The Annual Lunacy Climbing Challenge Chatzone

[Dogtrousers]

12th ride done. Only one to go now. My last two have been a bit disappointing in their low rate of climb (only 2.2%) because I sacrificed climbing for more interesting routes. Today I went back to basics with a route that just crams in the climbs: Out and back to the West, then out and back to the East. Twice I descended hills only to stop at the bottom and go straight back up. That just feels wrong.

I've been doing routes on the North Downs ridge for a while now and this is, I think, the best I can manage in terms of climb rate while staying within the rules.

I threw in a km or so of unsurfaced road, which was maybe not a good idea after a week of heavy rain. It did give me a few extra precious metres of ascent. And it's Paris-Roubaix this weekend, and that's the nearest I have to cobbles.

I'll be having another attempt at doing "max climbing within 100k" for my 12th ride. I have a route planned based on today's that also nips south and hoovers up the hills around Toys and Ide Hill.

 

[ColinJ]

12th ride done. Only one to go now.

Well done!

My last two have been a bit disappointing in their low rate of climb (only 2.2%) because I sacrificed climbing for more interesting routes. Today I went back to basics with a route that just crams in the climbs: Out and back to the West, then out and back to the East. Twice I descended hills only to stop at the bottom and go straight back up. That just feels wrong.

I have come to the conclusion that unless you happen to live somewhere with an enormous number of possibilities, there is either going to be an awful lot of route repetition, or a lot of artificial 'out-and-back' routes.

I'll be having another attempt at doing "max climbing within 100k" for my 12th ride. I have a route planned based on today's that also nips south and hoovers up the hills around Toys and Ide Hill.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. I imagine that @Sea of vapours will have done 100 km rides with 3,000+ m of ascent? I have done multiple metric century rides with around 2,600 m. The local 'Season of Mists' metric century audax event has more than 2,500 m of ascent and I have ridden that many times.

The climbing challenge would be more interesting if it were 'at least 2,000 m of ascent in at most 100 km of riding' but then we would probably get even fewer entrants!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I have come to the conclusion that unless you happen to live somewhere with an enormous number of possibilities, there is either going to be an awful lot of route repetition, or a lot of artificial 'out-and-back' routes.

On one occasion I got off my bike, found somewhere to sit, and had something to eat and sent some text messages. It felt OK heading back up the hill after that. But at my most easterly turnaround there is nowhere to stop, just high hedges, so it was a case of U-turn and back up the hill.

I'll be interested to see what you come up with. I imagine that @Sea of vapours will have done 100 km rides with 3,000+ m of ascent? I have done multiple metric century rides with around 2,600 m. The local 'Season of Mists' metric century audax event has more than 2,500 m of ascent and I have ridden that many times.

Fingers crossed I should manage about 2,500m. 🤞🤞Route includes 3 of Simon Warren's climbs.

I was going to do it today but there's a yellow warning of wind and rain this afternoon. And the inaugural women's P-R is on telly!

 

[ColinJ]

Not that any (either!) of you will be interested, but being observant and curious about such things, I wondered why my lumpy metric century profile shown above came in at about 105km!

I just checked, and the reasons are that...

• That shows when the event HQ had been moved from Hebden Bridge down the Calder Valley to Mytholmroyd. That added on much of the flat bits at the start and finish.
• The profile shows the correct official route via the Hebden Bridge turning circle. There is a hairpin right turn off the A646 onto the foot of Heptonstall Road which for obvious reasons is illegal. Traffic has to continue towards Todmorden then use the turning circle to come back to the junction at a sensible angle. We naughty cyclists on the event used to take the right turn directly en masse. Drivers usually didn't mind waiting for a couple of minutes to let us all get out of the way.
• We were supposed to ride up through Heptonstall on the way out and down again on the way back. The road through the village is narrow, steep and cobbled. It's an interesting challenge climbing it with fresh legs early in the morning when there isn't much traffic. Descending it when tired later on and when tourists are driving towards you is NOT fun, so I used to take the longer road down through Lee Wood, effectively the Heptonstall bypass.

Once those changes are discounted, the hilly core of the ride is about 99.5 km.

 

[Sea of vapours]

I imagine that @Sea of vapours will have done 100 km rides with 3,000+ m of ascent?

Nope. I just had a look at what I recall as the hilliest routes I've done over 100km. Plenty in the 2,500m range but not many above that. I think my hilliest is this, which is a little over 3km vertically in just under 120km horizontally, taking in most of the North Pennines passes. The altitude profile is very spiky with very few flat bits and many of the ascents are steep, so I think the 3k/100km is definitely 'going some'! This definitely felt 'quite hard' at the time. (Note the vertical scale since this doesn't look too bad, but it does range from 200m to over 600m.!)

 

[Dogtrousers]

Not that any (either!) of you will be interested, but being observant and curious about such things, I wondered why my lumpy metric century profile shown above came in at about 105km! ... the event HQ had been moved ...

This can often be the case with organised rides of a set distance. As we know from hours of route planning it's hard to hit a given distance while including climbs and adding in other practicalities.

[One of] The hardest organised ride[ s] near me is the Hell of the Ashdown sportive, that comes in at 1,900m in 107km. Not terribly impressive stats but they have to wander around a bit to include their feed stations and HQ and also get the big "named" hills in. I've done it a couple of times, and had it cancelled on me due to foul weather twice (it's in Feb). Those little knobbly hills on the in-between bits really take it out of you. It's great fun and really well organised. Unfortunately no sign of a 2022 edition.

 

[ColinJ]

... they have to wander around a bit to include their feed stations and HQ and also get the big "named" hills in. I've done it a couple of times, and had it cancelled on me due to foul weather twice (it's in Feb). Those little knobbly hills on the in-between bits really take it out of you.

Those are the ones I that do me in!

I can cope with a long steady climb even if it has some steep ramps in it - I just go at my own pace and count down the km (distance) and metres (ascent) remaining.

Relentless little ups and downs are horrid. I lose track of how many there are, and where they are. The kind of thing that I really hate is grovelling up a 20% ramp, cresting, then seeing a steep descent to a tight bend, a narrow bridge over a stream, and then another damn 20% ramp climbing back out of the valley. Much care needed on the descent, braking almost to a standstill so the second ramp has to be done with no momentum into it. I encountered a lot of that kind of thing in Devon in the summer. For example, this section of a 106 km ride...

I would much rather have done 2 steady climbs totalling the same as those nasty little steep hills!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Some days you just haven't got it.

I just bailed after 63km and 1600m of climb in my attempt at "most climbing in 100k". I was knackered and stuck in super slo mo grinding mode on the steeper climbs. My mudguards were all gunged up with mud, and my gear indexing was playing up.

None of these things is a showstopper, but restarting after a rest, and faced with the choice between a long sloggy hill ... and then another and then another or 5km of downhill to the station, I soon found myself at the station.

The historic Catford CC hill climb must be soon. On Yorks Hill there were loads of guys in cycling jerseys sweeping detritus off the road. Yorks is very steep and very narrow. I was struggling to keep moving. I could have done without the audience, who had to pause their sweeping as I passed.

 

[Sea of vapours]

Audience embarrassment aside, what a great service! I could do with people sweeping detritus off the steep hills as I approach :-) Sorry to hear about the aborted attempt, but the rationale does sound very compelling, especially the mud aspect :-\

 

[ColinJ]

I could do with people sweeping detritus off the steep hills as I approach :-)

I could have done with that service yesterday. Mind you, the potholes and deep cracks in some of the steepest lanes were more of a problem. A team of hole fillers sent in the day before would have been good!

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm pretty annoyed at having bailed now. I knew I would be.

I've not really got back in to doing longer rides since covid and I think I've forgotten that cycling isn't always fun, and you can ride through the low points. Obsession with this challenge has converted most of my riding into a succession of 10%+ grinds followed by a bit of freewheeling, then another grind. Followed by hours and hours of route planning.

Mind you, my Garmin has a thing called "performance condition" that I generally ignore because I don't understand it. Anyway, it told me that my condition on Saturday started out "a bit crap" and ended up "totally effing rubbish" or something like that. Checking some of the segments I put in some of my slowest ascents. In the case of Yorks Hill it was my slowest ever, despite having personal sweepers clearing the road for me. So maybe it was a bad day too.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Challenge complete! 13th ride done.
Final score: 13 rides, 715.7 km 17,376 m 2.4% overall

Rather than poring over route planners for hours I made today's up as I went along - I'm pretty expert at making these routes now. I included the gentler slope up the N Downs escarpment, which lowered the overall % a bit. I also nipped off for a visit to the café at Ide Hill that bought me very little elevation in a 4 km diversion. Lowered the overall % but worth it for the pastie.

I noticed that the elevation on my GPS drifted up during the ride, which gave me a "free" 60m or so. But I take the view that whatever RWGPS tells me is true, so I'm taking it. The total ride was over 1100m anyway, however you measure it.

 

[ColinJ]

Well done!

In your route description in the sister ('sibling'? ) thread I read the name of the penultimate climb as B*st*rd Hill!

I am starting to have very cold feet (literally!) about inserting my new 32 km lumpy loop into an even lumpier metric century at this time of year. I think I might wimp out, put my overshoes on, and take the flat A646 10 km to and from the loop!

 

[Dogtrousers]

In your route description in the sister ('sibling'? ) thread I read the name of the penultimate climb as B*st*rd Hill!

You're definitely not the first to make that comparison!

Brasted Hill was the site of the National Hill Climb Championship in 1931. Some great old footage here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkLL9Q_v5Y


Oddly enough, although I've seen videos and read articles that rate it as the hardest in the area, there are several hills nearby that I find harder. This may be because I don't race up them.

 

[ColinJ]

Yes, a great clip.

How did they race wearing those heavy outfits!