Any ideas?

drunken bridge hill round the corner from my house

steep
massive potholes
tight corners so cars are a hazard

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/8603499.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.panoramio.com/photo/8603499&usg=__o5uZ1rMCZ23JMCkbU0Jqr9XvPfk=&h=510&w=383&sz=76&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=w13pgfsmZW-1hM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgemmi%2Bpass%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7SNYK_en-GB%26sa%3DN

possibly???

Angliru

wynatts pass – castleton. FACT

The Col du Climpy is probably the hardest road climb in the world. I knew Lance was coming back when I saw him gurning up the North Face of the Climpy, dressed in black.

Talla to the Meggetstane?

Hardest I have done is the south side of the Bealach na Ba, probably harder than the Col de la Joux Plan from Samoens side which is the hardest thing I have done in the Alps.

Bealach isn’t the same length but it’s steep, cold, windswept and badly surfaced which makes it hard work.

Staying not far from Bedoin this summer so I may change my mind by August…

The one on my way home from work from Kirkcaldy up through Auchtertool to Mossmorran into the ever-present westerly wind.

Hors categorie

Any one where there’s some bloody tourer in front of you holding you up…

😉

Stu_N – did that one yesterday. It’s about 1/2 mile of 20%. Lactic heaven. I should really learn that trying to tear the legs off a mate going up there is not a good idea.

Funny thing – drivers stopped to let us past and were giving us the thumbs up. They even stopped to let us past on the way down too. 😉

Hagg Hill, Sheffield

Probably not actually, but its b*stard steep round there.

The hardest road climb in western europe is without doubt situated on Brown Clee hill in Shropshire.

It’s actually an old ‘incline’ that was part of the old quarry works. It’s dead straight, straight up, and harder than anything else in western europe for sure.

🙂

there’s a MASSIVE but little-known climb in the new forest – the “Nomansland Bastard” close on 50 yards of up to about 1 in 6, and that’s after probably 300 yards of sustained uphill

(as you’d expect, the off-road equivalent is EXTREME, as is the descent !)

Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough

I have never walked either of them 8)

you’ve obviously never heard of the “climb de mort”, by a strange co-incidence its also quite close to the UK center of extreme freeride, the fabled “woods behind nationwide”.

only for the brave 😉

Well I rode up this only yesterday, much steeper and more camber than the pics show.

Bloody windy at the top too.

probably harder than the Col de la Joux Plan from Samoens side which is the hardest thing I have done in the Alps.

Arrrgghhhh, the memories…..30 degrees, longest time I’ve ever spent in the granny ring, honestly, i thought I’d died….

Bealach na ba applecross peninsula.

drunken bridge hill round the corner from my house

i sent that hill the other week. with one hand flashing the horns. but yes it is a beast.

Hardknott is the hardest I’ve done. Way harder than the Bealach na Ba

This looks pretty evil.

I’ve ridden up Bealach na Ba without breaking a sweat….

Oh, hang on, just remembered I was on a motorbike at the time…

It’s true we have many steep climbs in this country but they are also very short ( granted they dont feel it when your riding up them ), climbs in the alps and pyrennes are far far longer although often not as steep but can be a lot harder. However I think the Angrilu in Spain combines both elements with a number of ramps of 20%+ and 12k length, I havent ridden it ( I have ridden the tourmalet, the alpe, galibier, ventoux ,croix de fer amongst others )but in pro cycling I think its considered the worst. In fact its only fairly recently that it has been considered climbable in a race.

Mt Ventoux is always reckoned to be one of the hardest

Bealach isn’t the same length but it’s steep, cold, windswept and badly surfaced which makes it hard work

Amen to that Stu, I’ll do it again and again though. Although it can’t possibly be the hardest climb in western Europe.

I always thought it was the hill at the back of Harlech Castle, sort the men from the boys.

If not here is a good source of info. Doesn’t cover everything, but is quite interesting and baised towards Spain.

roads are soooooooooooooooooooooooo dull so who cares..thread closed.

Nah.
The Alp D’ Gilbert in Lichfield is the steepest.

2nd winnats pass,

snakes pass is probably my favourite though, mainly because of the decent into glosop, requires some kid of supernatural fairth in your tires to grip, especialy pitching it into the lefthand hairpin arround the dry stone wall near the end.

Bealach isn’t the same length but it’s steep, cold, windswept and badly surfaced which makes it hard work

Amen to that Stu, I’ll do it again and again though. Although it can’t possibly be the hardest climb in western Europe.

And another thing – it hasn’t got a cafe at the top. At least the Joux Plan has a cafe at the top, as do quite a lot of the Alpine cols. Even a burger van on the Bealach would be nice, though possibly not on racesportif day!

Its gotta be something long and steep, so that rules out anything in the UK based on the Long criteria.

The hardest I’ve done is Alpe D’Huez in 42 degree heat and having ridden Col Du Glandon, Le Telegraphe and Galibier earlier in the day. However, there’s probably far worse out there…

angliru as already said

CONSTITUTION HILL in swansea . full stop

it is a cobble stone hill and it looks like a brick wall from the bottom, steep as fugg and I live in a valley in devon 1in4 one side 1in8 the easy side

and then there is contitution hill thats another book not story

I’ll see your Alp d’Gilbert and raise you the mighty Box Hill….!

Back in the real world, we drove up both Alpe d’Huez and the Cormet de Rosalind this summer, which I’ve never heard of. Alpe d’Huez was fine, but the car was definitely struggling with the Cormet – it’s a significantly longer climb either way and goes higher, but the gradient averages less. Its also **** narrow on the Bourg St Maurice side.

Hagg Hill, Sheffield

Probably not actually, but its b*stard steep round there.
try conduit on a BMX

Port de Bales is pretty tough in places, Alpe d’Huez was hard purely for having ridden since 7am that morning, the climb up to Star and Garter from the river is pretty tough – mostly because you don’t know quite how fast and out of control the pizza boys are going to be ragging it as you go up.

How wonderfully insular to suggest the Bealach Na Ba!

Ditchling Beacon is probably the most failed climb due to all the donkeys on the London to Brighton….

>How wonderfully insular to suggest the Bealach Na Ba!<

Parochial even 😉

A few swift ones in the Applecross hotel first and it take on a different dimension

I thought I’d explained WHY I thought it was harder. The Bealach goes over a lump of rock poking into the Atlantic airstream with no civilisation westward until you get to Japan. Many Alpine climbs are twice the height gain but over a far longer ascent so aren’t as steep plus they are generally better surfaced, have a cafe at the top and the weather is better and they don’t have any midge.

That Angrilu thing sounds like it ‘as it though.

Surprised no-one’s mentioned Chimney Bank and posted the pic of the Milk Race peleton walking up it.

The Bealach goes over a lump of rock poking into the Atlantic airstream with no civilisation westward until you get to Japan.

Interesting geography there Stu_N 😉 (although I suppose those hebridean islanders and new world savages don’t really count when all is considered).

(I do think you have a point in some ways though, rough back-of-an-envelope calculation suggests it’s around 580m height gain at a gradient of about 6-6.5% average, so plenty steeper, but not many as long in the UK. Only one off the top of my head that climbs more, and that’s Great Dun Fell- 633m gain in 9km at about 7% average. Judging by that graphy thing of L’Angiru above, that’s still some way short of 1250m up in 13km which should be 9.6% if my maths is correct).