Getting fed up of starting a sentence..I don't really ride anymore...but when I did, I would often take a road I'd never gone down before, mix up the route a but.
Somewhere between Oundle and Weldon, I took a t junction at speed, onto a B road I'd never used before, to be almost immediately confronted by a fairly short but very steep incline. No time to assess while already on the move, just planted my feet in the pedals and went for it.....ughhh, I very quickly found myself almost static, wrong gear, clipped in, wobbling desperately trying to keep my balance while I literally crawled over the top
I was very fit then, but it took me by surprise..