Beaten by a Hill!

thirdcrank · Post by **thirdcrank** » 3 Apr 2007, 7:48pm

reohn2 wrote:Sounds like a beast of a hill that Mick

r2

Don't say you're at it too. :cry:

reohn2 · Post by **reohn2** » 3 Apr 2007, 7:52pm

thirdcrank wrote:
reohn2 wrote:Sounds like a beast of a hill that Mick

r2

Don't say you're at it too.

Better than the one about getting three policemen stood on their heads :wink:

Mrs Tortoise · Post by **Mrs Tortoise** » 3 Apr 2007, 8:38pm

This one will be familiar to anyone who has cycled in south or west Dorset.

SY624863. wonderful views from the top, but a long pull with a nasty steep bit at the end. Ran out of legs 50 yards from the top - wasn't a Lion bar in sight!

GeoffL · Post by **GeoffL** » 3 Apr 2007, 10:34pm

This one got me today: SX369549

My bike has a "sit up and beg" riding position and popped little wheelies almost every other pedal stroke eventually flipping backwards on the steepest bit. When I tried to restart, I couldn't maintain forward momentum long enough to get my left foot on the pedal. After three attempts I gave up and pushed the bike a hundred yards or so until the slope lessened enough to get going again

Geoff

Post by **Mick F** » 4 Apr 2007, 7:48am

Done that one Geoff!, the other on the B road to Crafthole is steeper, I think. It also has a false summit, then finishes steep! Euch!

GeoffL · Post by **GeoffL** » 4 Apr 2007, 8:36am

Mick F wrote:Done that one Geoff!, the other on the B road to Crafthole is steeper, I think. It also has a false summit, then finishes steep! Euch!

Strangely, memories of that B road is why I turned left at the top of Sheviock hill rather than take the free ride down to the river and then turn left. Because I'd just climbed up to Sheviock, I very wrongly assumed that Sheviock and Crafthole are on the same level - so you can imagine my dismay when I emerged from the S bends at the Sheviock end to see the hill stretching upward for what seemed like forever

Still, when I got to Tregantle I found that the ice-cream van has returned for the new season and a cone savoured while taking in the view over the Hamoaze, Plymouth, and Dartmoor beyond more than made up for that hill!

Geoff

Mrs Tortoise · Post by **Mrs Tortoise** » 8 Apr 2007, 7:28pm

Got over Hardy's monument hill today, it beat me the other week, but today I got my own back!

Post by Si » 8 Apr 2007, 7:45pm

Sc how about the hills in the current issue of CYCLE's 10 of the best British hills article?

I've done all the Welsh ones - the Bwlch (which I mentioned above) is a real git from that side.

The Devil's Staircase I found easier but there again I was on a bike with MTB gears and my mind was taken off the climb by the couple going very fast and screaming very loudly, going in the opposite dirrection on a tandem!

Wayfarer's from the SE isn't that hard at all. Bit rocky near the top and a bit damp half way up, plus you often get stuck behind 4x4s that have managed to get wedged in a deep rut.
If you come at it from the NW and ride the first section up on the road then it is a bit of a git, however, there is an alternative and easier option for the first half, which bears off to the left up the fire road. I believe that this hill was included for it's history rather than it's all out difficulty.

The Long Mynd climb I did last Saturday. Says it's a 1 in 5 at the bottom but didn't really feel it. The climb that we did earlier in the day to get up to the Kerry Ridgeway on the B4368 felt a lot tougher.

Hardnott is obviously a double 'ard b'stard git. I've not done it on the road but have on the offroad path that runs up to the top - we earned our chocolate coated raisons that day I can tell you!

Don't think that I've done any of the others listed - but now that I've got the new bike with proper climbing gears I'm looking forward to a few more!

Post by **Mick F** » 8 Apr 2007, 8:21pm

The one I want to do is "The Pass of the Cattle" over to Applecross from Lochcarron. See this issue of Cycle.

When we lived up in the West of Scotland, when the girls were little, we spent a week in Erbusaig (NG761296) in an unused Married Quarter for the British Underwater Testing and Evaluation Centre just near Kyle of Lochalsh.

We picniced and walked the hills, and toured the area (by car, I must add - sorry!) and went over the Pass.

WOW !!!

Let me cycle it please!

The hill rises from Lochcarron, and zig-zags up and up to 1800ft then down steeply to the lovely village of Applecross down by the sea. We paddled in the bay, then off we went north, and returned via Loch Torridon back to Lochcarron, then 'home' to Erbusaig.

I WILL cycle that route.

thirdcrank · Post by **thirdcrank** » 8 Apr 2007, 10:11pm

Si wrote:Sc how about the hills in the current issue of CYCLE's 10 of the best British hills article?

Interesting coincidence that we had just been on the same topic and most of the hills listed we have mentioned above.

This is obviously a question of taste but I was surprised that Holme Moss made it. Several of my otherwise rare TV appearances have been on the roadside there in the Milk Race/ Leeds Classic crowd but otherwise its only claim to fame is as a hill on an A class road. I should have thought that Sutton Bank was a bigger main road hill (1:4) FWIW I should have also thought that Fleet Moss, especially from the Oughtershaw Moss side beats HM hands down.

I suppose a lot of this is in the mind: my own personal nightmare is near Marsden on the West Yorkshire Cycle Route at SE 056129. This is a hairpin, starting from a dead start and only one vehicle width from nettles to nettles - strip of unswept gravel down the middle. After you have turned the corner it is a fraction wider but the left hand half of the road is cobbled so you climb on the right, hoping nobody will come racing down (It's so narrow that they'd hit you even if you roade on the left.) Only a few hundred yards from bottom to top but it has made me struggle a few times.

We are a funny lot. You might think we would be more interested in good freewheeling routes.

GeoffL · Post by **GeoffL** » 8 Apr 2007, 10:34pm

thirdcrank wrote:We are a funny lot. You might think we would be more interested in good freewheeling routes.

Oh! I am! However you usually need to climb up to freewheel down!

One good freewheeling route is the Plym Valley Cycleway (on the Southern end of the Devon Coast 2 Coast - NCN27). It's a seven mile gentle climb from Coypool to Clearbrook (with a beast of a rock-strewn hairpin if you want to continue North or visit the pub). On the way back you only need to pedal for two or three short stretches and the rest is about half an hour's free ride

Geoff

Crazydave · Post by **Crazydave** » 9 Apr 2007, 10:30am

In terms of hills mentioned, I've done Hardy's Monument, fully laden, when I was down in Portland in 2005. I was heading home that day, so had all my baggage with me.
I turned down the Long Mynd, even though I arrived at Bridges Youth Hostel at 4 (one hour before opening time), beacuse I was stilll tired from a rough day (95 miles Arnside to Chester in 30 degree heat) the day before.
I have considered having a go at the Pass of the Cattle in September, provided I'm having a good day, as part of my Cape Wrath to Dover challenge.

dodger · Post by **dodger** » 9 Apr 2007, 8:48pm

Plym Valley Cycle Way is great for cyclists, but not on a sat or sunday, when it's overrun with walkers, dogs and youngsters learning.
During the week or early/late it can be heaven.
Pity about the new age mountain bikers who hurl their way at all other users and think they are really something! If they're so good, why aren't they on mountains or steep, rough trails?

Mrs Tortoise · Post by **Mrs Tortoise** » 14 Apr 2007, 6:29pm

Got utterly beaten by "Limekiln Hill" coming out of Abbotsbury, this afternoon. It was hot and horrid!

Post by **Mick F** » 14 Apr 2007, 6:33pm

Hi Mrs T,

Is that hill the one coming west out of the village?

I used to drive Plymouth to Portland many times in the 80s and 90s. Good hill! It just goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on .......