Your greatest hill climbing feat......

[Kirstie]

Oh, that's Fleet Moss by another name isn't it? I think that side is marginally easier than coming from Hawes, but yes, it's tough. I saw some riders tackle it on hand-cranked recumbents once - wow!

Is that what it's called? I wondered whether it had a name. Not being from those parts I have no idea about these things. Just plotted it in tracklogs and off we went! I certainly wouldn't fancy it the other way round as it's much steeper in parts. Some bloke was running up it the other way when we were descending. I managed to hit 50mph.

I have done an epic MTB ride around Todmorden and Hebden Bridge (it was in about 2002) and your descriptions sound familiar. Got caught on the top of Staups Moor in a thunderstorm and had to hide in a hollow while it passed.

 

[ArDee]

Not done any of the long European climbs but a few years ago went up this with a friend from Sheffield

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2361105

Seemed quite steep enough for me at the time, sure we had to rope the bikes together and drive pitons into the road surface for safety

Also Brass Knocker in Bath after 48 miles of the Salisbury century

URL for this route is: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2361122

 

[ColinJ]

[Fleet Moss] I certainly wouldn't fancy it the other way round as it's much steeper in parts. Some bloke was running up it the other way when we were descending. I managed to hit 50mph.

I had a very near-miss doing that on The Other Fleet Moss Randonee in 2006! For those of you who don't know it, the descent towards Hawes has a section at about 18%-20%, but then the gradient abruptly stiffens to 25%. I got up to warp speed on the first part of the descent and then, to my horror, the road suddenly fell away beneath my wheels. I got 'big air' and that ain't what you wanna do at 40+ mph on skinny racing wheels . Talk about fear in the pit of the stomach... The bike bounced when I reestablished contact with the road and I very nearly dropped it. I know of people who have done just that - not nice .

 

[ColinJ]

Flipping Heck - talk about 'small world'! I just did a search for a picture of Fleet Moss and look who I found!!! (roughly 12th picture). What's weirder, it wasn't of me on Fleet Moss, that photograph was taken in Spain!

There's a picture of Fleet Moss from the Hawes side on this blog.

 

[marinyork]

I remember that I did ColinJs hills in 2006...and tore a quadricep, which hurt.

At the weeked I did Oughtershaw bank from Kettlewell on a tourer which got me a bit hot under the collar too...

Fantastic place Kettlewell (hope you enjoyed it if you hadn't been before). Sadly it's totally out of my distance range to be able to do that from here. I do know some of ColinJ's hills slightly as I knew someone that lived in Hebden Bridge for a while. Not cycled them.

 

[Kirstie]

Fantastic place Kettlewell (hope you enjoyed it if you hadn't been before). Sadly it's totally out of my distance range to be able to do that from here.

Yes I did thanks and I'd not been before. It was a great village in a stunning location. All the pubs sold really good beer too.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Fleet Moss is hard but fairly short at least. Shorter and even harder is Park Rash further along the valley (on the other side from Hawes) - 1/3 in parts... that made me wonder who the flipping heck decided to put a road up there, and was it just so they could hide in the hedges and laugh at cyclists...

There is a pretty nasty one out of Strontian in Ardnamurchan in Scotland, which turns into a forestry track on the other side... did that on a loaded hybrid when I wasn't such a serious cyclist and that was evil.

 

[Kirstie]

Fleet Moss is hard but fairly short at least. Shorter and even harder is Park Rash further along the valley (on the other side from Hawes) - 1/3 in parts... that made me wonder who the flipping heck decided to put a road up there, and was it just so they could hide in the hedges and laugh at cyclists...

Yes thought about going up there afterwards but decided against it. My theory is that roads in england and wales go straight up the front of hills rather than establish civilised gradients because whoever built them wanted to save money on tarmac. Either that or there was a tarmac shortage.

 

[ColinJ]

Ah, Park Rash...

When I heard about it, I worked out a day's ride from Hebden Bridge just to take it on! That was a hard day out on the bike - 200 km distance and about 3,500 m of climbing.

PS Here's a map/profile of Fleet Moss - it's a big hill!

 

[simon_adams_uk]

My toughest day by quite a margin was getting over the Tanglang La on the Manali-Leh highway (reputedly 17582 ft / 5359m) fully loaded with a BOB trailer in the snow and sleet. It was the closest I've ever to come to completely cracking!

S

 

[ColinJ]

My toughest day by quite a margin was getting over the Tanglang La on the Manali-Leh highway (reputedly 17582 ft / 5359m) fully loaded with a BOB trailer in the snow and sleet. It was the closest I've ever to come to completely cracking!

S

Makes Fleet Moss and Park Rash in late summer seem a bit tame !

 

[simon_adams_uk]

It's quite a hill... effectively starting the day in bottom gear and knowing that you'll not be changing up for the next 5 hours or so proved to be quite a motivational / psychological challenge!

S

 

[User482]

My toughest day by quite a margin was getting over the Tanglang La on the Manali-Leh highway (reputedly 17582 ft / 5359m) fully loaded with a BOB trailer in the snow and sleet. It was the closest I've ever to come to completely cracking!

S

Chapeau! I trekked up to about 5,500m in the Nepali Himalaya, and every step over 4,500m was a real struggle. Appparently air at that height only contains 50% of the oxygen compared to sea level.

 

[WindyRob]

not sure it counts as a hill climbing feat but today i went for a ride, the first 6 miles of which are generally up hill. Even the gentle climb in the first mile and half had me panting and my legs burning, i thought it was just because i was cold. Then the next 2 mile up hill stretch was all done in a gear 2 lower than i'd normally find myself using on this hill. on the 3rd hill which is about a mile long and fairly steep had me straight in to my lowest gear (34x25!). As i rode up the hill very slowly i started to think that maybe I'd had a heart attack recently and i was then worrying about every pain in my chest! As i crested the hill i pulled over to admire the view and to catch my breath. As i pulled away a leaf got caught between the wheel and brake so i stopped to pull it out. I picked up the rear of the bike to spin the wheel and it wouldn't the brake was stuck on!!!

Resistance training like this should set me up well for a trip to Ventoux...I don't think so!

Windy

 

[Harrier]

And yet the winning time was just over 20 minutes wasn't it? 5 miles or so up a (nearly) 1,000 ft climb into a stinking headwind and manage to average about 15 or 16 mph - flipping heck!

Hi - the winning time for Cragg Vale was 19.36 by Matt Clinton who also went on to win the National Hill Climb Championship in Matlock yesterday.