Mow Cop

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Rob3rt

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
totallyfixed said:
Very useful information, thanks Rob. Yes, seen the start sheet for the National, Helen doesn't know whether to be scared or excited as they have ranked her very high indeed. Back to Mow Cop, if the wind direction is against I think even 39x27 is going to be tough. The promoting club have requested that all riders when finished should go to the top of the steep section to cheer the others on, great idea.
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There comes a point where you have to accept it is going to be super hard and stop trying to make it easier IME, you keep gearing down and the pain doesn't lessen. This is why I pretty much never use my easiest gear. Given the extreme gradient, a head wind might not actually be that bad on the steep bit as you MAY get some shelter from the road.

I noticed Helen is ranked high in the national start sheet, not surprising given her win on Blackstone Edge. I am ranked somewhere in the middle of the field in the National start order. I may have some family coming out to watch on that event, so will make sure they cheer Helen on too! The course should be good for Helen shouldn't it?
 
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totallyfixed

totallyfixed

Veteran
Location
The only county without a McDonalds
Rob3rt said:
I noticed Helen is ranked high in the national start sheet, not surprising given her win on Blackstone Edge. I am ranked somewhere in the middle of the field in the National start order. I may have some family coming out to watch on that event, so will make sure they cheer Helen on too! The course should be good for Helen shouldn't it?
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Yes it should do, now we are looking to beg, steal or borrow some Zipp 202's, or even just a front 202, a deep section front up on the tops in a crosswind is not a good idea if you are a light body weight.
 
Shut Up Legs

Shut Up Legs

Down Under Member
I thought this was the thread about police officers booking people using ride-on mowers!

Nice little hill, by the way :smile:.
 
ColinJ

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Location
Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
bromptonfb said:
Doesn't it work out at 33% from Colin's profile? 100m x 30m gain in height?
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TBH, it looks more like 23% to me when I look at the climb in detail on the mapping software, but 1:50,000 OS maps do take minor liberties with road layouts for clarity so you can't be sure that they go exactly where they are shown to go. (I know some local roads that are about 40 m from where the OS map shows them to be. I have logged them on my GPS many times, and overlaid the track log on the map and the result is always the same.)
 
Rob3rt

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
fossyant said:
God they are slow !
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Sportive tortoises :tongue: Many walkers too.
 
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fossyant

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Rob3rt said:
Sportive tortoises :tongue:
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It was hilarious when I did the Cheshire Cat about 3 years ago. Folk 'resting' at just about every opportunity. They had only ridden a flat 16 miles. Me and a Manchester Wheeler had just hammered it from the start in Crewe, to the climb, picking off a few hundred. What's all this stopping after the steep bit. The climb doesn't finish till after the village and the TV masts, then its downhill.
 
Hacienda71

Hacienda71

Mancunian in self imposed exile in leafy Cheshire
Location
Wilmslow, Cheshire
fossyant said:
It was hilarious when I did the Cheshire Cat about 3 years ago. Folk 'resting' at just about every opportunity. They had only ridden a flat 16 miles. Me and a Manchester Wheeler had just hammered it from the start in Crewe, to the climb, picking off a few hundred. What's all this stopping after the steep bit. The climb doesn't finish till after the village and the TV masts, then its downhill.
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Hope you picked up your medal :laugh::whistle:
 
Rob3rt

Rob3rt

Man or Moose!
Location
Manchester
These threads often go this way (and it is nice to hear peoples stories at times etc), talking up how hard the climb is and lots of examples from sportives etc. You have to understand though (not talking to @fossyant or @Hacienda71 here), this will not be ridden as part of a longer ride, it will be one single effort, ridden to exhaustion, and I mean, complete exhaustion, they will have 2 marshals at the top to catch you when you finish to help you get off your bike etc so you don't fall off when you are too tired to unclip from your pedals.

For someone like Dr Pink (i.e. Helen aka @totallyfixed 's other half), a well ranked hill climb and time trial specialist taking part in a race, the perceived difficulty is not really important or interesting as being able to get up the climb is simply not in question (the question is how to get up the hill as fast as possible) and pretty much all climbs feel equally as hard when you are riding at this sort of intensity. In a hill climb race, even if it only lasts a minute or 2, you will experience excruciating burning legs, feeling light-headed, the taste of blood in your mouth, breathing so hard that you cough for days afterwards, veering around on the road because your vision starts to go a bit weird due to oxygen debt or you can't hold your head up to look where you are going any more (thank god for closed roads), your arms and back hurting from pulling on the bars so hard, being so knackered, you can't twist your feet out of your pedals when you hit the finish line. It is just not the same thing as most people know a climb to be, it is utterly brutal, you have to at least watch a hill climb race understand, when you see the state of the riders at the end, you will start to realise :smile:
 
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