Before anyone says anything, I know 30 minutes isn’t quick… it will be for me.

I’ve set myself a 2017 target of getting up Cragg Vale in less than 30 minutes (as well as some other fitness targets). Before this morning I’d been up there 3 times in 3 years and my quickest time was 37:48. I decided to get a current benchmark this morning so drove to Manchester and took the bike on the train to Hebden Bridge. On my previous attempts up Cragg it’d come 30km into the ride so I thought a start from Hebden would make it easier at it’s at the start of the ride, after a little warm up.

I spun up the first bit in an easy gear, so I’d pace myself. After the village of Cragg a Vale itself I felt good so went a few gears up but kept a decent cadence. With the 3km marker passed I felt a bit out of breath so span the cranks in a lower gear, then picked it up at the end. It felt like my best ever attempt, but I don’t run a computer on my road bike, so carried on back to Manchester via Castleton, Middleton, Heaton Park and Lower Broughton.

I got myself back to the car, threw the bike in the boot and went to Cafe North for a celebratory breakfast and a flat white. I uploaded the ride to strava…
40 minutes 36 seconds. I’ve got some way to go.

I’m training for this:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Steven-McNulty2017

so I’ve got a lot of road riding to date this year, so I’m going to attempt Cragg at least once a month. I’m a 123kg ex-powerlifter and as well as the Cragg Vale target I want to be able to clear the Loughrigg Terrace climb (2 pushed sections last month when I tried it), get myself to 100kg and maintain a 200kg deadlift (which I appreciate might contradict the cycling targets).

Sounds like a fine target to aim for! Best of luck.

I battered myself up there a few years ago when I was fit, I was a proper mess when I got to the top!

Edit: Blimey, someone has been up there in 16 minutes. That’s properly mental, I can barely ride that fast on the flat 🙁

https://www.strava.com/segments/646914

The wind direction and strength up there makes such a massive difference to the times. The wind rarely pushes you up but I know from the days when I was a bit Strava obsessed that a lot of the top times get set on the rare days the wind is helping. Pick a good day and you’ll be right !

Never ridden it but might plan it into my March 100km.

What would be the best approach from over Rammy way?

Agree with fubar – wind on the upper section once you get out of the trees can be a right pain. The angle eases but the effort doesn’t neither does the speed increase 😳

Chakaping. From Rammy I’d go over towards Rawtenstall, through Bacup and into Tod and then on into Hebden Bridge. Coming back you could go up Spotland Road and up over Owd Betts, back down into Rammy.

In fact that would make a good ride from my parents next time I’m over there…

If you look at the Strava link – a pretty impressive number of pros on the first page.

Its a stern pull fo’shure, good luck with it, it’s a decent target to aim for, 10 minutes is eminently doable!!

It’s not that steep really, there’s a bit through the village that’s a bit steeper but mostly it’s a matter of not pushing too hard early on and pacing yourself. Worth doing a couple of times in quick succession to get a feel for where you need to dig deep.

Once you can break it down into sections it’s not too bad, the Km markers on the road for the TT also help.

As a climb I prefer that up the A6033 out of Hebden Bridge through Pecket Well to Cock Hill.

Incredibly weather dependent, but a great climb of two halves.

Just wait for a 30mph following wind and you’re sorted. With a bit of effort you could time it to follow one of the busses and steal an extra few seconds.

I can barely get down it in half an hour.

Just out of interest, what is the Strava record for the descent?

It wasn’t too windy this morning, there was nothing noticeable until the descent down Blackstone Edge which was pretty nasty and made me descend like even more of a pussy than usual (MTB fine, roadie just scares me).

In fact I’ve just checked and today was my quickest ever on the top 4km, so I’ll push more at the bottom next time.

Rusty, 16:11… Oof that is quick

😯

Might give that a pop next week just for fun.
Doubt if I’d get within 10 minutes of it.

You’d need a big tailwind and some bloody tall gears for the first bit.

Could always demo something fast from Blazing Saddles.
🙂

Whitestone, I did the other climb you mentioned on MTB, thought it would be great on a road bike.

Bregante – thanks for that, is the valley road through todmodern and hebden ok for traffic?

Rusty, 16:11… Oof that is quick

That’s the record for the climb. Can’t find the descent as a segment although there’s a couple of partial segments there.

I don’t actually like that road much; it’s very narrow, cars tend to drive quite fast on it and it’s also not a great road surface.

38:41, only a minute off my quickest time 3 years ago and 15kg (ish) lighter.

Felt a bit faster than that, but Strava doesn’t lie. About 5% quicker than my benchmark ride a month ago so I’m OK with that. I think if I can shift more weight and keep training 30 minutes is doable for me.

Heading in the right direction. Nice one 🙂

Well done OP – progress

(that strava KoM – FWIW, Bingley airport wind was 15mph ENE at dinnertime that day)

Is the turdy yorkshire going up it ??

is the valley road through todmodern and hebden ok for traffic?

Its pretty good. An alternate (longer) route from Rammy is to head up burnley road in Rawtenstall and then head to Cliviger and down into Todmorden that way. Burnley Road climb is nice and you can make pretty fast progress from Cliviger to Tod as its downhill(ish).

Has the advantage of avoiding Stacksteads and Bacup which is an awful road.

36:54 on Saturday morning. Definitely moving in the right direction. Felt like I could have gone a bit quicker in the middle but was careful not to blow up,

I think it’s just a matter of shifting weight off me now and the time should tumble….

Well I’ve not been in this thread for a while. 32:41 today, shaving 3 minutes off my previous best. Getting there, steadily. I’m 100kg now which definitely helps.

Good effort. What’s the opposite of ‘marginal gains’?

Nice progress, keep it up 🙂

I think it’s just gains.

123kg seems quite a substantial bulk to carry uphill. I reckon I weigh as much as your legs.

Nice process McNultyCop. You must be dishing out bestial Watts as an ex-powerlifter?

Hardest type of climb that to go deep on IMHO – easy / moderate sort of gradient so it’s difficult to find what your limit is and it bloody hurts.

Fair play. My kind of challenge.
(loughrigg terrace climb is a beastly way to start a ride)

The wind direction and strength up there makes such a massive difference to the times. The wind rarely pushes you up but I know from the days when I was a bit Strava obsessed that a lot of the top times get set on the rare days the wind is helping. Pick a good day and you’ll be right !

Totally this. Massive differences.

Find a willing pace setter to take you up. Are you using your garmin previous time to race against?

Keep up the good work

I’m using my Wahoo (Cragg is one of my starred sections), which really helps pushing me along.

30:16 today. So close. Driving rain and a headwind for the last half so not great conditions, but I’m happy with the progress and sub 30 is within my grasp now.

Annoyingly I took two big bottles out with me today and didn’t drink as much as I usually did, so ended up not touching one of them. 660g of liquid plus the bottle must’ve slowed me down a bit…

Get back out tomorrow and make that 30mins!

30:16 today. So close. Driving rain and a headwind for the last half so not great conditions, but I’m happy with the progress and sub 30 is within my grasp now.

Good effort up there today. Horrible here.

You’ll do a 28:30 with good conditions if you did 30:16 today. Easy.

Excellent! As Brant says, decent conditions and you’ll take a chunk off that time 🙂

Cheers all; it was grim up there today but I always seem to feel pretty good in the rain.

Just get a volunteer to spray water at you from a bottle…

Anyone fancy some Remi Gallard for the op?

took me 54 minutes in January this year. i was riding a surly ecr with 3” tyres.
the wind was so bad that waves were breaking on the road at the dam at the top.

@matt – the weather is worse today!