That one hill...

[chris3vic]

Anyone else have that one hill that just seems to win every time?

It doesn't even have to be a steep one. Mine for example, is a short quarter of a mile climb into the town where I live. If I came across it on a weekend ride I wouldn't notice it. I can cycle 80m in one day round North Wales and yes, struggle with some hills, but just get battered by this one. I think its a mental thing. The fact it's so close to home and at the very end of my commute. It doesn't matter how fit I feel or which way the wind's blowing, I always hit this climb with dismay.

When I first started cycling I used how difficult I found the hill as a benchmark for my fitness goals, and its never got any easier!!!!

[eileithyia]

Yep the road to my house.....

[meic]

I can think of three such hills, years ago. Now I cycle up them wondering what the problem was.
I know what the problem was, my bottom gear wasnt low enough.
Though the hills would be encountered when approaching home, which would of course be towards the end of a long ride.

[Mick F]

I have a few hills I could describe like that.
It's not the hill specifically, it's just they come at the end of a tiring ride.

I have a circuit I like to do - 30miles and hilly - and I like to ride it hard and fast.
I prefer to do it clockwise ........... because if I do it anti-clockwise the big hills are at the end which is not good at all.

Also, I'm fairly well known for advising on good routes through Cornwall and Devon for LEJOGers. It struck me that I should take some of my own advice.

I wanted to find a long circuit of 86ish miles, and have fretted about the idea for ages. I finally found one! I have to do it anti-clockwise so that the flatter easier section is the last 30miles. I plan to do the ride every month in furtherance of my Eddington Numbers. 86miles and only 4,500ft of climbing. Luxury!

[jonbott]

there`s a hill on the flat lode trail with loads of rocks across the path on a particulary steep part,I always know its going to stop me and I have toget off and walk!everytime I go up that path I know its going to do it,I walked there and annalized the path to see a way round and think next time....
going to be a while as I`m currently laid up with a busted foot at least 3 months!

[Mark1978]

Of course; there's one near my house that isn't really steep, and isn't really long at all. However it's always the first bit of incline I hit about 1/4 mile into my ride, so I'm not warmed up at all, so it's always a struggle, the steeper stuff after that; all fine.

[squeaker]

Of course; there's one near my house that isn't really steep, and isn't really long at all. However it's always the first bit of incline I hit about 1/4 mile into my ride, so I'm not warmed up at all, so it's always a struggle, the steeper stuff after that; all fine.

Mine's about 1/2 mile from home, but mostly downhill before you hit it

[Mark1978]

Of course; there's one near my house that isn't really steep, and isn't really long at all. However it's always the first bit of incline I hit about 1/4 mile into my ride, so I'm not warmed up at all, so it's always a struggle, the steeper stuff after that; all fine.

Mine's about 1/2 mile from home, but mostly downhill before you hit it

Yeah I remember living at my Mam's house and the first mile in every direction was down hill, so you ended up freezing with dead legs just as you started to climb. Then at the end a mile long slog back up the hill.

[iviehoff]

I've never got up Wrynose from the steep side, ie Langdale side. Admittedly a couple of times this was because it was winter and was a sheet of ice at the top. But I also failed to get up it on a couple of occasions when it wasn't covered in ice, it just proceeds steeply for too long without relent towards the top.

I've never got up that dead-end road from near Coniston that goes to a car park at the bottom of the Walna Scar. It is overhung by trees and there tend to be slippery leaves on it so I lose traction. But it is just stupidly steed for an extended section and I just don't think I could get up it even without that.

[Mick F]

Of course; there's one near my house that isn't really steep, and isn't really long at all. However it's always the first bit of incline I hit about 1/4 mile into my ride, so I'm not warmed up at all, so it's always a struggle, the steeper stuff after that; all fine.

Yep, I can vouch for that!

We live in the centre of this lot. A390 Gunnislake.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Been trough Gunnislake twice this year.......in the camper I will admit it looks evil.
Your going soft Mick F 4500 in 86
Wots worse living in Gunnislake or always climbing 450' in the last 1 1/2 miles of every ride I do, trouble with living at the top of a round hill
Only consilation I can here the puff puff of the Dartmouth steam railway (at the seaside) and see Haytor from my lounge
Last hill has to be it every time, sticks in your mind as soon as your on your way home.

[karlt]

Yes. Chesterfield. Whittington Moor to Brimington, the hill that starts at the canal. I'm already 11 miles into my 14 mile commute home, I've been up Prince of Wales Road from Darnall, and I Don't Need This Now.

Come to think of it, Prince of Wales Road virtually starts at the office car park entrance so that's a candidate for this thread as well. Between them they're the biggest deterrent to my cycling to work more often.

[Si]

I have a headology hill.

Everyday riding to work and back this his used to reduce me to a blubbering wreck by the top....and I like hills. Now, if I took any of you up it you probably wouldn't notice it...there is nothing special about it. Indeed, when I did LEJoG I took in some pretty big hills, I also went up this hill on the ride. The big hills were hard work but I enjoyed them, but my local 'nothing' hill turned me into jelly again.

I think that it is because this was the big hard hill when I returned to cycling as a very unfit adult....although now I easily have the fitness to zip up it, I still have the mental scars and the trauma from when I was unfit. Once a hill has burrowed into your brain it's hard to remove it.

[Mark1978]

The hill I mentioned above, is actually a 'go around' hill for one which is slightly steeper, I'd avoided going up the steeper hill for the best part of a year, always taking the alternative route up; just riding down it. When I eventually plucked up the courage to ride up it, thinking it would be a bottom gear job - in the end I didn't even need to shift out of the big ring - it turned out to be nothing!

[Slowroad]

St Bartholemews' Road, St Anns, Nottingham, otherwise known as Donkey Hill, as you needed a donkey to get up it. Fortunately circumstances mean that I don't have to try to cycle up it any more!