Hardest Surrey Hill

napoleond

Went to visit some friends last year, Barhatch road out of Cranleigh up past the golf club looked like a good one.

Plotted it here-

http://bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=344657

okgo

Yes, that seems to have about 10 different names. But that is the one I was wheelspinning up.

Its a tough hill, the fastest person up it on strava only avged 13 mph up it, that shows how horrid it is

airbusboy

Up the side of Ranmore Common from dorking.... i enjoy climbing but this always seems to wipe the smile off my face

Larsnronning

Hi there,

I saw the first post about putting together a short Surrey hills route giving 4,000 feet of climbing over 38 miles. I have got Ironman Lanzarote coming up in less than 2 months and I have not been able to get away to Mallorca or somewhere nice to get some climbing in, so I am looking for some good Surrey riding (I live in Langley near Slough).

Do any of you happen to have a GPX or TPX file showing that route by any chance..? That would be great! If I do it twice I should then get to 8,000 feet which is what I need...

Many thanks,
Lars

Monty Dog

We used to do a regular winter ride from home - round the Surrey Hills route and back from home was something like 200km with about 3000m of climbing - Box Hill was often the 'recovery' half way around and stop at the cafe at the top before the second half. Horseblock (Winterfold), Tanhurst Lane and Whitedown are the toughies whilst repeats up Leith from Coldharbour is great for simulating Alpine climbs. In terms of difficulty, it is akin to Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Have ridden it a few times on a fixed gear too which was a whole new word of pain. The place in the UK where I've managed to do a route that involved the most climbing/km was in East Cornwall, where you can just stack 25% after 25% if you choose your route carefully.

Headhuunter

racingcondor wrote:

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Starhill Road. It may not be as hard as some but it's a great ride.

Personally I hate Toys travelling North. South it's a lovely even ride at a good grade, North it just feels like hard work.

Yep Star Hill is an evil little b@stard! Sundridge Hill is a killer too...

Headhuunter

phreak wrote:

Headhuunter wrote:

Try Yorks Hill, although that may be in Kent. Box Hill is long but it's not particularly steep IMO. Yorks Hill os short and incredibly sharp...

Did Yorks Hill again last weekend and it seems quite tame. Not easy or anything, but it's probably akin to doing 1/10 of the Mortirolo so can't be classed as being a really tough climb. I mean there's tough and there's tough

Yeah Yorks Hill is pretty short, it's just got some very steep bits. If you stick it in the small ring and spin it's probably not that bad but I always seem to end up doing it on the way back from a long club ride and everyone's intent on getting up in less than 3 minutes...

liversedge

Monty Dog wrote:

We used to do a regular winter ride from home - round the Surrey Hills route and back from home was something like 200km with about 3000m of climbing - Box Hill was often the 'recovery' half way around and stop at the cafe at the top before the second half. Horseblock (Winterfold), Tanhurst Lane and Whitedown are the toughies whilst repeats up Leith from Coldharbour is great for simulating Alpine climbs. In terms of difficulty, it is akin to Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Have ridden it a few times on a fixed gear too which was a whole new word of pain. The place in the UK where I've managed to do a route that involved the most climbing/km was in East Cornwall, where you can just stack 25% after 25% if you choose your route carefully.

Sounds like the AUDAX ride "Surrey Tour of the Hills", with a trip there and back.

Thats a great day of climbing, Tanhurst and Coldharbour from Dorking are my low points for that ride.

Monty Dog

liversedge wrote:

Sounds like the AUDAX ride "Surrey Tour of the Hills", with a trip there and back.

Thats a great day of climbing, Tanhurst and Coldharbour from Dorking are my low points for that ride.

Yep, BITD when 'UK sportives' were non-existant and ToSH was a challenge - we'd stick in a few more in coming over via Hurtmore, Charterhouse, Hascombe and Farley Green on the way there and back. I don't tend to ride the Surrey Hills too often these days - e.g. watching someone going over a car bonnet at the bottom of Coombe Lane because they'd over-cooked the corner. Ridden it a couple of times on fixed-gear for a 'special' experience.

Nap D - Barhatch Lane also known at Winterfold Hill and Horseblock Hollow.

t5nel

Monty Dog wrote:

We used to do a regular winter ride from home - round the Surrey Hills route and back from home was something like 200km with about 3000m of climbing - Box Hill was often the 'recovery' half way around and stop at the cafe at the top before the second half. Horseblock (Winterfold), Tanhurst Lane and Whitedown are the toughies whilst repeats up Leith from Coldharbour is great for simulating Alpine climbs. In terms of difficulty, it is akin to Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Have ridden it a few times on a fixed gear too which was a whole new word of pain. The place in the UK where I've managed to do a route that involved the most climbing/km was in East Cornwall, where you can just stack 25% after 25% if you choose your route carefully.

Dont suppose anyone has a route of this to save me wasting an evening on google maps???

liversedge

t5nel wrote:

Dont suppose anyone has a route of this to save me wasting an evening on google maps???

There's a route sheet on the link I posted above.

t5nel

liversedge wrote:

t5nel wrote:

Dont suppose anyone has a route of this to save me wasting an evening on google maps???

There's a route sheet on the link I posted above.

Many thanks

MSByrne

Another hill that hasn't been mentioned; Hindhead from Tilford road is possibly the longest hill in Surrey (it's also the highest road I think). It isn't too steep but it goes on a bit.

Gabbo

I'm also looking for some of the toughest hills around Surrey.

I find the steeper hills (staple lane) are very short and the longer hills (zig zag road) are in the milder ranges in terms of the gradient.

I wonder if Caterham way will offer more of a challenge..

me-109

Add in Reigate Hill up to the M25. Think it's about a mile at 1 in 10.

Eag1E

There are a quite a few tasty hills that way that go north up onto the downs.

Chalkpit Lane in Oxted (21%) and Whitehill Lane in Chaldon\Caterham (16%) are a couple i'd recommend.

Gabbo

According to Strava I've already done chalkpit lane, peaslake, randor road from peaslake.

Done them with an 11-23 cassette which wasn't ideal to be honest. Strange thing is, I can remember many climbs throughout this ride but I can't remember which one was which.

Over 55 miles I managed 1200m of climbing. You can decide whether that's a lot or not as I'm sure some of you guys have rode through the alps!

Gabbo

http://app.strava.com/segments/576

An elevation difference of 1539m over 20km. Just a shame it's not in Surrey :x

jibberjim

Gabbo wrote:

According to Strava I've already done chalkpit lane, peaslake, randor road from peaslake.

There's more than one chalkpit lane... have you done the one near Oxted? http://app.strava.com/segments/645908 rather than http://app.strava.com/segments/1362941 which is the one that comes up on more normal surrey rides and is completely different...

skinnyrider

Tried to add a bunch of hills missing from that google map.
Don't seem to add, even when I save and then done.

Any idea?



Chalkpits is pretty steep and short. So is white lane if you ride from limpsfield. Whitedowns isn't too bad. Yorks is steep but short, like chalkpits. Pebbelhill road is steep and if you ride into it will be hard. Anythind around four elms is nice, all shallower except yorks. The 6 hills route is good. Sundridge is pretty steep but at the beginning and real short, nothing to ride into so isn't too bad.

Strava segments explorer is great for scoping out new hills.

I find shallower gradients <12 more my thing, so the steeper roads are harder.

charliew87

Me-109 wrote:

Add in Reigate Hill up to the M25. Think it's about a mile at 1 in 10.

I'd second that. I skipped Box Hill one day as didn't fancy it and carried on to Reigate and completely forgot this hill was there. It's longer and steeper than Box Hill (I think.)

According to Strava 1.3m at 5.5%, 10% in places.

http://app.strava.com/segments/782171

okgo

Its shorter and not as steep as box. As you can see from the times. And the fact its shallower and shorter of course.

richa

skinnyrider wrote:

Tried to add a bunch of hills missing from that google map.
Don't seem to add, even when I save and then done.
Any idea?

A Google Maps issue. The number of pins is limited per page. All newly added pins are on he 2nd page. I had thought about having a clear out, deleting duplicates, etc but not got round to it yet.

We also discussed moving cafe stops to a separate map but consensus was to keep both together. Would welcome input.

barrybridges

I live in the vicinity and regularly ride most of the hills mentioned.

If you want a nice little meaty hill-fest then can I recommend...

Out to Edenbridge and up CROCKHAM HILL (quite long and energy sapping, with a v.v.v.steep section midway - enough for your wheels to slip when standing).

...over the A25 to WESTERHAM HILL or TITSEY HILL (both tough, but I don't like Westerham Hill for the blind bend going up where cars are coming up behind you at quite a pace).

...via Biggin Hill and down POLHILL to Sevenoaks...and out towards Hildenborough

...up IDE HILL

...back up POLHILL

and then home.

Of them all, I'd say Westerham Hill is the nastiest. Really really steep but not hugely long, but you'll be hurting at the top.

porker33

In between Westerham hill and Polhill,,,,there are quieter, steeper hills along the Pilgrims way that run parallel....

As a local, I would never ride Westerham or Polhill when these others exist.

Gabbo

Still exploring the hardest hills in Surrey, however easy they may be to some people on here. I would say the toughest I have encountered is whitedown lane, followed by Leith Hill, and then followed by tanhurst lane. Staple lane is steep in part but relatively short, and randor road (peaslake) is a little toughie but the nice scenery around is a good distraction. Box hill is probably the easiest of the cat 4 hills around.

Still need to do coombe bottom and horseblock and whatever else is out there!

dnwhite88

Barhatch lane in Cranleigh is pretty tough if you're over that way

okgo

That is the same as Horseblock I think

Wrath Rob

Barhatch or Winterfold for me. Winterfold lulls you into a false sense of security before getting frisky and then finally hitting you with a 21% ramp at the end.

mallorcajeff

For those calling box hill "long" need to come to mallorca for a week. Then you will see how "short" it is.