The hardest hill climbs in the UK!??

chrisw12

Although very interesting, I kind of agree with a few others in that every climb is 'easy' if you have low enough gears and are willing to go up it slow enough.

The power you use to get up a climb is the key factor to how hard it is and since by choosing gearing and speed, no one hill is harder than any other hill.

For example, take a climb of say 5 miles at 16% gradient and I pick the gearing and speed so I ride it at 200w

Now take an easy climb done in the middle of a road race say 2 miles at 10% and I ride it at say 350w. Which was the hardest climb?

So is any climb harder than a full out flat 25 mile time trial?

LeighB

Although very interesting, I kind of agree with a few others in that every climb is 'easy' if you have low enough gears and are willing to go up it slow enough.

LeighB

If this is the case why do so many people with mountain bike gears end up having to walk in a state of near exhaustion on some of the climbs during events I have ridden?

On a 25 mile time trial you have the option of easing the pace but when you are on a 30% section of a climb if you ease up you fall off.

Anonymous

LeighB wrote:

If this is the case why do so many people with mountain bike gears end up having to walk in a state of near exhaustion on some of the climbs during events I have ridden?

On a 25 mile time trial you have the option of easing the pace but when you are on a 30% section of a climb if you ease up you fall off.

Completely agree...Ive seen guys die on Hardknott on the FWC with MTB rigs etc...I use a 30 x 27 on the steepest of climbs and Im pedalling square even with that...and im also pushing harder in that tiny gear than I ever have to push on normal climbs or flat with bigger gears?

roger_merriman

yup at a point steep hills can be so steep that slowing means reducing below the point you can balance, what steepness hill and how good one is at balance.

which will be personal to you, though 30% plus hills are likely to get most if not all people at least on road bikes,

malcolmfrost

To balance things out a bit, some from the South Downs,
Hill Lane from E Harting to the B2141
B2146 from S harting to Uppark
Harvesting Lane from S of East Meon.
Singleton to Goodwood Racecourse
Bury Hill near Arundel.
Not particularly long but pretty steep.

maddog 2

+1 for Hardknott, as done on the FWC

Ridden it both times and its a mental and technical marvel

DaveMoss

"Hardest" in respect of being physically hard just to keep going has to be Hardknott.
"Best" climb, which is really a combination of climb and descent, i reckon must be Bealach Na Ba. in fact, i would rate the Bealach up with the alpine climbs for shear delight.

amaferanga

I reckon Wrynose from the east is harder than Hardknott either way.

rkdj

without question Glen Quaich in Perthshire - from either end. many fail and push up the worst of it

Sheptastic

Mossrider wrote:

Winnats. Holme Moss is a toughie but in my view not a killer. Ewden Beck on Strines is a complete ....... especially after a long ride (The Strines road generally can be a bit nasty, particularly if you end it by going straight over and climbing to Penistone).

That nasty hill climb the Matlock CC use up to Riber.

Coal road in the Yorkshire Dales is a swine, but my views are possibly clouded by the fact that I only ever hit it with lots of miles under my belt already.

That road where the tram runs in Llandudno up to Great Ormes Head looks nasty: any one done it?

I ran up it once. It was ridiculous. I wouldnt even bother attempting the ride. Did have a picture but lost in the depths of my facebook

Anonymous

rkdj wrote:

without question Glen Quaich in Perthshire - from either end. many fail and push up the worst of it

I'm actually doing a wee project on this very subject....and its surprising the results....Glen Quaichs definately a tough brute either direction....but its not in the same league of many others....

I agree with Dave....Bealach Na Ba's a mythical climb....not the toughest but wonderful.

ledburyloafer

RICHYBOYcp wrote:

rkdj wrote:

without question Glen Quaich in Perthshire - from either end. many fail and push up the worst of it

I'm actually doing a wee project on this very subject....and its surprising the results....Glen Quaichs definately a tough brute either direction....but its not in the same league of many others....

I agree with Dave....Bealach Na Ba's a mythical climb....not the toughest but wonderful.

Great doing them on consecutive days :shock: , done it going up thru the forest from the loch the day after the Bealach Mor last Sept, was scary coming off it, be even harder work climbing it to get you back to the loch i imagine?

robdaykin

For me, the NY moors are littered with killer climbs. Rosedale Chimney is terrifying enough in a car when it is grinding up in first, never mind on a bike.

The climb I am most fond of though, is the great leveller of Bickley Gate round the back of Dalby. It only got a cat 3 for the tour of Britain last year, but part way up it kicks viciously for all of about 10 yards. I lost count of the number of riders who got to the kick, and then you saw them slowly disappear sideways followed by their wheels whipping over the top. I reckon about 1 in 5 fell, and 3 in 5 got off. About 1 in 20 of those who made it could actually speak when they got to the top, and only 1 guy did it more than once successfully. Till the peleton came through, and some of those guys were wobbly. Wiggo looked like he wanted to hang on to the team car he was riding next to, and Miller was hurting just in front of him. Even some of the peleton were zigzagging.

lloyd_bower

Agree the NY Moors is littered with killer climbs the roads seem to go over the tops rather than stay in the valley. Off the top of my head, I'd say these are the ones I recall

- Hardknott
- Honnister from Borrowdale
- The Struggle
- Winnats Pass, certainly when mid way in the Phil & Friends ride
- Buttertubs pass, Yorkshire Dales (there's a few passes over the same hill range equally as tough-)
- Curbar Gap from Calver
Also added the two below but both done on the mtn bike so didn't feel too bad
- Dun Hill
- Bealach na Ba
and not too steep but so often a killer with the wind
- Holme Moss

LeighB

Had a ride up Great Dunfell this morning, its been on my to do list for a while now. Went from Kendal (home) via Orton & Appleby so I had about a 30 mile ride to the start of the climb and I think I may have had a slight tail wind (felt like a head wind on the way home). It is certainly a good hill and I would rate it somewhere in-between Kirkstone from Ullswater and Hardknott from Cockley Beck. There were non of the super steep bits of Hardknott just constant height gain that keeps on going for quite a while. I was bit disappointed at the top as it was covered in cloud so I did not get a look at the surrounding countryside. Luckily I took a small rain jacket in my pocket as it was quite cold at the top and I would have been frozen coming back down without it.

bexley5200

porlock hill just outside minehead devon,cars strugle up there

Monty Dog

Hardknott is the toughest I've encountered in the UK but a favourite from the other end of the country is in Talland Hill in Polperro, Cornwall. Technically, the road is closed to uphill traffic as it is very narrow at the bottom. But the gradient is unrelenting, easily in excess of 25% for about a kilometre. On my regular visits to the area, I have a 50km loop which includes a descent down to Bodinnick on the Fowey River, back up and then take the road to Polruan via Pont which ascends the side of the river valley, and drop into Polruan - turn around and ride back up the hill - up to Llansallos at the top of Lantic bay and drop down into Polperro - up Talland Hill, over the top and drop down into Talland Bay, pass the beach and then head over to Portlooe, East Looe and into Looe. Head north from Looe towards Duloe and then down into Churchbridge and up the other side back towards the start. There are plenty of other equally-steep lanes in the area too!

JAGGY

+1 for Rosedale Chimney.

Real Lung buster in one of the most beautiful areas of England.

Cheers

DaveMoss

Monty Dog wrote:

Hardknott is the toughest I've encountered in the UK but a favourite from the other end of the country is in Talland Hill in Polperro, Cornwall. !

Other end of the country :?: :!: :? . I grant you Cornwall is one end of the country, but if you head north to Hardknott,you've not even reached the middle of Britain. And your still over 200 miles from Berwick, the "other end" of England. :P

ugo.santalucia

I question the utility of a road with 25-30% gradients... what was the point of building it in frist place? Nowadays with a 4X4 you can go up in pretty much all weather conditions, but when it was built, was it of any use to anyone?

It's just bad engineering, really. A few more bends would have been better.

Extreme gradients make a climb impossible, but not necessarily the one that sorts the good climbers from the average climbers.
I've followed the Giro d'Italia for years and the Zoncolan, with its ramps at 20-25% rarely causes shake-ups in the GC as huge as a 7 miler at 8-10%. It is a struggle to go up for everyone and nobody can really accelerate and make the difference. Contador said the same about the spanish Angliru (which I have never seen)... good fun for fans to watch, but pretty useless for the race itself.

The message is: you can build a road as steep as you like, but there is a limit to what makes sense to cycle and what doesn't. If you climb up at 3 mph, you might as well walk...

So yes, Hardknott and Wrynose are the big guys but are they the ones that show one's climbing ability? I don't think so...

little upstart

Of course these test your climbing, if you can get up them on a standard chainset, then your a ok climber.Something like Cragg Vale, very long but not very steep, is all big ring stuff.A good tt,would kick a hillclimber arse up that. You tell me what would be a real test of ones climbing ability in the uk.

ugo.santalucia

little upstart wrote:

Of course these test your climbing, if you can get up them on a standard chainset, then your a ok climber.Something like Cragg Vale, very long but not very steep, is all big ring stuff.A good tt,would kick a hillclimber ars* up that. You tell me what would be a real test of ones climbing ability in the uk.

Holme Moss is a good test, the Snake Pass, plenty of climbs with 7-8% gradients... but even steeper ones... Mam Tor from Edale has 18% sections and probably averages 10%... what I am questioning is the value of the extreme ones, the brutes, the 30%ers... which have little to do with climbing. That's not climbing, that's surviving on a bike.

I can give you an example: I did a few cobbled climbs in the Flanders, I generally can drag myself up most, but not the Koppenberg, the reason is the 22% gradient in combination with cobbles makes it impossible for me. I need to learn the technique to climb such a wall. Tom Boonen is a master in this technique... would you say Tom Boonen is a good climber? Probably not, but up the Koppenberg he can drop most good climbers...

Monty Dog

DaveMoss wrote:

Monty Dog wrote:

Hardknott is the toughest I've encountered in the UK but a favourite from the other end of the country is in Talland Hill in Polperro, Cornwall. !

Other end of the country :?: :!: :? . I grant you Cornwall is one end of the country, but if you head north to Hardknott,you've not even reached the middle of Britain. And your still over 200 miles from Berwick, the "other end" of England. :P

Aha - but given that I spent most of the first 21 years of my life North of the border, and my formative cycling years in Scotland I don't need to be familiarised with the geography of this country

Monty Dog

Quote: I question the utility of a road with 25-30% gradients... what was the point of building it in frist place? Nowadays with a 4X4 you can go up in pretty much all weather conditions, but when it was built, was it of any use to anyone?

Well no, not really - when the geography pretty well dictates it's a 30% climb out of the town in any direction and it was far more expedient to move things around by boat - why not build a road straight up the hill? It worked for the Romans!

maddog 2

ugo.santalucia wrote:

So yes, Hardknott and Wrynose are the big guys but are they the ones that show one's climbing ability? I don't think so...

I do. But it depends what you mean exactly by 'climbing ability'. Sure these climbs aren't Alp d'Huez but they are a challenge and Hardknott is a real test, and a technical climb, which is rare in a road climb. Ride it and see what you think then 8)

ugo.santalucia

maddog 2 wrote:

ugo.santalucia wrote:

So yes, Hardknott and Wrynose are the big guys but are they the ones that show one's climbing ability? I don't think so...

I do. But it depends what you mean exactly by 'climbing ability'. Sure these climbs aren't Alp d'Huez but they are a challenge and Hardknott is a real test, and a technical climb, which is rare in a road climb. Ride it and see what you think then 8)

Surely a challenge, surely unusual, surely it requires a technique which you don't need on other climbs... that's why I compare it to the Koppenberg, which is obviously a lot shorter, slightly less steep, but cobbled. On these climbs technique prevails over numbers: in other words your average climbing speed, power/weight ratio are meaningless because what matters is to be able to keep the wheels on the road.
That's why I say it's not on these climbs that you see the good climber. I am not alone in saying this, as I pointed out Alberto Contador thinks the same about Angliru and similar climbs and he must know a thing or two about climbing...

onthefells

If we deal in pure fact rather than 'experience' Bealach na Ba, which I have never ridden up so have no axe to grind, has the most ascent of any road in Britain as it starts at sea level and reaches 2050ft. So it certainly wins the title in one category, although the climb is spread over 5 miles so it doesn't necessarily make it the toughest.

The highest point of any road in the UK (public one anyway) is the Cairnwell Pass which peaks at 2200ft near the Glenshee ski centre. This is a tough climb, I've done it but I'd guess nowhere near the hardest in the UK, even though it does go on for over 4 miles. However for those nutters out there there is a part of the old road that is still cycleable called Devils Elbow that has a double hairpin bend thats 33%, we never tried it as we were doing LEJOG at the time.

The hardest climb we did on LEJOG was over the Lecht Pass which peaks at 2090ft. However nearer the bottom it had a monstrous section that must have lasted 3/4 mile at 20%, as we started it I glanced up to my right and saw some tarmac that looked to be directly above me and thought 'oh no'!!

Finally looking at the maps what appears to be the hilliest road in the UK is the Drumbeg road in Assynt in the Highland. 25 miles round a headland and its got 10 arrows on it on my map!! has anyone done it?

nasahapley

ugo.santalucia wrote:

I question the utility of a road with 25-30% gradients... what was the point of building it in frist place? Nowadays with a 4X4 you can go up in pretty much all weather conditions, but when it was built, was it of any use to anyone?

Oh come off it, I've been up loads of these supposedly useless 25-30% roads in the wet in a fully-laden 1 litre Nissan Micra without incident; a 4x4 is as necessary to tackle them as it is to do the weekly shop!

I'm not really sure what Alberto Contador has to say makes any odds either; he's a professional cycle racer who plies his trade on the continent where they mainly race up relatively shallow, long hills. Most people on this forum are amateurs who ride predominately in Britain for whom a 'tough climb' means something shorter but much steeper, out of necessity 'cause that's all we've got. So AC might reckon that something like the Angliru doesn't make for good racing, but how that translates into something like Hardknott/Wrynose/whatever not testing one's climbing ability I don't understand, despite your previous posts!

alecstilleyedye

pym chair is the hardest single climb i've ridden up; so steep that 30x25 is not enough and the front wheel tends to 'wheelie' if you pull hard on the bars.

http://www.geograph.org.uk/gridref/SJ9976

other local (to me) nasties include mow cop, castle naze, eccles pike and the short, cobbled, to-be-avoided, beaston brow, bollington.