The mile on tarmac that starts just outside my house and I have to climb everytime I want to get somewhere fun 🙁
"Cardiac Hill" (not it's real name)
Up from Stoughton (GR:802114) to the top of Kingley Vale. Dull, steep, dull, steep, dull and always covered in leaf fall and that special green slimeyness of South Downs chalk with ruts. It's horrid coming down as well.
It does however have the saving grace that the descents off the top are nice.
Sustrans 57: the wall at great missenden. 42m of vertical at 16%. It really shouldn’t be difficult but after a long ride and with cold legs from cake and coffee in the village, the narrow track, magnetic weapons-grade nettles, slippery leaves and a front wheel that won’t stay down conspire every time to have me completely gasping by the top.
The top half of Cut Gate, from Howden, after the steep bit. Sure, the steep bit is bad, but the rest should be fine? Nah, energy sapping peaty, grassy slog. I don't think I've ever cleaned it.
Maybe it's just that I almost always ride it at the end of the day?
I used to be fit, now I'm not, so literally every climb.
But I'll give special mention to the fireroad that runs from the blue climb to the bench (past the blue descent, Andy's Flume etc) at Glentress. It's not long, it's not steep, it's just perfectly pitched to look effortless but somehow be way harder work than it looks. It's a bit too draggy to ride fast, a bit too easy to ride slow, you can't dig into it, most people can't beast it but will feel weak and slow if they spin it. Couldn't be more slightly irritating if they tried.
It’s not long, it’s not steep, it’s just perfectly pitched to look effortless but somehow be way harder work than it looks
I have that issue with several local 'slopes.' A forestry road on the way to work. Barely visible slope, saps all my energy.
Then there's this horrible bastard. Can hit 100km going down it on the way to work, but on the way home I have to dig really deep.
https://www.strava.com/segments/793660
My commute goes down > flat > up/down > flat > up on the way there, and consequently exactly the same profile on the way back.
The up on the way there is one of those loooong drags up and seems to get longer/harder every year.
*the whole red route is really just one endless climb back to the car park.
Escher's brief stint as a trail-builder?
For me Exmoor has always seemed more up than down.
Dundas Street in Edinburgh. Especially when I worked at the bottom. Literally straight onto the hill from the first pedal stroke.
It's continuous
It has multiple traffic lights
There's a ver real chance of getting smoothed by joining traffic.
It's followed shortly by the mound.
The up on the way there is one of those loooong drags up and seems to get longer/harder every year.
My commute now is 52mile round trip. I don't know what witchcraft is afoot but the tiredness levels after a day at work makes the 9mile gentle downhill to home invert and become a relentless invisigradient.
garage-dweller
Full Member
“Cardiac Hill” (not it’s real name)Up from Stoughton (GR:802114) to the top of Kingley Vale. Dull, steep, dull, steep, dull and always covered in leaf fall and that special green slimeyness of South Downs chalk with ruts. It’s horrid coming down as well.
It does however have the saving grace that the descents off the top are nice.
Yes I know that one. Unpleasant.
Amazed how many SDW climbs feature here considering it's not exactly a mountain.
I can think of a couple more, like the one up from Arundel going East (not sure of the name) or even the one going up to Devils Dyke going West. Or Southease (never seen anyone ride it entirely, not sure it is humanly possible).
@reluctantjumper - I was going to post that climb. Even in the dry it's ridiculously hard for the elevation gained/pitch. The middle bit by the fence needs some decent efforts to get in and out of the ruts, and before the hairpin at the end, just gets steep enough to weaken you for the full on gurn round the hairpin.
I did it in the wet once and it took nearly 40 minutes into a grim headwind. Great descent afterwards tho,
Actually, you’ve reminded me, from Gibb Lane up Whetmorhurst Lane. I always forget how that gift keeps on giving too.
That's a nasty little climb, but then I always expect it to be nasty. The other one that gets me is the steep pitch on Back Eccles Lane if you're cutting across from Buxworth towards Whitehough/Chinley. In my head it's always a quick, undulating cut-through, in reality it's quite steep in the middle, fine if you're fresh, bastard if you're tired and longer than it is.
Oh, and Cold Fell, which is always horrible despite looking vaguely like nothing much at all.
I did it in the wet once and it took nearly 40 minutes into a grim headwind. Great descent afterwards tho,
The descent afterwards is my favourite in the Beacons hence why I put up with the climb! Fastest time up I've ever managed was 21.21 according to Strava but I usually manage it in around 30. Feels like way longer when doing it though.
+ the slabs then paving upto the barn on ladybower loop, and then passing the forest on the right upto the gate, i love the next section up to the next gate and along to whinstone tor lee
At the bottom of Zoom or Busy, turn right and that climb that you can almost touch the top of...
Generally by this point it's the end of a ride, certainly pre-dropper posts it wasn't worth putting the saddle up for, but the pain of honking up it...
the one up from Arundel going East (not sure of the name)
Amberly mount... only part of the SDW I have to walk on my SS....
Devils Dyke going West
Yup..rotter!
Southease (never seen anyone ride it entirely, not sure it is humanly possible).
Which way...? the zig-zag up the field is a pain but doable...not sure i've ridden the other way!
DrP
@Alex and @reluctantjumper. Oh yeah, out from Crickhowell starts at a wee bridge? Looks like a nothing grassy slope, is in fact; hell
I will offer the Stoner Estate climb from the B480 to Kimble farm in the Chilterns. “Mleh”, you think. It’s the softy south how hard can it be? Isn’t particularly long but the combo of greasy chalk and a fiendishly steep couple of corners in the middle make in next to impossible unless it’s the driest of summers and you’re fresh.
Hi DrP, Southease going West
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We struggled there too (pic below) but I can't remember which one that is, do you know? Going East from Petersfield somewhere, perhaps Beacon, Harting or Cocking or neither.
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I'm not someone loves doing climbs but I can get a satisfaction out of it but some climbs are just shit** and even after completing them they are as hateful as on the way up.
**specifically ones where you fall in shit - the one after crackpipe in S Hills being an example - its not even long but spinning out of horse/dog shit is not my idea of fun though slightly better than being behind someone doing it.
On the positives... pushing up in autumn yields lots of edible mushrooms.
every single ride i go on ends with a climb of 226ft. which in itself is not much. but last year i rode up it 349 times. and 62 times so far this year. i **** hate it.
Yeah, I live about 300 ft up a hill, less than a mile from the beach. I'm just looking at Strava and every route up to my house has sections of 13-14%. It could be worse - there's another 300 ft above my house and the gradients to get there are steeper.
@nickfrog
That Southease one going E-W is a bastard, and just doable, only managed it the once....needed a looong breather at the top, and if it hadn't been a group ride I would have walked
Is the other one in the pic Old Winchester Hill. That always seems impossible cos the gravelly surface makes traction non-existant.
two more short and sweet ones are either side of the 27 at Housedean Farm - Bunkershill plantation and the other just the other side of the railway in the wood before you get to the drag up Kingston bowl - if you can make the turn left at the steep bit you think you;re done but there's another 100 m of up to the gate
@susepic
I just identified the other pic, it's Beacon Hill. I cocked up that day as the SDW is suppose to go round it through a south loop rather than over it, for obvious reasons. That was 5 years ago and one of the group reminded me of the event at coffee this morning!!!
I am OK with the climbs you mention at Falmer (A27), I think there is a strong psychological aspect to particular climbs. I think if the first time you do them you're in a great form or on a good day then they're easier on subsequent attempts. And vice versa sadly.
@nickc that's the badger. We always stop for lunch at the bridge as well. Makes it even worse!
That Stoner climb was a brute. I didn't clean it many times. Absolute wiki definition of 'false summit' when you get to the first corner!
jimmy
Full Member
At the bottom of Zoom or Busy, turn right and that climb that you can almost touch the top of…Generally by this point it’s the end of a ride, certainly pre-dropper posts it wasn’t worth putting the saddle up for, but the pain of honking up it…
It's particularly bad when used as part of a race. Generally it means you've started somewhere up the top of the hill, then had to try and hammer Zoom or Bust before hitting that hill on the way to the hydro. I swear my legs were just 2 bags of acid by the top of it
Hi DrP, Southease going West
I've done that, it's only a couple of miles from home, run up it too. Both really tough. Last time I went up the one to Truleigh Hill I ran it, great catching and passing cyclists.:-)
The one I find that is far far harder than it looks is the concrete track from Swanborough up to the SDW above Kingston. It looks like it should be the easiest route up of the 3 or 4 optionsbut I'm convinced it's the hardest
Also Coldwell? Clough from the house straight up to Edale Cross, ok the last pull is a trial but he first part looks like it should be doable, but it’s just utterly relentless. The gradient’s not ‘that’ steep but it’s just straight and you can see the false summit that never gets any closer no matter how many lungs you cough up.
@nickfrog unless I'm mistaken that valley is just east of the top of Harting Down (car park directly behind over the next rise).
If you go to the left as you look in the picture (right as you come over from Harting) there's a double track that skirts round that wall of chalk climb.
it’s Beacon Hill. I cocked up that day as the SDW is suppose to go round it through a south loop rather than over it, for obvious reasons
yes, that makes sense @nickfrog
once did the same thing and went up the path above the longman of wilmington instead of taking the bridleway to the south. That was a push as well
Shatton Lane from Shatton up to Shatton Moor.
Starts on tarmac and gets steeper and steeper, then water bars to contend with on the tarmac, then rough tarmac, eventually ending up on gravel/double track up to the mast. Always a slog, it's even quite hard to walk up it!
Another one close to me is the track up from Kettlewell towards Buckden Pike. Looks OK from a distance, but you turn onto it after a short but very nasty road climb from the village, and it's instantly loose and deceptively steep. Always approach it with optimism, normally end up spinning out and coughing up a lung after about 300 yards.
So it's not just me with 'sheep track hill' then. I knew which one that was going to be before clicking the link.
ogden water up withens new road, strava ‘ogden cimb’ its only 104m elevation on 1.78km
Is that the stony track going up by the golf course to the phone mast cottage?
thats the one @montgomery, i also hate the one back up from oxenhope, on the corner of keighley road upto blackmoor road,
although i cleaned that the other week as it was dry
Also Coldwell? Clough...
Absolutely! I recall it strewn with babyhead rocks at a gradient that was just too steep to be comfortable.
The climb from my front door to the top of Charity Lane in Macc Forest. There are sections that don’t exist in my head despite it being my local loop. Bits where I think “just round this bend there’s an, oh, no, just more hill”.
It’s basically one massive hill from my door that gradually gets steeper and steeper. Greatest point of biking related shame was one New Years Day where I was slightly worse for wear, slowly bimbling up the forest path and dying. Got overtaken by a group of people doing speed walking 😂
On a related note has anyone ever been for a walk in the places you ride and thought “Jesus Christ! I ride down this?” Some things look scarier walking up slowly as opposed to blasting down quickly!
Linnets clough from Bottom’s Hall, Marple.
The first bit is slightly rocky, mostly wet and a little steep in places, evens out, then climbs until the scout camp (Where I need a rest)
Longhurst lane from Marple bridge to boguard road isn't much better. I've done that climb so many times,but hated it every time - until I got an ebike!
Robin Hoods Well, Holcombe - it just seems to get steeper!
