tinas – where ’bouts are you ? I live in Skelton; usually my 15 mile ‘hillyish’ route is skelton – lingdale – stanghow – moors road – moorsholm – loftus and back

I’m equally unfit / slow if you fancy a ride tho 😉

Stating the obvious here but … It all depends what you like to ride.
Lakes and Calderdale are always going to be hilly!

As a general rule of thumb, for an all-day ride on an MTB I’d be expecting 1000 to 1600 metres of climbing over a 25 to 30 mile ride to make it into the “hilly” category.
A vertical mile would be a good threshold for a “very hilly” ride I reckon.

A better indicator of a “hilly” ride is when its hilly enough for the otherwise single-speeders to get their geared bikes out for the day. 😆

I don’t think I’ve ever managed anything approaching 12mph average on any MTB ride ever though. 😥

<EDIT> OOPS I should read properly before posting, never occurred to me that roads might be involved 🙁 </EDIT>

That’s what I though mogrim. I’m clearly not reading it right I’ve done routes with major climbs at around 7000ft climbing over 100 miles.

100ft per mile of climbing is an undulating ride, 200ft per mile is hilly, 300ft per mile pretty demanding terrain. Roughly speaking.

Agree with above about these figures – way too ambitious. Stage 18 of the TdF this week is being billed as possibly the hardest tour stage of all time. It is 204km with 8893m of climbing. That equates to just over 200ft per mile over the stage & I’d calling it just a Tad more than Hilly!

Similarly who has done the Fred Whitton – that works out at just over 100ft per mile & I’d call it more than undualating!

Yeh the Fred Whitton is about as hilly a loop as you could get and its 14000 – 15000ft I think.

12500ft over 112miles. To be fair there are quite a few flat sections between the pain – but it’s the pain (and the piles of puke at the side of the road) that last in the memory.

100ft/mile average = hilly for me.

All this talk of feet and miles is lost on me… 🙁
What constitutes a hilly ride?
Having to get out of the saddle.

100ft/mile average = hilly for me.

Sounds right to me. Although I’d struggle to find 3000ft of climbing on a local 30 mile loop. My 20 mile commute has around 700ft of climbing on the return journey and that’s with one looong climb out of Glasgow

I’m in Surrey and can manage it easily. You should come to the South, we’ve got proper hills…

@njee20 where abouts in Surrey are you riding to get 100ft/mile climbs on decent length rides?

CVMBC around these parts is a decent ride and that is only 2700ft in 31miles (87ft/mile or so). I’d put that down as a hilly ride.

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/33744006

Mmmm, i ride from Winchester area and can get 650 metres of ascent in about 19 miles. Head a bit further East into the heart of the South Downs and i can get over 1000m of ascent in a similar distance, no problem. This is going by a Garmin 705/800 data, mind.

I think the terrain makes a big difference though, riding in the peaks was a bit more demanding than the South Downs with respect to the terrain.

Unless you are talkig about road riding, which makes that comment irelevent.

Realise this a road posting but what the hell its a MTB forum.. 😀 Glentress Black is around 24.7Km with 841m of ascent…is that hilly? Doable in 2 to 2.5 hours without killing yourself.

Works out at around 34m climb per Km but not sure what that is in old money 🙄

Stage 18 of the TdF this week is being billed as possibly the hardest tour stage of all time. It is 204km with 8893m of climbing.

As someone who loves a good hilly ride, that sounds absolutely stupid. More climbing than Everest from sea level.

Some desktop maths for comparison, if you climb the Great Dun Fell road (the highest tarmac road in the UK) from Knock you ascend 632m in 7.42km (average of 8.5%). You’d need to do the climb 14 times to match that, and that’s without altitude or a race to worry about.

[edit] infact, if you do the climb and descent of that 14 times, then you end up riding 207km – pretty similar to the TDF stage for almost the same amount of climbing (8842m -just shy of Everest).

Clong – Member
Mmmm, i ride from Winchester area and can get 650 metres of ascent in about 19 miles. Head a bit further East into the heart of the South Downs and i can get over 1000m of ascent in a similar distance, no problem. This is going by a Garmin 705/800 data, mind.

Exactly. On day 1 of my recent LeJog, I recorded 3,025m of ascent on my Edge 705. Pumping it into Endomondo gives only 1,924m

@njee20 where abouts in Surrey are you riding to get 100ft/mile climbs on decent length rides?

Normal hilly ride is something like: Cranleigh – up Barhatch, into Shere, up Coombe Lane, over Ranmore, down past the Church, up Box, down via Headley, Dorking, up through Coldharbour, down via Abinger Hammer, up into Holmbury Mary, past the MSSL, down into Peaslake, cake, then down into Ewhurst. Admittedly I do a flatter 10 miles to/from Cranleigh, but that’s 45 miles of hills for me easily.

Edit: this was only 39 miles and 4200ft of climbing, but that sort of route.

My 15 mile commute across the Quantocks (about 5 miles offroad) is just over 1200 ft of climbing (average 1269 ft), that works out a 84.6 ft per mile. Which wouldn’t be too bad if all the climbing didn’t come in a 2 mile stretch. 🙁

My average speed is only 13.1 mph over the past 14 commutes BTW

My last road ride had 2489m of vertical ascent over 127km, with an average pace of 2:36min/km or 23.03kph.

I was quite happy with that as it was the longest I’ve done on the road this year.

I thought it was pretty damn hilly here’s the data/route profile.

Agree with above about these figures – way too ambitious. Stage 18 of the TdF this week is being billed as possibly the hardest tour stage of all time. It is 204km with 8893m of climbing. That equates to just over 200ft per mile over the stage & I’d calling it just a Tad more than Hilly!

How does 8893m of climbing fit into that?
I can only see about 5000m max (which would be easy obviously 😉 )

It goes over hills.

To be hilly it needs atleast two climbs / descents of with alteast one climb gaining atleast 500ft in altitude and atleast 70% of the ride involving climbing or descending. Mountainous going on the same rules but height gain has to be atleast 1000ft.

If all the climbing comes in about 30% or less of the riding then it goes through hills but isnt a hilly ride.

This was hilly enough for me, just back, captain slow here took 2.45h to do it! 😀 😳 On the mtb though, i don’t have a road bike! so **** knows how i’d do on that!

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/42107512

19.44mi/31.3km – distance
184ft/56m – Start Elev
600.0ft/182m – Max Elev
984.0ft/299m – Gain

@njee20 it looks like your Garmin is doing the old GPS trick of very poor altitude recording and so massively overstating the climbs. As each sample is within +/- 4m or so then two samples on flat roads could read 8m climb or descent between them. Chances are the next reading will cancel this out so the average is 0m climb, but they don’t always do so.

I put your ride into MapMyRide (love the ‘zig zag road’ :)) and use that to make the measurement – as it uses map profile data to recorded climbs / descents.

The route is here: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/42110976

38.55 miles and 2021ft climbed (52.4ft/mile).

2 x cat 4 climbs and 3 x cat 5 (whatever they are) make for a good hilly ride in my experience.

I stopped using GPS for measuring climbs and comparing routes for this very reason. Especially when training for events in hilly areas as you get the impression that you are doing way more climbing than you actually are. So now I always export and load into MapMyRide to get an accurate value.

Anyway, its all relative to what we are used to. If it is a hilly climb, then it is a hilly climb, regardless of what the maps say 🙂

this is about the fastest ive done my regular ride :- all mtb miles in the dark peak – was in a rush so had to pretty much hammer it

Time: 02:39:07
Distance: 25.34 mi
Elevation Gain: 3,573 ft
Calories: 1,719 C
Avg Temperature: 52.8 °F

Timing
Time: 02:39:07
Moving Time: 02:32:27
Elapsed Time: 02:39:07
Avg Speed: 9.6 mph
Avg Moving Speed: 10.0 mph
Max Speed: 37.1 mph
Avg Pace: 06:16 min/mi
Avg Moving Pace: 06:01 min/mi
Best Pace: 01:37 min/mi

SpeedPaceElevation
Elevation Gain: 3,573 ft
Elevation Loss: 3,812 ft
Min Elevation: 403 ft
Max Elevation: 1,553 ft

dont think ive topped 10mph average moving speed like i did that night!

mapmyride and other sites also have huge errors in the altitude data which are exacerbated when routes “contour” hills rather than go straight up and down them.

mine was from my edge800 with garmin connect with enabled elevation correction…ive also plotted it with bike hike and the likes and its roughly (give or take 50-100feet) the same….

my mates uses an iphone tracker and thats way out one ride we do regularly on a weeknight is about 2200 feet of climbing, his itracker thing said we had done 4000ft 😆

I got stage 18 to 4650m climbing or 15110ft over 200km or 125miles which is 125ft/mile. I will concede the first 35k is pretty flat but my arse is it undulating.

@njee20 it looks like your Garmin is doing the old GPS trick of very poor altitude recording and so massively overstating the climbs. As each sample is within +/- 4m or so then two samples on flat roads could read 8m climb or descent between them. Chances are the next reading will cancel this out so the average is 0m climb, but they don’t always do so.

Not that I care, if that’s what it is then I still call it hilly, but I thought it was the other way around; those sites aren’t accurate because of the variation from the contour lines. The 705 doesn’t use GPS for altitude either – it uses barometric pressure. Certainly the climbing tallies with my Polar S725, which doesn’t have any GPS.

I’ll redefine my answer then: it’s hilly if I go looking for hills.

Yup, hillly is hilly :). I might take a look at the barometric devices but they come with their own problems too.

So long as you have a consistent way of measuring then it is that what is most useful.

These days I make use of the MMR climb ratings and number of climbs as a good way of assessing a route for hilliyness.

But that means that my route is 4000ft of climbing, and MapMyRide and what not are very inaccurate (which is what I thought I must admit).

I must admit I don’t pay attention to the numbers anyway, if I want to do hills I head north, if I don’t I head south!

Surely the discussion is between flat and hilly as you don’t have proper mountains there.

don simon, sitting at home at 1.150m looking at tomorrow’s climb of 550m. 😉

if I want to do hills I head north, if I don’t I head south!

Oh dear, the hills in the South West may not be as big, but they come along more frequently, try a 50 or 100 mile ride across Exmoor.

Plenty of hills in the South. Like I wrote above – 3,000m of ascent getting from Lands End to Okehamption. That was the hilliest day of our LeJog.

2012 Olympic MTB course ?

Surely the discussion is between flat and hilly as you don’t have proper mountains there.

Has anyone mentioned mountains? 😕

Oh dear, the hills in the South West may not be as big, but they come along more frequently, try a 50 or 100 mile ride across Exmoor.

Don’t go over Exmoor then, that’s what I’m saying. I mean from my house, not the country as a whole. If I head into the Surrey Hills it’s hilly, or I can avoid and do a far flatter ride around the Sussex Weald and what not! I must say I’ve never done a 100 into the hills, but I’ve only ever done about 5 centuries, I get bored haha!

@njee20 it looks like your Garmin is doing the old GPS trick of very poor altitude recording and so massively overstating the climbs. As each sample is within +/- 4m or so then two samples on flat roads could read 8m climb or descent between them. Chances are the next reading will cancel this out so the average is 0m climb, but they don’t always do so.

After much trial and error I’ve come to the conclusion that GPS data is accurate, as it matches almost perfectly with OS maps. It’s mapmyride.com that seems to lose about 1/3 of the elevation for some reason, maybe it only has really widely spaced contour data?

As a footnote: The climb from the beach to Saltburn is 40m in about 250m, I mis quoted it as 80m climbed as it’s 80m at the top of the hill once you’ve ridden through Saltburn itself (about another mile). Still makes you want to stop and re-examine your lunch as you get over the top though!

Tonights self abuse is going to include Birk Brow (sp?) road from Staplewrath upwards 50m over about 2km, then another 100m in the last 500m. If the eat less do/more mantra doesnt bear fruits soon I’m going back to idave!

Big Thor’s mountain stage win on Saturday had 25m of climbing per km ridden. Doesn’t sound too bad in comparison does it (let’s ignore the fact that he had 7.5 times further to go and averaged over 25mph over the stage!)?

for interest he also managed to clock 69mph on one of the downhill sections on that stage! was a great stage

Plenty of hills in the South. Like I wrote above – 3,000m of ascent getting from Lands End to Okehamption. That was the hilliest day of our LeJog

too right, more height gain per mile in the Southwest of England that in Scotland… that si why we did LEJOG rather than JOGLE so as to get the bigger climbing days out of the way.

Lands End to John O’Groats
day1t 103.77 miles 6,788 feet
day2t 118.35 miles 6,388 feet
day3t 109.27 miles 3,652 feet
day4t 120.42 miles 4,170 feet
day5t 120.75 miles 3,550 feet
day6t 119.86 miles 3,757 feet
day7t 113.00 miles 4,692 feet
day8t 69.26 miles 2,936 feet

height data is from brt – though my garmin roughly agrees and i have matched it at a number of heights against know datums seems not too far off

Trying again in the dry and sunshine tonight, missing out the second loop into Sketon Green/Boosbeck but ading in a loop through Staplewrath and up Birk Brow road. Bring on the pain*!

*why am I starting to like riding road bikes uphill?

My local loop, you couldn’t get any flatter than where I live, the South East!

Distance: 32.33 mi

Elevation Gain: 3,372 ft

Moving Time: 03:32:18

Avg Moving Speed: 9.1 mph

Max Speed: 29.7 mph

Elevation Gain: 3,372 ft

Elevation Loss: 3,414 ft

I’d say *lots* of South Devon makes for ‘a hilly ride’ – even in town!

It’s full of short, usually very steep hills – you no sooner get over one and down the other side, before you go round a corner and over a small bridge and you are faced with another bloomin’ savage wall to get up and over with no chance to get a decent rhythm going.

I dunno, maybe it’s me age, but in the next day or so I’ll be swaping the Peregrine’s 12-28 with an 11-32 …