The Annual Lunacy Climbing Challenge Chatzone

[Ajax Bay]

Here's a 38km ride in the soft south, especially for you hard northerners and Kentish folk:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34792327?beta=false
And here's similar (<36km) on the North Devon coast:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/34792441?beta=false

 

[Sea of vapours]

Here's 31.7km with 1003m of ascent. GPX and KML attached.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Here you go. Not the shortest but probably the simplest. From Alston to the Great Dun radar station.

 

[Sea of vapours]

That fails on the tricky element of the challenge though: the bit about finishing at the same place it starts !

 

[Ming the Merciless]

That fails on the tricky element of the challenge though: the bit about finishing at the same place it starts !

Ah but a great ride to do nevertheless

 

[ColinJ]

Here you go. Not the shortest but probably the simplest. From Alston to the Great Dun radar station.

View attachment 561774

It does break the rules, but I have it on my list of climbs to do before I die/get too old and knackered to cope!

I just took a quick look at my old 'Trauma of Trawden' loop from Hebden Bridge. Memory Map makes it 1,250 m but it usually exaggerates so I'll call it 1,100 m. That is 45 km though. I'll look for something more compact round here...

 

[steverob]

If you prefer imperial units, you could choose 3,000', 3,250', 3,500' or a more accurate equivalent - 3,281'.

As a person who does prefer imperial units (when cycling anyway), I normally go with 3,300 feet as my rough equivalent to 1,000 metres. As it's multiply by three, then add 10%, it's not too hard for me to convert on the fly when I'm out with my semi-regular ride buddy who prefers metric measurements.

I think I could come up with a fairly short route to 1,000 metres in the Chilterns by going up one climb, going along the top of the ridge a bit, coming down the next, along the valley road, up the next climb etc. Trouble is, it's about 10 flat-ish miles for me to reach that first climb (and the same again to come home from the bottom of the last hill), so if I started the loop from home, that would take the climbing per km ratio down massively for me.

 

[I like Skol]

1000m or 3000+ft sounds like a typical ride around here for a mere 30 mile ride. The trickiest bit is not crossing your path as linking up the climbs without using some of the same [limited] valley floor routes is difficult. We typically hit 100ft/mile of climbing on our regular rides here, @nickyboy is far more focused on the climbing than I ever am so may be more interested?

 

[Sharky]

But remember you can only use half the climbs, as you can't use the same road twice.

My route from Longfield. First climb after 2 minutes, up Rabbits Lane, then thru Horton kirby to Eynsford, where left at the memorial and up the climb CC Bexley use for their annual H/C. After lots of climbing, descend to the Pilgrims Way and left. A bit more climbing to reach Terry's Lodge climb and up to West Kingsdown and back to Longfield. No road used twice.

If I have time tomorrow, planning a slight deviation to give me a few more feet of climbing.

As the crow flies, I don't think I was ever more than 10 miles from home.

 

[Milkfloat]

I would love to join in but I live at the end of a ‘Close’ so have to use the same road to get in and out.
Living where I do, I think I would need a minimum of about 40 miles to get to 1000m. I might get the route planner out and look for the lesser climbs and try to stitch them together And bring it below 40 miles.

 

[ColinJ]

The trickiest bit is not crossing your path as linking up the climbs without using some of the same [limited] valley floor routes is difficult.

Hmm, I hadn't considered crossroads...

Executive decision - you CAN cross a road that you ride elsewhere in your route but you must not ride along the same part of any of it in either direction.

I would love to join in but I live at the end of a ‘Close’ so have to use the same road to get in and out.

You don't have to start from home. Start and finish at the same point, but that can be anywhere.

As a person who does prefer imperial units (when cycling anyway), I normally go with 3,300 feet as my rough equivalent to 1,000 metres. As it's multiply by three, then add 10%, it's not too hard for me to convert on the fly when I'm out with my semi-regular ride buddy who prefers metric measurements.

That's a good suggestion - I'll make that the official imperial distance!

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, and public roads only. I found myself looking at bridleways to help me out but that was not what I had in mind.

 

[nickyboy]

The two best places to do this around here are Chapel en le Frith and Slaithwaite as they both have a lot of steep hills crammed in and plenty of lanes connecting them. I suspect it wouldn't be difficult to get 3500ft at 150ft/mile as a loop which would be about 23 miles. I will take a look when I have some time. Not saying I'm gonna ride it though

 

[ColinJ]

I just devised a loop on the hills between Mytholmroyd, Sowerby Bridge, Luddenden Foot, Halifax and Wainstalls.

It is 29.5 km (18.3 miles) and Memory Map claims that it has 1,037 m of ascent but I think it would come out at 900-1,000 m in real life. I'll ride it in the spring and see what my GPS clocks it at. I will probably have to add another couple of km in somewhere to bring it up to the 1,000.

I have ridden nearly all of the climbs and most of them are tough. There are a couple that I have never done before though so it will be interesting to check them out.

 

[Ajax Bay]

probably the simplest. From Alston to the Great Dun radar station.

Simple all right.