Box Hill

jibberjim

MatHammond wrote:

freehub wrote:

I want to do this hill, I wanna do it in 5 mins.

I want to do it in 4 minutes. Any advance on that? 8)

I'd be happy with 5:34 personally...

paul64

In hob nail boots and a duffle coat Jim? I like all this anti-posting. I'm going to spray the Viner with mud to annoy the Sunday parade

freehub

MatHammond wrote:

freehub wrote:

I want to do this hill, I wanna do it in 5 mins.

I want to do it in 4 minutes. Any advance on that? 8)

No but I'll match it.

bigmat

freehub wrote:

MatHammond wrote:

freehub wrote:

I want to do this hill, I wanna do it in 5 mins.

I want to do it in 4 minutes. Any advance on that? 8)

No but I'll match it.

I'll be happy to just watch that, seriously I'd love to beat 6 minutes, had the form earlier this year but no time to get to Box Hill, training has gone out the window lately but I've got a trip to the Alps and a hilly sportive next month so might have a crack late July.

scrumpydave

Brilliant! I love all this chat. A mate of mine came to visit from Surrey last weekend and we took a ride out to Rosedale Chimney.

Afterwards he said to me "Box Hill will feel so easy after this!"

freehub

scrumpydave wrote:

Brilliant! I love all this chat. A mate of mine came to visit from Surrey last weekend and we took a ride out to Rosedale Chimney.

Afterwards he said to me "Box Hill will feel so easy after this!"

But it won't, you'd go faster, much faster up box hill.

shockedsoshocked

scrumpydave wrote:

Brilliant! I love all this chat. A mate of mine came to visit from Surrey last weekend and we took a ride out to Rosedale Chimney.

Afterwards he said to me "Box Hill will feel so easy after this!"

Nice! What route did you do? You could have stuck him up some big hills out that way.

bigmat

freehub wrote:

scrumpydave wrote:

Brilliant! I love all this chat. A mate of mine came to visit from Surrey last weekend and we took a ride out to Rosedale Chimney.

Afterwards he said to me "Box Hill will feel so easy after this!"

But it won't, you'd go faster, much faster up box hill.

Exactly! Box Hill is easy if you pootle up there, if you go full bore from the bottom its a killer. It should never get easier, you just get faster...

freehub

Yeah, and Rosedale chimney is easy if you get off and crawl up it. Or go up it track standing.

bigmat

freehub wrote:

Yeah, and Rosedale chimney is easy if you get off and crawl up it. Or go up it track standing.

Its on my "to do" list, as is Hardknott (to do properly - had to get off and walk on my last attempt :oops: )

paul64

sampurnell wrote:

Also Paul - congratulations on improving your best by 2 minutes. thats a huge improvement on any hill.
i am no whippet and will only try and race box hill if i see one of these posers you describe.

but then my competitive side wont let me quit :twisted:

Sam, kind words. I reduced my PB up there from 10:40 to 10:15 tonight after riding 2 hrs last night and starting to see fitness that lets me ride consecutive days and more hours. The weight drop to 97kg must help, looking forward to getting under 10m.

I also managed Crocknorth Road for the first time, just Whitedown to go in that area.

jibberjim

paul64 wrote:

Sam, kind words. I reduced my PB up there from 10:40 to 10:15 tonight after riding 2 hrs last night and starting to see fitness that lets me ride consecutive days and more hours. The weight drop to 97kg must help, looking forward to getting under 10m.

I'm sure the weight loss helps, I tried to set a PB up there today, but being 3kg heavier despite the same watts I was 10 seconds slower because of it

paul64

I think I saw you at 6m or less on the Challenge thread Jim. I expect I would remember it for a long time if you or one of the other fast boys passed me, you sink into the saddle when someone shoots by. I see that on the Tourmalet yesterday the 14m or so at twice the gradient of Box Hill was demolished at a pace of about 19mph. Bl**dy whippets!

The improvements in my case Jim will also be because I only rode form about 92 to 99 then parenting and work cut in and I have only cycled regularly from July 09. I am finding the steep gains of the past few weeks fascinating (and motivational)

jibberjim

paul64 wrote:

I think I saw you at 6m or less on the Challenge thread Jim. I expect I would remember it for a long time if you or one of the other fast boys passed me, you sink into the saddle when someone shoots by.

We all have people pass us - well I guess there's someone who doesn't, but they're a bit busy in france this time of year. Just if you're faster, there's more chance that they're not on the climb at the same time as you.

paul64 wrote:

The improvements in my case Jim will also be because I only rode form about 92 to 99 then parenting and work cut in and I have only cycled regularly from July 09. I am finding the steep gains of the past few weeks fascinating (and motivational)

2 1/2 years of cycling now for me, broke 8 minutes just at the end of 2008, 7 minutes in summer of 2009, and 6 minutes in april. All due to weight loss and training, and yes watching the times come down are a great motivation!

sampras38

mask of sanity wrote:

Will.C wrote:

Sounds like you came the wrong way mate or I'm a pansy boy. Did you do the whole of abinger road? I started from the ockley straight, up into leith hill through cold harbour then to abinger, fairly long, its like a 16/17 grade then flattens out for a bit then steep then flat etc.

That did actually cross my mind. My Garmin called the road the Zigzag, or something like that. Abinger road doesn't sound familiar.

I occasionally ride around Box Hill when I'm training for a particualrly hilly Sportive and I always start at the bikers carpark at the foot of Zig Zag and use Zig Zag as a warm up. My usual route is 60 miles and includes most of the steeper climbs such as ColdHarbour etc, and ZZ is nothing in it's own right.