Help me find a hill...

Mr Will

Quite a simple one really, I'm looking to practice my climbing and descending but where I live is pretty much flat. Can anyone local to the area recommend me a big hill somewhere within ~10 miles of here: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&sourc ... +middlesex Preferably one which will be good fun on the way down as well as a challenge to get up!

(Apologies in advance if this isn't the right section of the forum to ask in, or if the info can easily be found somewhere else, I'm pretty new around here!)

Stuey01

Head south to the North Downs in Surrey. Box Hil, near Dorking would be a good one to practice your climbing on.

google map Box Hill (a small village), you are looking to ride up Zig Zag road.

Mr Will

That looks like a good tip for a day out, but the 35 mile round trip is a bit further away than I was hoping. I'm ideally looking for something I can do when I have a couple of spare hours (if it exists!)

Stuey01

hmm, you could head to richmond park and do laps, that's what I do when I only have a couple of hours spare. There are a couple of short sharp inclines there but not really "hills".

Other than that i can't really help, I don't know the rest of your area and on google maps terrain it looks flat as a pancake.

rake

do you mean hill, or mound?

Mr Will

Stuey01 wrote:

hmm, you could head to richmond park and do laps, that's what I do when I only have a couple of hours spare. There are a couple of short sharp inclines there but not really "hills".

Other than that i can't really help, I don't know the rest of your area and on google maps terrain it looks flat as a pancake.

It is pretty much flat as a pancake, but I haven't lived here long and was hoping there was something I'd missed.

I do Richmond park from time to time, but they are mounds rather than hills. I guess I'll just have to wait until I can find the extra time to get a little further afield.

Thanks for the help anyway guys.

Stuey01

rake wrote:

do you mean hill, or mound?

constructive and hilarious, bravo.

furrag

I'm in Molesey and with the Kingston Wheelers. The Kingston Wheelers, London Dynamo and Twickenham CC seem to be the most popular local clubs if you're interested in joining one.

Within 10 miles I don't know of one I'm afraid. Richmond Park is a good start. I once considered this hilly until I went to the North Downs. Richmond Park offers Broomfield Hill which is steep and takes 60 seconds or so to climb, and you can exit the bottom at illegal speeds of 33mph+. The cars, deer and police make it unfavourable for descending practice.

Why not come out on Sunday morning with the Kingston Wheelers? The newbie club run heads out to Cobham, Effingham, and offers the descent of Ranmore common, as well as climbing Box Hill. It's about 38 miles from and back to Kingston again, so not too far.

Here's a ride I did yesterday, taking in most of the North Downs.: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49810063

The scale on the left of the below image is in feet. The descents down Coome Bottom (after Staple lane) and Coldharbour (after Leith Hill) are very favourable for descending. As you can see too, there's plenty of climbing involved, hill after hill.

northstar

Kingston Hill is quite good for a local climb, not that steep but more long and it makes a good descent especially towards Robin Hood Gate

furrag

It used to be but now they have put the pedestrian crossing outside Kingston uni, it seems like its forever being used by students.

northstar

When was that put in?, I must have missed that.

I tend to do it more it at night or sunday when it's less busy in general, then with the those pedestrians islands you get some idiots in cars trying to squeeze past unless you take the lane.

One good thing about the road in general is the lovely wide cycle lane.

furrag

It was put in around May. Highly irritating, but the campus is full of nurses and business students. The former can look after themselves, and the latter are potential bankers, so worth 50 points per head.

It has a traffic island too, so when buses stop, cars can no longer swing around the bus. Combined with students stepping out from in front of the buses, it's a bit too much.

northstar

Heh.

Yeah I see what you mean, can get bit heavy with general traffic too, best for quiet times.

Interesting to see you're climbing data for the Ranmore area, that and Leith Hill seem to go on forever.

furrag

Winterfold is the worst. Over 2km long - the final km averages about 11.5%, and includes a trio of even more steep bits over 20%. Nasty bastard of a hill! Crocknorth, Whitedown and Staple lane are shorter, but possess a similar intensity.

The Hound Horse road into Shere is a really good descent - about 2 miles long. Heading up it out of Shere it's a long steady climb with no steep bits.

The North downs offer some great views too, and they're only a 45 minute cycle ride away! I can't stress enough to Mr. Will to persevere and head out to the hills.

northstar

I don't think I've come across Winterfold yet, crocknorth was closed when i first went there.

Whitedown i am acquainted with, only descended and climbed it once, probably enough to be fair.

I'll check out the hound horse descent next time, it sounds like the coldharbour one into dorking though longer.

Thanks for the tips, and i'll second what you said, it's very much worth going for a day and exploring the lot.