Does anyone know of online list of hills that have been categorised for cycling?
There’s a cat 4 hill (Strava told me) around my area that I go up from time to time, from Stone to Rough close if you’re local to Staffs. How can I find out where the other categorised hills are? so I can use them as to find places I haven’t cycled before and have a go at them. Keen to try my hand at a cat 1 hill, both up & down of course 😉

Thanks

There are a couple of cat 4s over at Wyre Forest but never seen anything above 4 on Strava.

france

So over cat 4 is rare in the UK?
(I’ve never much paid attention to this before, forgive my ignorance)

What about the lakeland high passes, what does strava categorise those as?

Who decides the parameters for the categories? Is this just a strava thing?

The parameters used in the grand tours are not fixed and vary between event (ie a Giro cat1 may be harder than a Tour cat1) so I wouldn’t expect to be able to compare to what the pro’s are racing up.

what does strava categorise those as?

You see that explore link at the top of the page on Strava? give it a whirl…

General guidelines for classification are as follows:
Hors Category (HC) – the hardest, climbs of 1500m+
1st Category – climbs of 1100-1500m
2nd Category – climbs of 600-1100m
3rd Category – climbs of 300-600m
4th Category – the lowest category, 100-300m

Which puts the lakeland passes arround 3 or 2. But there’s a lot of scope for tweaking them, Alpe D’Huez for example is HC, but isn’t as big a climb as some of the other famous ones, but the corners make it difficult and it’s usualy at the end of a stage.

It’s basicly the organisers discretion and based on how hard the riders will percieve the climb. Often fairly big hills go uncategorised and there’s plenty of stories of Pro’s not studdying the route book carefully enough and losing races on climbs they hadn’t spotted.

You see that explore link at the top of the page on Strava? give it a whirl…

That worked, seems there are a few in the more mountainous parts like Snowdonia.

Isn’t the story that originally the category was the gear required to drive up the climb.

Hors couldn’t be done even in first and had to be reversed up.

Clearly this is no longer true, even if it ever was, but it’s a nice story.

Isn’t the story that originally the category was the gear required to drive up the climb.
Hors couldn’t be done even in first and had to be reversed up.
Clearly this is no longer true, even if it ever was, but it’s a nice story.

For the Tour climbs a 2CV I believe it was.

Cheers,
Jamie

I’ve heard that story lots of times and I’ve always thought it doesn’t make sense. Most of the big european climbs aren’t that steep, they are just long.

It would make short steep climbs (e.g cobbled Belgian bergs) a higher cat than Ventoux.

What an awesome bit of trivia.

You’ll be lucky to find any Cat 1 (road) climbs in the UK. There’s a few cat 2 climbs kicking about if you live somewhere hilly. It’s a bit of a fudge applying the ratings to the UK as a lot of our smaller steeper hills wont make a certain grade because they’re not long enough. The bealach na ba is, I think, the longest/highest (one or other) climb in Scotland at around 6 miles long and 600m ascent. It’s a cat 2.

I’ve heard that story lots of times and I’ve always thought it doesn’t make sense. Most of the big european climbs aren’t that steep, they are just long.

you try climbing alpe D’Heux in a 1910 car, on a muddy track…

from segments I’ve created, at least one is Cat 3. I wouldn’t take that as gospel though.

Plenty others Cat 4, just do an explore that will give Cat rating.

What warton said, it was based on the gearing of cars at the time not an Octavia turbo diesel… The same climb can have a different category in different years, pretty sure I heard specific TdeF and Vuelta climbs discussed this year on commentary with different cats to earlier tours.

http://www.strava.com/segments/952845- Cat 1 off road climb…I think it’s a footpath, and it looks like they walked it, there are a few climbs off road round that way that Strava Classes as Cat 2. Then there is Helvelyn – http://www.strava.com/segments/952845 which is also classed by Strava as Cat 1 – with some more sensible looking times.

The categories (now at least) are arbitrary and decided by race organisers.

You can call your hill whatever catagory you like.

In my personal experience, some of the (strava) cat 3 hills near my house are quite a bit harder* than Alpe d’huez.

*like all hills, they are to some extent as hard as you make them

I think the distinction needs to be drawn between Strava classifications – which are absolute – they are based on a formula of incline and distance, and give a fair baseline indication of the type of climb something is, and the classifications used in the Grand Tours etc. – which include a subjective element – a “borderline” hill might end up the classification above if it is later on in the stage, or is particularly historic or whatever – and can end up with climbs being given different classifications year to year.

There are a couple of cat 4s over at Wyre Forest but never seen anything above 4 on Strava.

Thats because you dont have hills down south! There are a few 3’s where I live, it tends to be the length of the hill that makes it a 3 as opposed to the steepness (on Strava) ie the Cow & Calf is a 4, and bloody steep, but Norwood is a 3 and not as steep.

It does say some where on Strava about how they calculate the Category. Its their own calculation and not an international standard or some such like.

Just searching my local ones,
Winnats pass near castleton is a Cat3 and
The Killer mile at Mow cop is also Cat3.

Somebody must have done a list of cat4s and above in the UK?

In my personal experience, some of the (strava) cat 3 hills near my house are quite a bit harder* than Alpe d’huez.

My experience is the exact opposite. I’ve done climbs all over the UK, and have never found ones remotely as difficult as HC Alpine climbs.

Well, everyone has their own preferences, but most HC alpine climbs don’t go over 25%, like the two ‘cat 3’s that I did on my ride at the weekend….

According to Strava there’s 3 Cat 4 and 5 Cat 3 segments within a couple of miles from me, no wonder I’m always tired 😉

Down sarf BTW.

Well, everyone has their own preferences, but most HC alpine climbs don’t go over 25%, like the two ‘cat 3’s that I did on my ride at the weekend….

That’s true, but 25% climbs in the UK never go on for very long. I reckon a lot more fitness is required to get up an 8% average climb that lasts for 14km (AdH).

Snake pass near Glossop is Cat2! That looks like the worst near me.

Maybe a new thread with a better title is needed for everyone on here to list up their local hills, for future reference. There’s got to be a Cat1 somewhere in the north of England.

ransos – Member

In my personal experience, some of the (strava) cat 3 hills near my house are quite a bit harder* than Alpe d’huez.

My experience is the exact opposite. I’ve done climbs all over the UK, and have never found ones remotely as difficult as HC Alpine climbs.

That’s what I thought. I mena you can pootle up the Alp D Huez, but if you’re trying to go quick then it’s really tough cos it’s getting on for an hours worth of climbing. Whereas Wrynose pass will be over in not too many minutes, evern thoguh it is 25%

There’s no such thing as an ‘official’ categorised climbs. Even the TdF ones are subjective guesses by the race organisers.

The way Strava calculates is gradient x overall length of segment with arbitrary cut offs. For that reason there are very few (if any?) HC climbs on Strava in the UK but plenty on bigger hills in France etc. Of course there are still plenty of challenging climbs in the UK. Maybe look at the Tour of Britain and what they classify?

Snake pass near Glossop is Cat2!

Is that because you run the chance of being killed by traffic if you dare to ride up it??

To be honest I cant recall any steep sections on the Snake Pass, its just goes on for a little longer than most.

I’ve just been searching Strava and for some reason Porlock Toll Road http://app.strava.com/segments/894936 is Cat 2 (4.1 miles 5.5%) but I wouldn’t class that as very hard at all Porlock Hill http://app.strava.com/segments/847912 is Cat 3 (1.6 miles 11.7%)and a much harder but shorter climb.

There’s got to be a Cat1 somewhere in the north of England

as there are no hills over 1100 m no there will not.

I am sure some will feel like it though in the lakes say up Skiddaw but that s not 1000m for example

There’s plenty of Strava cat 2 climbs local to me in S.Wales. The Blorenge ( tumble ) is one of the toughest, over three miles with plenty of 10%+ parts. With tired legs its a challenge just to get up without stopping.

http://www.strava.com/segments/994117

That worked, seems there are a few in the more mountainous parts like Snowdonia.

No shit Sherlock.

my local hundred mile loop takes in cabrach , the lecht , gairnsheil 1 and 2 and if im not yet fecked the COM

i thought i could climb – anyone that knows those hills know they are harsh.

but as said above – none of that prepared me for france – did alpe dhuez a few times in a few days then glandon , telegraph and galibier in a day

wrecked. nothing in the uk prepares you for that not even the wildcat grimpeur audax.

bealach na ba is a piece of piss – i was significantly underwhelmed by it

There is no standard for categories. It is completely arbitrary and depends as much on the significance of the hill to the race as its difficulty.

Even in the tour there aren’t many 1500 m climbs, Alpe d’Huez is only a bit over 1000 m.

Strava categorization

To decide the category of a climb we multiply the length of the climb (in meters) with the grade of the climb in percent. If that number is greater than 8000 then it is a categorized climb. The minimum percent grade must be 3% or higher. So, for a 4% avg grade climb, it has to be 2km at least to be categorized. Cat 3 = 16000, 2 = 32000, 1 = 64000, HC > 80000.

I believe that this equates in strava terms to
Cat 4 80m climb
Cat 3 160m climb
Cat 2 320m climb
Cat 1 640m climb
HC 800m climb
all must be min 3% gradient.

I live in Leicester, finding a Cat 4 on Strava is tough 😀

as there are no hills over 1100 m no there will not.

689m is the highest I can find: http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?qryMountainID=7380

That’s what I thought. I mena you can pootle up the Alp D Huez, but if you’re trying to go quick then it’s really tough cos it’s getting on for an hours worth of climbing.

You’d be going well to climb AdH in much less than an hour. Even the best climbing pros take 40 minutes.

(Can you tell I just missed out? Did it in 1.02 earlier this year!)

but as said above – none of that prepared me for france – did alpe dhuez a few times in a few days then glandon , telegraph and galibier in a day

wrecked. nothing in the uk prepares you for that not even the wildcat grimpeur audax.

Yep. I did La Marmotte which had Glandon, Telegraph, Galibier and AdH. It was a different order of magnitude to anything I’ve done in the UK.

just reading this thread and on the right I have advertised:
100 Greatest Cycling Climbs: A Road Cyclist’s Guide to Britain’s Hills

Coincidence? lol.