensioners with walking poles and red socks striding past me as I wheezed up in bottom gear. Thankfully it didn’t quite come to that but I felt the effort of getting to the top far more than I had done at Winnats Pass. As there was an ice cream van at the top I felt I should celebrate with a 99 flake. The dog also needed a walk and a stroll along the ‘edge’ proved a good way of warming down after another gurnfest. The edge is actually a very prominent rock formation along the top of a valley and is well worth a look.
My final climb of the day was the one up to Rowsley Bar. This is another 6/10 and seemed worse than the climb up to Curbar Edge. The gradient is steep from the off and gets steeper with a series of nasty hairpin bends to tackle at the very top. The road is also very busy with a pretty poor road surface. After a bit of a struggle to find somewhere suitable to park at the top I rode down to the foot of the climb. It proved to be a pretty sketchy descent as the road surface at the hairpins is even worse on a bike than it appears in a car. Combine a bad road surface and a lot of water running down the road and the result was a locked up back wheel on more than one occasion. The locals seem to treat the road like a rally special stage and weren’t taking any prisoners through the hairpins and as I result I wasn‘t looking forward to the top of the climb on my way back up.
Previously I’ve only managed three climbs in one day and Rowsley Bar was almost a climb to far for me. It had afterall been a long day in the car with some uphill bike riding thrown in for good measure. As soon as I got going on the lower slopes I knew I was going to have a hard time. The climb just seems relentless and I struggled to get comfortable on the bike. The video footage probably doesn’t show it too well but it seemed like every few seconds there was an impatient motorist trying to squeeze past. I actually found Rowsley Bar quite an unpleasant experience because of the traffic and the attitude of some of the motorists. The hairpins at the top were the particularly sour icing on the hill shaped cake. I managed the first two albeit very slowly but as I tried to find my rhythm and a decent surface to cycle on I ran out of steam tackling the third. This was bad, very bad. There seemed to be a never ending flow of traffic to deal with and a blind uphill corner with water streaming over it’s surface. I did eventually get going again but it was a stressful and difficult process and trying to find traction was a struggle. I was incredibly glad to reach the upper part of the slope, knock the bike up a gear or two. Still, with Rowsley Bar done I had finished climb 15 and could look forward to (if look forward is the right phrase) a Little Chef dinner and another night in an over heated Travelodge room before day two.
A business meeting that I knew would finish quite late in the day gave me the opportunity to tackle Crowcombe. The time I got out of the meeting meant I would hit the climb very late in the day but as it has been so sunny and warm recently I was hoping it would mean the temperature would be slightly lower.
I decided to warm up for the climb by parking up on Quantock Common and riding along and then down to the start of the climb. I’d spent all day in meetings or in the car and it worked out to be a good plan.
Quantock Common itself is a lovely place and it looked fantastic in the early evening sun. There were even a couple of friendly horses grazing where I parked the car. The youngest of the two horses was especially friendly and found my handle bar tape to be very interesting and, quite possibly, a nice light snack. I had to very gently but firmly direct the horse in question back to the patch of grass it was munching before I'd turned up.
My experience with a bike eating horse over I started the descent of Crowcombe back to the start and was instantly hit by how steep the climb is. It is a 25% gradient for most of the way up and I achieved some pretty astonishing speeds on the way down. I lost count of the number of escape roads I went hurtling past. It didn’t bode well for my climb back up.
A quick turnaround at the base of the hill followed and I started what turned out to be a very painful grind up to the top. The first quarter of the climb isn’t too bad. It is steep but bearable and fairly shaded but you soon hit the 25% gradient section, which is most of it, the trees providing shade thin out and you find yourself on a stretch of road that just heads straight up. There are seemingly no changes in gradient or any significant corners to ease off on. I have to admit I struggled. Any gradient below 20% I have always found you can back off for a bit if the going gets tough before reapplying the power. With a 25% gradient there is no such luxury, you have to keep pressing on. If you stop you know you’ll have to expend a huge amount of effort to get going again. At one point I did stop, rather stupidly on a very narrow section of the road which made my zig zagging efforts to get going no doubt look rather comical. This climb is in the book as an 8/10 but I reckon it is up there with the likes of Porlock and Dunkery as it is just so relentless in the way it climbs up onto the Quantocks.
I can’t say I enjoyed Crowcombe. The surroundings are lovely but I have never been as pleased on one of these rides as I was when I saw the sign warning motorists of the cattle grid at the top which marks the end of the climb. Still, that’s 11 rides now in the bag, only 89 to go.
