Southwest Tour ride Hills

shakey88

Hi guys and gals,i'm doing the tour ride sportive in the southwest next sunday and i'm looking for a bit of info on some of the hills,namely Lype hill,Brendon hill and Peak hill which looks an absolute beast!
Anyone have any experience of tackling these behemoths so i know what to expect?
Thanks,Rich

3Pears

Hey Shakey

Ridden the first two a few times, not sure how much it will help but here goes :roll:

Hope you're not like me and take a while to warm up cos pretty soon after the start you will have a climb upto the beautiful Dunster, a rolling section before entering a wooded section where the road kicks up (Lype Hill), more of a sit and grind drag than a steep beast. Its quite pleasant in the trees and goes for a few miles, fairly constant gradient, once at Wheddon Cross you'll turn left and the road still pulls for a short while.

What isn't mentioned is following a long descent, you have a short sharp pull before Blue Anchor and another slightly longer bugger out of Blue Anchor towards Watchett. Typicial coastal road :twisted:

Brendon Hill is another long pull but with various pitches that break your rhythm, I also remember the pitches being a little steeper than Lype Hill.

As climbs go they are enjoyable !! Have a great ride, once over Brendon Hill it appears that you have some quality descending as a reward before any more climbs

Have a good one

briantrumpet

I don't know the Somerset hills, but Peak Hill looks like this:



I'll be riding up it during a 50-miler tomorrow - up till now I've only done it in a car, and the car doesn't like it.

briantrumpet

Peak Hill report from this morning - a couple of short slightly steeper bits, and it's a good climb, but it's not too much of a struggle, and it's friendly at the end - no sting in the tail.

shakey88

Thanks Brian(and 3pears) for the info.
I'm feeling confident and very much looking forward to sunday's event.
I'll be posting on here afterwards my experience(that's if i survive!)

markp2

I did the Honiton to Woodbury section last weekend. The climb out of Honiton is not particularly steep but goes on for a while. Peak Hill wasn't as fearsome as I had thought. Still a good workout but doable on a 34 front 27 rear.
The one which caught me by surprise was the slope out of Budleigh Salterton onto Woodbury Common. Steeper than it seems in a car. It probably didn't help that we had a coffee and cake stop in Budleigh!

staringatthesea

Does anyone know if you can enter this on the day? I've not found entry details on the website so i am presuming pre entry is closed.

briantrumpet

markp2 wrote:

I did the Honiton to Woodbury section last weekend. The climb out of Honiton is not particularly steep but goes on for a while. Peak Hill wasn't as fearsome as I had thought. Still a good workout but doable on a 34 front 27 rear.
The one which caught me by surprise was the slope out of Budleigh Salterton onto Woodbury Common. Steeper than it seems in a car. It probably didn't help that we had a coffee and cake stop in Budleigh!

Yes, agreed, the Budleigh pull has got a little sting before and after the mini roundabout near the top...

ThreeLionsBrian

StaringattheSea wrote:

Does anyone know if you can enter this on the day? I've not found entry details on the website so i am presuming pre entry is closed.

i received this as part of an email a week ago, looking at the wording you might still be able to give them an email and see?

With almost 4000 riders already registered across the Tour Rides this is a unique opportunity to raise awareness of prostate cancer but also raise vital funds.

aligav

I have done most of the route (except the short hill after Budleigh Salterton) over two training runs in preparation for the ride.
The road upto Raleighs Cross from Watchett is the worse of the two hills at the begining. I found the first one quite tough because I thought when I got to Wheddon Cross that this was the top and was alarmed to see more up when I turned left at the junction
The sneaky one up on to the Blackdowns (Monument Road) is very short but it is quite a drag to get to the bottom of it.
Peak Hill is pretty daunting, especially the view of it from Sidmouth Sea Front.
The downs inbetween were lovely!!

milese

markp2 wrote:

Still a good workout but doable on a 34 front 27 rear.

I'll let you know what its like with a 39 f 27 r Sunday evening!

ThreeLionsBrian

I was thinking of leaving the 34 28 @ Home and taking the 30, 32 just in case :oops:

ToBi Tour

Hi all - If you still need to sign on, you can do this between 1400 and 2200 on Saturday afternoon / evening at the registration desk in Minehead at the West Somerset Railway on the seafront (West Somerset Railway, Railway Station, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 5BG).

See you there!!!

milese

39 27 was tough in places, but I manged to just about keep them turning, at a very low RPM!