How hilly is your ride

[rugby bloke]

Mentioned this in my post on the "Your Ride" thread but I thought it might (or indeed might not) deserve it's own thread.

The route I took last night always pretty lumpy to me - 1,153 ft of climbing over 33 miles - 35 ft / mile. I would be interested to see how this compares with other riders, especially those living in "hilly" rather than "rolling" landscapes.

 

[speccy1]

Living in Devon, it averages out to about 1000 ft for every 10 miles, in any direction. Here, and Cornwall have a lot of cat 1 and cat 2 climbs - good stuff!

 

[iggibizzle]

Living in Blackpool, I struggle to hit 100ft for ten miles some routes. Biggest 'hill' for miles is about 50ft. No stranger to hilly rides though . Very hilly. 12,000ft my last good one. Get up anything. Il put it down to good conditioning from facing coastal winds day in day out all year

 

[rugby bloke]

Living in Devon, it averages out to about 1000 ft for every 10 miles, in any direction. Here, and Cornwall have a lot of cat 1 and cat 2 climbs - good stuff!

So to use your measure my route is around 350 ft per 10 miles - not at all lumpy ! I'm going to Cornwall for a week in the summer and am tempted to take the bike, sounds like it will be hard work.

 

[rugby bloke]

Living in Blackpool, I struggle to hit 100ft for ten miles some routes. Biggest 'hill' for miles is about 50ft. No stranger to hilly rides though . Very hilly. 12,000ft my last good one. Get up anything. Il put it down to good conditioning from facing coastal winds day in day out all year

I can remember reading an article by Wiggo where he said its not the hills you need to worry about but the wind ...

 

[Racing roadkill]

I live at sea level. Everywhere is a climb for me. It varies from not much, to quite a climb, depending on which direction I head in. West is worst. If I head out towards Shaftesbury, there are some peachy climbs. I'm not one for going looking for big climbs / mountains, but hills get in the way, no matter which route I use.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

My round-trip commute is moderately hilly: 2500ft climbing over 35.4 miles, making it about 69ft / mile, with a mixture of slight hills and steep ones, with grades up to about 15%.

 

[Donger]

I don't use Strava or Garmin, so I can only measure height gain in terms of how much my legs complain and how panoramic the views are. I do have the choice of staying on the flat in the Vale of Gloucester or heading 15 miles West to hit the hills of the Forest of Dean or 5-10 miles East to hit the Cotswold escarpment. Nice to mix it up regularly to keep it fresh. Always used to detest climbing, but now I have to get a climbing fix every week or two.

 

[Oldbloke]

In the few months that I had the patience to use a Garmin, it showed approximately 300 metres, say 900 feet, per hour (25 kms/15 mile) per hour, in any direction.

 

[Globalti]

Last weekend here in the Ribble Valley and Bowland we rode 33 miles as well; we climbed about 2,200 feet and that was a route we chose as less hilly than usual, in other words it just had a few easy climbs. Had we chosen to go over the top of the Bowland Fells we would have added easily 1000 or 2000 feet to that climbing.

 

[huwsparky]

Living in Devon, it averages out to about 1000 ft for every 10 miles, in any direction. Here, and Cornwall have a lot of cat 1 and cat 2 climbs - good stuff!

What do you define as a cat 1or 2 climb? Surely can't be many in the whole country.

 

[speccy1]

I`m not sure what the figures are to define it, but whenever I, or anybody I know rides around here and it comes up on Strava, it is always including cat 1, 2, 3 ,or 4 hills, obviously 1 being the steepest/longest. It`s not just here, it`s a standard thing. This part of the country is like Yorkshire.....LUMPY!! 25% climbs here are commonplace, and in Cornwall there are a handful of 33%. Good for the legs!

 

[Jody]

Round where I live is about 1000ft+ per 10 miles. In the peaks, depending on route is anywhere around 3000ft+ per 20 miles

 

[wonderloaf]

Interesting thread this, using Strava I've just worked that my average is about 450 ft for every 10 miles. I always thought it was moderately hilly around where I live (well it feels that way sometimes) but seems it's easy-peasy compared to some of the others on here.

Got another column to add to my ride stats spreadsheet now .... sad git that I am

 

[iggibizzle]

Last weekend here in the Ribble Valley and Bowland we rode 33 miles as well; we climbed about 2,200 feet and that was a route we chose as less hilly than usual, in other words it just had a few easy climbs. Had we chosen to go over the top of the Bowland Fells we would have added easily 1000 or 2000 feet to that climbing.

I'm regularly around the trough/ Yorkshire / the lakes. Although the climbs of the trough arent as grand, I still manage to get as good climbing figures around there as in the other 2. It's lumpy alright