Birdlip Hill, Mental Block?
grant.smith
Posts: 42
Hey,
This evening I tried once again to ride a infamous hill in my area, Birdlip hill. My previous attempt was a disaster, I had only been cycling a couple of weeks and it was the first time I had ever wore cleats! You can imagine what happened! That was about a year ago now and tonight on a bit of a whim I thought I would have another go. It wasn't as bad as last time but I did fail to get up it again? To be honest I think I failed before I had even got on the bike, I was quite tired from yesterdays session, I have hayfever at present but still thought what the hell. I got half way up, and all the memories of not being able to get my feet out of cleats came flooding back, so I thought I would just pull my foot out and then clip back in just to reassure myself. As soon as my foot came out, it hit the pavement. I walked a bit feeling very disappointed with myself, and thought I would get back on, at this point I couldn't get going again as it was too steep, in fact I nearly got hit by a car because I nearly fell into the road trying to get going, lucky for me he was a careful driver and spotted me in plenty of time.
I'm pretty determined to concur this hill as I believe it will be great training for next years Wimbleball 70.3 which apparently has a 14% hill in it. I don't really know how that compares to Birdlip which has a sign saying it 1:6 at the top. I don't really understand how to compare the two?
The following link is to the motionbased route of Birdlip; http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6088836. I've posted this so people can compare the hill to Wimbleball which is here; http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invi ... ue=2355404 and maybe let me know which they feel is tougher? Then I can work out whether I'm wasting my time trying to get up Birdlip if Wimbleball is not any where near as hard. In any case I would still like to get up that route.
I do cycle hills very regularly and actually consider myself a pretty good hill climber, not fast, but strong and steady. I regularly climb 1,000 foot hills and in fact have done Birdlip, albeit via a not as steep route, however you do hit the same peak.
So finally on to my questions!
Is this just a mental block considering I've been up bigger, however maybe not as steep?
How would others approach conquering this hill?
Is the Wimbleball hill as steep as Birdlip?
That should do it for now! Thanks for your time if your reading this!
This evening I tried once again to ride a infamous hill in my area, Birdlip hill. My previous attempt was a disaster, I had only been cycling a couple of weeks and it was the first time I had ever wore cleats! You can imagine what happened! That was about a year ago now and tonight on a bit of a whim I thought I would have another go. It wasn't as bad as last time but I did fail to get up it again? To be honest I think I failed before I had even got on the bike, I was quite tired from yesterdays session, I have hayfever at present but still thought what the hell. I got half way up, and all the memories of not being able to get my feet out of cleats came flooding back, so I thought I would just pull my foot out and then clip back in just to reassure myself. As soon as my foot came out, it hit the pavement. I walked a bit feeling very disappointed with myself, and thought I would get back on, at this point I couldn't get going again as it was too steep, in fact I nearly got hit by a car because I nearly fell into the road trying to get going, lucky for me he was a careful driver and spotted me in plenty of time.
I'm pretty determined to concur this hill as I believe it will be great training for next years Wimbleball 70.3 which apparently has a 14% hill in it. I don't really know how that compares to Birdlip which has a sign saying it 1:6 at the top. I don't really understand how to compare the two?
The following link is to the motionbased route of Birdlip; http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/6088836. I've posted this so people can compare the hill to Wimbleball which is here; http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invi ... ue=2355404 and maybe let me know which they feel is tougher? Then I can work out whether I'm wasting my time trying to get up Birdlip if Wimbleball is not any where near as hard. In any case I would still like to get up that route.
I do cycle hills very regularly and actually consider myself a pretty good hill climber, not fast, but strong and steady. I regularly climb 1,000 foot hills and in fact have done Birdlip, albeit via a not as steep route, however you do hit the same peak.
So finally on to my questions!
Is this just a mental block considering I've been up bigger, however maybe not as steep?
How would others approach conquering this hill?
Is the Wimbleball hill as steep as Birdlip?
That should do it for now! Thanks for your time if your reading this!
0
Comments
-
I think you'll find 1 in 6 being about 17%
0 -
I'm not sure how tough Birdlip is but I have cycled the Wimbleball route and whilst it is hilly there are no bits that a fit cyclist would have to walk on. There are a few tough-ish hills on wimbleball but they are quite short, other than that they are long hills but not so steep.0
-
A 1:6 sign means it is steep. These tend to be an average over quite a big distance so in parts this could be very steep (I couldn't get the motionbased to work). It sounds like this is down to a bit of psychology. If you have a decent granny gear option on your bike, then you KNOW 1) that you can climb any hill, 2) you won't need to stop and 3) you won't have to unclip. Hey presto, you just go out and attack the climb knowing that even if you have to drop to a very low gear, you will get up the thing!0
-
Take the full stop off my link for it to work.0
-
Grant
try practicing on the prinknash abbey road(about 2 minutes away)its a bit easier and you can work on your technique there.that birdlip climb is a right pig!0 -
I live in gloucester, are you talking about the crickly hill route or the little lane that goes up through witcombe with the very steep finish? 0
