College Road challenge
Comments
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Good effort indeed. I did a 2:52 last night, didn't really try for the first two-thirds then hammered it on the steep bit. I reckon I could get to low 2:30's (e.g. 2:39!) on the best bike, without bag etc, will have to give it a go next week.
@ Ketsbaia, I have a feeling I passed you going through Walworth last night - it looked like your bike anyway, was going to ask if it was you at the lights but I think you must have got stuck in traffic as didn't spot you again.0 -
BigMat wrote:@ Ketsbaia, I have a feeling I passed you going through Walworth last night - it looked like your bike anyway, was going to ask if it was you at the lights but I think you must have got stuck in traffic as didn't spot you again.
Was that you drafting me?
Was taking it easy last night (and having trouble with the stupid Shimano gears again) as I was off to the Kent hills for a 62-miler.0 -
Finally got to 3:20 last night.
Was planning on taking a nice long recovery stop before the toll gate when a couple of very quick looking riders (Dulwich and Norwood Paragon) blasted past me. Thought I might as well see how it was done so I followed! By the last steep section I had a lot more left in the tank than previous attempts and I should have tried to overtake.
Still a bit of work to do, I think, but the northerlies we're having at the moment are definitely helping!0 -
Just strumbled across this thread, i do enjoy a challenge :twisted: . .. as the climb is on my route into kent i look forward, hopefully tomorrow, to seeing how i compare
What's the fastest time to date? (not that'll manage it, merely to compare against)
Rgds'Ride hard for those who can't.....'0 -
Think the record's 2'43", Airbusboy.
Don't suppose you work for Airbus do you, with a name like that? I did a couple of years in Toulouse a while back.0 -
2'43 sounds quick... I'll wait till there's a tailwind;-)
Oh nice....Unfortunately I don't, it's merely my company car....'Ride hard for those who can't.....'0 -
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3'34" - I'm slowing down. At least I can eat the whole thing on the dinner plate now.0
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cjcp wrote:(Richmond Hill - from the bottom to)... Friar's Stile Road. Didn't fancy racing across a junction
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I did 1.10 last week, down from 1:18 (with backpack). Went up a couple of times last night to see what the difference was out of the saddle and in the saddle. Last night, the former was better.
There's a Strava segment for this one now. I recently moved within Richmond so have only ridden it once with GPS at the end of a commute and got 51s: http://app.strava.com/segments/705354"Mummy Mummy, when will I grow up?"
"Don't be silly son, you're a bloke, you'll never grow up"0 -
Pfff... 3.7%?0
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phy2sll2 wrote:Pfff... 3.7%?
Strava reckons College Road is 4.4% so not that different. We've also got Nightingale Lane at an average of 10.5% or Star and Garter at 7.5% on the doorstep but for some reason Lord cjcp didn't want a climb up either of those two :shock:"Mummy Mummy, when will I grow up?"
"Don't be silly son, you're a bloke, you'll never grow up"0 -
Finally! FINALLY! I broke my 4 minute barrier. I know that sounds utterly laughable compared to most others on this thread, but trust me, it's really a big deal for me. I'm now a respectable 185th out of 547 on Strava! I've been struggling to beat my previous PB of 4:11 for weeks and tonight I managed 3:51. Next stop 3:30! 0
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Well done mate. It's all about practice (and having the wind in the right direction!)
I really didn't think I'd ever break 3:30 but have now ticked that one off.0 -
phy2sll2 wrote:Well done mate. It's all about practice (and having the wind in the right direction!)
I really didn't think I'd ever break 3:30 but have now ticked that one off.
Thanks mate! I reckon I could knock some more of straight away by tackling it away from the previous six miles of my commute, but I definitely have some weight to shed, some practice to do and some techniques to learn.
One of the things that had frustrated me about this climb in the past was that I felt I was destroying myself each and every time I tackled it yet was rarely improving. The two things I did differently yesterday were trying to keep my cadence up in a higher gear all the way up the energy sapping part of College Road (as I suppose it will be harder to make significant time improvements on the steeper Fountains Drive section) and emptying my lungs as fully as I could every so often.0 -
Never giving it any beans going up College Road yet (always at start of club rides) but seeing as its a hill and over 1 minute long it doesn't suit me
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Le bump.
Been thinking about options for adding a training loop onto one of my homebound commutes, and remembered this old thread from when I first started posting here. I'm considering the one mentioned by Kierenb on page 9, up College Rd, left at the top and left again down Sydenham Hill, left onto the South Circ, left again at The Grove harvester place to stay on South Circ, then left onto College Rd again.
A couple of questions -
1) Presumably the best way to get here from London Bridge is down to E & C, onto Walworth Rd then stay with the A215 until Sunray Ave/Red Post Hill - any better routes than this? What is this route like?
2) As I'd be doing this between around 5.30-6.30, is it going to be too busy on the South Circ sections to make it a worthwhile/enjoyable training loop?0 -
^ A touch longer, perhaps, but I'd imagine much nicer to cycle would be A3 Kennington Park Lane from E & C - Kennington Park Rd - A23 Brixton Rd - left onto Loughborough Rd - Left onto Coldharbour Lane then immediate right onto Herne Hill (a nice little Strava challenge) and then straight on to head through Dulwich Village.
Personally I would avoid the South Circ that time of night.
There are a few good hills round that way if you want to push yourself. Anerly Hill's a killer (although will probably be pretty clogged up that time of night) and you can pop into Cadence for a coffee at the top.0 -
Cheers, I'll give that a try if this becomes a regular thing. I'm trying to find a loop that a) is not too much of a detour from my normal commute home to Bromley b) is long enough to avoid the feeling of going round and round on a hamster wheel, c) includes a hill, as I need to practice them, and d) not too stop-start, to enable a proper workout. This one seems to fit the bill except perhaps for d) at the time I'll be doing it. I think I may be hoping for too much really, SE London is not really the place to be looking for traffic-free roads during the rush hour. Sadly, owing to a combination of factors relating to having a small child, I can't really do any other time.0
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Your original suggestion sounds fine. That route to College Road is OK - you have to go through Elephant & Castle but that isn't too bad IME, then through Walworth / Camberwell is usually OK. Denmark Hill and over the top to Sunray Avenue is a good leg tester, then its through Dulwich Village to the toll booth where College Road climb starts. Its fairly gentle but ramps up towards the end and as its a toll road it tends to be light on traffic. Never actually done the circuit down and round on the south circular but wouldn't have thought it was too bad - that part of the south circular is OK for cycling I think especially if only turning left.
Another option for you would be to turn right off Bromley Rd after Homebase and go up Beckenham Hill, then through Beckenham and Shortlands to Bromley that way (there's a nice little climb out of Shortlands) - a bit longer so might avoid having to do circuits.0 -
Hi Matt,
I've done a Beckenham Hill/Shortlands detour before funnily enough, during an earlier phase of tacking extra miles/hills onto the commute. It's not a bad route, Beckenham Hill is a nice tester, there's a longer draggy type hill on the road between Beckenham & Shortlands, then from Shortlands to Bromley is pretty tough - I used to avoid the main road (Beckenham Lane) and go up the side of the railway line then left up that really steep road next to the park, emerging by Primark in Bromley - more of a short sharp shock than the main road but much quieter. Doing that loop adds about 5 miles, and it would be easy to go round again once heading back down Bromley Hill. On the downside, a few stops for lights are a near certainty, but I think that's pretty much a given with any option if I'm looking to do something as part of the commute.
I'll try the College Rd loop this week and see how I get on, I think the only potentially rubbish section will be the short stretch of Lordship Lane after turning out of Sydenham Hill - the section of south circ after the left turn at the Grove should be fairly fast, as long as there isn't any traffic backed up. If it's too rubbish, then the Beckenham loop could be a winner.0 -
Haven't done it for a while on my bike, makes part or a nice run though! Traffic is heavy around that time but luckily usually in the opposite direction heading out of the city, so going anti-clockwise (all left turns) is not so bad. They resurfaced part of the road a year or two ago as well so no bad patches.0
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Sounds promising. Actually, I'll be coming home a fair bit later tomorrow as I'm going to see Gravity after work at the Imax. So I think I'll take the opportunity to get a quieter post-rush hour first go under my belt. Google maps suggests the loop is 3.5 miles, will aim for 3 laps to begin with, but can see that being scaled back after the second go up College Rd...0
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Well I finally made it that way tonight, er only managed one go up the College Rd/Fountain Drive climb before heading straight home. Well, I'm not very fit. Ah well, I have scoped it out now so I know what to expect. Another go early next week, try to make it two ascents next time. Forgot to set a timer as I went through the toll gate, was a few seconds late. My garmin lap time to the top was 3:56, the Strava segment that most closely corresponds says 4:07, so somewhere between those two (probably closer to the latter!). You really have to pace yourself up there, I went through the gate with 3 others, they all left me behind on the lower slopes, but I was able to pick two of them off towards the top and wasn't far off the other one once I got out of the saddle for the final kick.
NB that route is really good - nice wide roads and not that much traffic. Might use it more often even if I'm not specifically doing additional training/miles.0 -
Could finally face a second go up College Rd/Fountain drive tonight, so went round the full loop once. It's actually surprisingly flat along most of Sydenham Hill after the mini-roundabout - I'd kinda assumed it'd be straight downhill again, but if anything there's a very slight uphill gradient for a bit and you've actually got to work after the climb to get back up to speed. At least the wind would generally be at your back here. It's only after the roundabout towards the end that you get a proper downhill, then it is steep and fun, if a bit scary in the dark owing to the usual bumpy road.
South Circ sections were fine tonight, no delays really and caught greens at both sets of lights (turning onto the south circ and turning left at the Grove pub) - as Kieran said above, the majority of traffic was heading the other way. All downhill so this is a fast section. There was a red on the turn-in to College Rd, which turned green as I approached but not before I'd had to slow quite a lot. Anyway, it's a good fun loop and lots of scope for me to improve my time on it as my fitness improves and with a clearer run. A bit of daylight would be nice, too.
Edit: Here's the Strava segment for the loop0 -
At a bit of a loss what to do on Sunday with a short window for a ride, so headed over here for a few laps. Did 3 repeats of the hill, via 2 laps of the loop. Hill times were 3.42/3.56/4.10 (according to the Strava segment which I think is close enough), so if I'd managed another lap I'd have obviously done 4.24. On the first lap, got held up on the top ramp by a DP rider who for some reason I felt it'd be cruel to overtake, probably cost me 5-10 secs at that sort of slow speed. On the final lap, got overtaken on the penultimate ramp by a bloke calmly spinning up in the saddle, while I was out of the saddle breathing like a rusty chainsaw. Annoying. Anyway, combination of fairly nice conditions, relative freshness, no bag, and a bit of weightloss seems to have made a difference. No doubt I'm a little fitter, too. If I can keep up the weightloss and the practice, I reckon I'll get down towards 3 as the year goes on.0
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I did it last Friday on my way home. But I didn't do it on purpose. I ride a 20 inch folder and normally do a 7 - 8 mile each way commute plus train and tram. But last Friday was such a beautiful day that I couldn't help it so did a whole route home to work in the morning (14 miles). Surprisingly I felt quite good when I arrived work. I remembered I passed a very long and steep down hill and it's the college road. I am so lucky it's downhill I told myself. On that same day I decided to cycle all the way home again but this time it's a different route from morning according to Google map. Ok then I started but took some wrong turns somewhere, no problem Google map rerouted it so I didn't have to go back. But suddenly I found myself on college road and going uphill! Damn, so be it, I just kept on. I was completely exhausted when I reached the flat. The lowest gear on my folder is 35.6 inch so not suitable for this road. But I am glad I did it and it's kind of fun when I relive it. Maybe I will change my cassette in future for this kind of hill.0
