Hardest UK climb?

[cyclop]

My OBR(old boys ride) mates and myself got a late season "away day,"involving the shortest complete circuit of the Lake District taking in hard knott,wrynose,cold fell,whinlatter and many shorter climbs.Two of us,ex four,managed the beasts without dismount,whilst Arthur found the descent very scary.I,d fitted a 26 tooth chainring mated to a 34 tooth rear and I reckon I was at néar my limit.Hauling 12.5stones up meant upper body w as employed to haul on the bars and Arthur found this the hardest thing he,d done.So,extreme steepness,even steeper switchbacks,and a sustained finish demand great fitness from any rider.My choice.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Yep pulling the bars off and reaching the limit of leg power can only be sustained for several seconds before you slow down.
I do this on my training rides three times a week as I do not intend to change down at all, half way up the incline I lose power and then adopt a different stroke of keeping bike straight and legs and body in line, then pull hips forward (pelvic thrusts ) every pedal stroke using some other muscle/s that is not failed, it works but is only sustainable for several seconds more.
I could always drop off 3rd on the middle clanger

[DaveGos]

http://clee-cycles.co.uk/clee_cycles_incline_challenge

The top half of this climb uses a service road and is 25 to 30 percent

[cyclop]

If safe I use all the road,weaving up and virtually come to a halt when weight is transferred ready for the next forward thrust-very strenuous but effective allowing mini rests between efforts.

[foxyrider]

Foxyrider

To further prove Orbits credentials, Roger Hammond won the 1992 World Junior Cyclo-Cross Championships (held in Leeds, that year!!) on an Orbit

I think it was built in 753, as well

Know their credentials, I was sales manager from 98 to 2004!

[Richard A Thackeray]

Plus, there's a picture of the hill-climb at Bank Road, in Matlock
The stonework on the building to the right gives the game away, with relation to the gradient

There's this clip on Cycling Weeklys website at the moment

Note the wattage & heart-rate!!
(& 'catchers' at the finish line)

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/videos/r ... hill-climb

[andrich]

Not necessarily hardest, but the steepest hill I know is that from Boggle Hole Youth Hostel on the Yorkshire coast. I haven't been there for many years, but the sign used to say 1 in 2 1/2. It is the only place that I've ever seen a gradient shown using fractions. I suppose that is 40% in today's parlance.
Anybody been there recently? If so, how is it marked now?

[Richard A Thackeray]

Not necessarily hardest, but the steepest hill I know is that from Boggle Hole Youth Hostel on the Yorkshire coast. I haven't been there for many years, but the sign used to say 1 in 2 1/2. It is the only place that I've ever seen a gradient shown using fractions. I suppose that is 40% in today's parlance.
Anybody been there recently? If so, how is it marked now?

Wayne 'the train' Randle, took a Planet X ride, from the Worsborough store, to Boggle Hole YHA
He's such a nice guy, off the bike too, but a monster on it
What would he have achieved, if he'd gone to the Continent, as a Classics rider?

Read & enjoy, and be glad you weren't on it (a few parts - I think I've added them in date order?

http://www.planetx.co.uk/news/events/q/ ... oggle-hole

http://www.planetx.co.uk/news/events/q/ ... oggle-hole

http://www.planetx.co.uk/news/events/q/ ... o-got-back

http://www.planetx.co.uk/news/events/q/ ... de-day-two

[colin54]

A couple of pictures of Bank Road from last weeks championships.

[arnsider]

Well, has anyone mentioned Draycott steep?
219 meters climbed in a kilometer and a half, from the Cheddar Valley to the Mendip Plateau.
I haven't done it!!
The Gorge or Rookham is much easier!
The climb out of Dentdale up Deepdale to the watershed into Kingsdale is a stinker.
I have done that and I managed to go over backwards at the start of the climb where I put so much torque into the pedals.
Bwlch Y Groes from both sides is relentless. I've done it both ways.
Wrynose is a killer.so to that climb at Ulpha up onto Birker Fell.
Someone mentioned the Heally Pass.
It is a kitten from Adrigole, but a slog from Lauragh.
Lamb Fell over Cross of Greet is a long climb with a lovely descent to Bentham.
Gospel Pass from Hay has a stinker of a steep bit, but is so rewarding further up.
That Z bend coming up the Senni Valley and over to Ystradfelte is hard.
It formed part of a very enjoyable round I used to ride, from Talybont on Usk, taking in Vaynor and the climb to Torpantau.

[Garry Booth]

I sometimes ride from Presteigne in mid-Wales to Knighton, a short hop going the back road up a road called Stonewall. It has a very steep section of around 500m in the middle of a fairly steep section. The challenge comes in defeating the road surface ie not spinning the wheel when out of the saddle. I've done it once on my 25mm (Condor Fratello, triple). Do it every time on my mother in-law's shopping bike with 32mm tyres and a dinner plate on the back!

[Chat Noir]

Resurrected this old thread because now had a go at Great Dun Fell in Westmorland.

I thought it might be one of the hardest because Simon Warren gives it 11/10 in one of his books. Went up on Thursday with my partner, both on old Bob Jacksons with triples, taking it very steadily (we are in our 60s) and it seemed to go ok for us – maybe the wind was just friendly. It is a good long climb, with great views apart from the cloud-covered top, a smooth road surface, no cars (well, two did come down but assume they were employees going home and were very considerate), and even some flatter sections but nowhere as steep as we'd feared. It did feel steep going down and descent was very chilling in the wind but it’s not the toughest.

Hardknott from the west remains the hardest climb I’ve done in the UK. It’s unrelentingly steep, limited opportunities for recovery, distorted road surfaces which can easily topple you and with the tension of an uncertain outcome almost until the top. If you come off on the steepest sections you can’t get going again. There might be others that are harder, just haven’t gone up or failed on them yet.

Here’s couple of photos on Great Dun Fell, one looking down through the melee of snow poles on the higher slopes just before the second (locked) gate and the other of my partner with the Bob Jacksons in the gloom at the top (if she looks cold that’s because it was).

[ukdodger]

Resurrected this old thread because now had a go at Great Dun Fell in Westmorland.

I thought it might be one of the hardest because Simon Warren gives it 11/10 in one of his books. Went up on Thursday with my partner, both on old Bob Jacksons with triples, taking it very steadily (we are in our 60s) and it seemed to go ok for us – maybe the wind was just friendly. It is a good long climb, with great views apart from the cloud-covered top, a smooth road surface, no cars (well, two did come down but assume they were employees going home and were very considerate), and even some flatter sections but nowhere as steep as we'd feared. It did feel steep going down and descent was very chilling in the wind but it’s not the toughest.

Hardknott from the west remains the hardest climb I’ve done in the UK. It’s unrelentingly steep, limited opportunities for recovery, distorted road surfaces which can easily topple you and with the tension of an uncertain outcome almost until the top. If you come off on the steepest sections you can’t get going again. There might be others that are harder, just haven’t gone up or failed on them yet.

Here’s couple of photos on Great Dun Fell, one looking down through the melee of snow poles on the higher slopes just before the second (locked) gate and the other of my partner with the Bob Jacksons in the gloom at the top (if she looks cold that’s because it was).

E on Gt Dun Fell.jpg

E on Great Dun Fell.jpg

Nice going if you're in your sixties. Hat's well and truly off. I'm guessing then that you didnt even stop for a blow. Isnt Hardknott in the Lake District? If it's the one I'm thinking of I'm gob smacked if you got over that without stopping.

[trilathon]

Simon Fell part of Ingleborough on the Three Peaks Cyclocross Race...one heads into it after about 5 miles of bunch cycling at 25 mph plus and slightly uphill to suddenly being confronted with off road and then 30-40% gradient of tuffty grass...I could barely walk up it, where as I've cycled over the likes of the Hardnott and many other road passes with four panniers on the bike and occasionally with a full disk and trispoke when racing. Context and condition is everything.

[ukdodger]

Simon Fell part of Ingleborough on the Three Peaks Cyclocross Race...one heads into it after about 5 miles of bunch cycling at 25 mph plus and slightly uphill to suddenly being confronted with off road and then 30-40% gradient of tuffty grass...I could barely walk up it, where as I've cycled over the likes of the Hardnott and many other road passes with four panniers on the bike and occasionally with a full disk and trispoke when racing. Context and condition is everything.

I went over (I think it was Hardknott) in a car in first gear and it was at almost full revs. If you got over that on a laden bike I'm amazed to say the least.