Leith Hill & Box Hill promoted to Cat 2 climbs...?

[Longshot]

I can go up Box Hill and I'm fat and crap at hills. It is NOT a Cat 2.

 

[HLaB]

They will be Cat 2 if you start in the Underground; its due to be extended to Surrey in 2099

 

[asterix]

In all likelihood these categories can be tailored to suit the region and are therefore relative. For the Tour de Holland a typical stage would be about 25km, a cat 2 would be any climb that reached sea level and the K-o-M would be the fastest rider over the canal bridges.

 

[Globalti]

What tyres for the Dutch Alps?

 

[Hacienda71]

Strava doesn't categorise climbs purely on steepness. The local Cat2 climb where I am is when done in full 7 miles long but I have averaged over 15 mph up it so it really is not steep.

 

[jowwy]

i thought the categories of climbs wasn't just measured by gradient, but also by the length of the overall climb

 

[dodgy]

i thought the categories of climbs wasn't just measured by gradient, but also by the length of the overall climb

And also when they are tackled in a stage. There's pretty much nothing scientific about stage categories.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

If owt in the Surrey Hills is Cat 2 then the ayrshire alps are all HC

 

[jowwy]

If owt in the Surrey Hills is Cat 2 then the ayrshire alps are all HC

i know what you mean - i must cycle HC climbs everyday here in the welsh valleys

 

[nickyboy]

i thought the categories of climbs wasn't just measured by gradient, but also by the length of the overall climb

Correct. And this leads to much easier hills getting "harder" classifications. For example, around here Snake Pass (full) is Cat 2. It is 5.3km @ 6.2%. Winnats Pass is Cat 3. It is 1.9km @11.0%.

Snake Pass is easy enough. Winnats is just plain hard.

The Strava categorisations seem similar in style to Grand Tours. The key is not whether you can cycle up them, it is how hard are they climbed at race pace.

 

[lukesdad]

There is an hc up cader idris
Mtb s only I'm afraid.

 

[Sittingduck]

To summarise - it's all a load of old cobblers.

 

[Mapster1989]

In races the category of a climb also factors in at what stage in the race the riders arrive at the climb (if my memory serves me right).

On Strava you cannot do this therefore Strava just uses a calculation, which can throw up some odd categorisation of certain hills.

EDIT: Just found this... http://everythingvelo.com/road-cycling-blog/how-are-cycling-climbs-categorised/

 

[HF2300]

I think there might also have been some confusion on the tele - I heard them referred to as Cat 2 but earlier (perhaps in a different programme) they were said to be Cat 4