Mow Cop

[Rob3rt]

Doing a full hill climb circuit at the end of a season of lots of TTs used to kill me. Didn't enjoy it. Good luck rob and Dr Pink

I am enjoying the HC season even more than the TT season, I absolutely love it, the atmosphere is great, the events are well run, good prize money for the fast guys and girls, there is a real respect between riders and everyone stays right until the end to cheer each other on and watch the winners receive their prizes (at TT's everyone does their ride, checks their time then leaves), the spectator turn outs are impressive and it really gives you that extra push when you are pretty much ready to fall off, and the organisational touches such as closed roads, barriers and live commentary over a PA system just make those events where it is feasible something special. To ride Monsal, as @totallyfixed and Helen will attest is just incredible with the spectators, it is the closest a mere mortal like me will get to feeling you you are big time, hah.

 

[400bhp]

Good luck guys, that's a hell of a hill to do a HC on.

@Rob3rt , where does it start & finish? max 1 mile long, would imagine 5 mins of effort.

 

[Rob3rt]

Good luck guys, that's a hell of a hill to do a HC on.

@Rob3rt , where does it start & finish? max 1 mile long, would imagine 5 mins of effort.

From Lyme RC (the promoting club) website:

Start after the level crossing at the bottom of Drumber Lane. Proceed along Drumber Lane to join Station Road. Proceed up Station Road to pass the Cheshire View public house, crest the 1 in 4 section and finish approximately 10 yards after the crest, before the junction with Close Lane. Total distance approximately 0.75 miles.

Last years results: http://tinyurl.com/LymeRC2012

BTW, I am not racing Mow Cop, I am racing Ramsbottom Rake that day, I couldn't get from Mow Cop in the morning to The Rake in the afternoon and wanted to do The Rake. The Rake is less well known than Mow Cop but is a similar sort of climb ending in a 25% gradient (The Rake has a rather dramatic looking steep section with a hand rail at the side of the road for pedestrians).

The Rake (although the person who goes up in this video is super slow, lol)


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFrmdTdyTQI

 

[400bhp]

feck-i really need to stop procrastinating and have a bloody go.

 

[400bhp]

If you hit the sweet spot on the 25% bit you should be almost in tears IMO.

 

[Hacienda71]

If you hit the sweet spot on the 25% bit you should be almost in tears IMO.

Or vomiting.......

 

[totallyfixed]

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

You missed out the vomiting bit.

 

[totallyfixed]

Looks as though it's going to be wet, maybe very wet

 

[Rob3rt]

Looks as though it's going to be wet, maybe very wet

Light rain from 10am on the Met Office site. Weather is okay here atm, been windy last few days but generally okay.

 

[totallyfixed]

Go for it, Dr_Pink! Sorry I won't be there to cheer you on.

@totallyfixed - how about another Rutland ride when all the seasonal hill-climbing madness has subsided. You haven't been introduced to Bertie yet...

That wouldn't by any chance be the pink one would it?

 

[Poacher]

That wouldn't by any chance be the pink one would it?

If it was just pink (and maybe a tad smaller), I'd be looking to sell it to Dr_Pink. It's actually pink, black and white with a touch of lavender, as seen here in my garden:

and (toned down by the landscape) on a "my ride today" thread at harvest time: now there's a hill to be reckoned with....

Don't worry, I've bought some dark blue Japlac to transform the frame - maybe even make it a bit lighter for going up-hill once all the "classic" paint's been stripped off. Twenty grams, maybe. Now need to remove 20Kg+ from me!

 

[totallyfixed]

Such a pity swearing isn't allowed on here but I made up for it at the top of mow cop. Bikes out the back of the car, no warm up down to the bottom by the railway crossing then straight back up, at the 25% I grunted and grovelled in my smallest gear. The second time up I did in my 42x25 and not a lot left at the top.
This is a mean climb to race, quite surprised at how steep one part of the lower section was. I am sure all the other women will be on a compact, dr pink not happy plus it was windy and wet, lovely.

 

[ColinJ]

... quite surprised at how steep one part of the lower section was.

I thought that the 200 metre section starting about 500 metres into the profile I posted looked as bad as the steep bit at the top!

 

[totallyfixed]

It a

I thought that the 200 metre section starting about 500 metres into the profile I posted looked as bad as the steep bit at the top!

lt almost is and the road surface could be better, very easy to blow up by hitting this section too hard and having nothing left for the last bit.
One of the major problems is where to warm up because you can't cross the railway line and you can't warm up on the course. Weather now looking quite bad, if the road turns into a river it will be a non starter for us.

 

[Rob3rt]

I already know Helen won the Women's competition but looking forward to a race report from Mow Cop!

Weather was good and bad for a HC race, quite hill climby and gloomy as I like it but not ideal underwheel on the steep stuff, had quite a bit of wheel slippage on the Rake, even straight out of the gate.

Before I set up I decided to risk weaving and riding a slightly easier gear vs straight up and brute forcing it on the steep bit at the top, even though I know it would add distance and that I might be a tiny bit slower, I figured it was worth the risk since there was a high chance of wheel slippage and if I got a bad slip it would mean complete loss of momentum on a 25% steep hill and with the gear I would normally race up that incline on, getting going again would loose 5-10 seconds, hard to say if it paid off because I knew I wasn't on a fast ride (was aiming sub-3 mins) by the 1st corner as I was ~7-8 seconds down on schedule, but stuck it out, recovered a bit on the false flat, but then just before the 25% section I started to really hurt bad as the gradient started to increase and I had to get out of the saddle earlier than I had planned (and practised in training) and thought I was done for, luckily this was where most of the supporters started to line the climb and I could hear the commentator saying my name (although he called me Richard) and talking about my club, I just put my head down, dug in and started to weave my way up the steep bit, there was quite a lot of support and camera flashes which kept me going then as I came to the final few metres I could just hear my own breathing and it sounded like I was crying/whimpering, the commentator was shouting about my wobbling all over the place and then the catcher ran alongside me and caught me! Placed somewhere in the middle with 3:10.5.

Made good use of the catcher at the top, lol! He had to remove my bike from under me. Utterly farked!

Averaged just under 500W, which I think may be a power PB for that duration, its about 6.5 - 6.6 W/kg.