Ditchling Beacon

Unknown

I have never ridden this myself but was talking to a mate who's doing London to Brighton at the weekend and was wondering what category climb Ditchling Beacon was categorised as in 1994 when the TdeF went up it. Anybody know?

Unknown

Seem to remember it was 3rd cat............too many beers have been consumed in the intervening years to be sure my memory is not playing up tho'!

I watched the 94 Tour on the stage to Portsmouth...........found a nice long climb near Petersfield............also a 3rd cat climb if I remember right.............and was amazed at how they scooted up it without breaking sweat.

'Twas my first time at a big pro race..........and I was in blissful ignorance of the ills of doping.......happy days!


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http://www.ccluton.com (It's a lifestyle!!)

Mr Bumble

I used to cycle over it daily on my commute to Plumpton College. Cat 3 sounds about right. It is only tough in two very small sections- so you can try sprinting up it[;)]

Unknown

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">I watched the 94 Tour on the stage to Portsmouth...........found a nice long climb near Petersfield............also a 3rd cat climb if I remember right.............and was amazed at how they scooted up it without breaking sweat. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Is that South Harting or somewhere else? I do the Harting climbs regularly (the short slog to Uppark and the longer grind on the road to Chichester going the other way - there's also a 'hidden' third climb that's even harder) but always interested to find new climbs round there. Think the Tour did the Uppark climb in '94, not sure though.

And I bl**dy well break a sweat going up them... [xx(]

Unknown

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
Is that South Harting?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

That's the fella.

Got a bit tipsy on San Miguel (in honour of The Indurain of course) waiting for the race to arrive...........seem to remember falling in the ditch on the ride home...........hmmmmm, impetuous youth.

mangaman

Remember an interview at the start with a British journo with Indurain before that tour
They asked him which hill he feared most in the tour that year and he said the Col du Ditchling Beacon.

Top man that he was

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mandie

Ditchling was a cat 4 when the tour went up it in '94. The climb up to the Racecourse on Brighton was a Cat 3. The reason for the apparent discrepancy is that climbs closer to end of a stage get a higher ranking than they would otherwise.

We'll kick against the darkness 'till it bleeds daylight

monty_dogcp

I was on Ditchling for the World Cup in 1991 - they all rode it tempo in the big ring, so not exactly a tough climb - Erik van Lancker was the victor that day. I was also on South Harting in 1994 - again they didn't really appear to be working that hard and certainly doesn't really compare with many of the classic climbs in Europe - many of the climbs in the Ardennes for example are far tougher.