Was at Grinton today which is a cat 3, Blubberhouse is a cat 4. Is a 4 steeper/harder/longer than a 3 or is it the other way round?

Lower number is “harder”, but it can depend on where they come in a stage as to the categorisation.

Lower number, harder climb.
Apparently based on which gear a car had to engage to make the climb

I’d heard that too, hilldodger (prob on here…) – you can just about imagine some old Renault in the early part of the 20th century trying to make it up the Galibier.

Hors Categorie means the car packed in?

The Galibier killed my Peugeot 206 a few years back.

Hors categorie is for roads that are not fully surfaced IIRC?

gonetothehills – Member
I’d heard that too, hilldodger (prob on here…) – you can just about imagine some old Renault in the early part of the 20th century trying to make it up the Galibier.

You’re not far wrong AFAIK the category of the climb is the number of the gear a standard Citroen 2CV can complete the climb in, HC represents a climb that it can’t.

It was related to car gear but not 2CVs – they are older than that. HC are generally +2000m. I rode the Raid-Alpine last week, so I saw plenty of them.

Hors categorie is for roads that are not fully surfaced IIRC?

It just means out of category, i.e. hard than a cat 1, so a mountain so big or steep that the old Citroen could get up, even in st gear.

It’s also interesting that there’s no hard rules on where one category starts and another ends. So you can end up in a situation where climbs end up uncategorized despite being more difficult than easier climbs in other places.

Hors Categorie means the car packed in?