Decent hills in Northamptonshire

PapaLazarou1977

Hi

I am reasonably new to the area and am looking to ride some decent hills around Northamptonshire. I live in Wellingborough so I would probably be looking for hills within a 30 mile radius of Wellingborough. Can anyone suggest any that are a good length and reasonably steep.

Many thanks,
Jamie.

MrIP

Hi Jamie

Look at some of the hills on this ride, not all massively long but some quite challenging !

http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=sffdfspmkepemmii

Hope this gives you an idea.

Regrds

Mrip

BillyMansell

You're probably the wrong side of Northants for anything descent, not there's much anyway.

You haven'r said how far you're looking to ride but from Wellingborough you could go to Little Harrowden, Broughton, Loddington, Harrington, turn left into Church Road and straight on until you get to the Harborough Road. Head towards and through Market Harborough then up the hill through East Farndon and on to Naseby before heading back through Brixworth, Holcot and Sywell.

There's also some out the back of Weedon Bec, across to Long Buckby or Bringtons onto Guilsborough then long drag up to Naseby or Creaton to Hazelbech. The Spratton to Brixworth road is pretty tough at the top.

A couple of links to the Squires and Spires sportive you could follow;
http://www.justracinguk.com/track/squir ... s-78-miles
http://www.justracinguk.com/track/squir ... s-50-miles

And there's also the Cycle4Cynthia charity ride coming up next month that's pretty hilly;
http://www.cynthiaspencerhospice.nhs.uk ... /index.jsp

roxycoxy

There is a big hill just south of Milton Keynes in a village called Bowbrickhill. Ignore the 12% sign at the bottom the OS maps give it a double chevron which means it is a 1 in 5 (20%) or more. I think it is about 80 meters ascent in about 1km.
North Bucks road club use it as their annual hill climb. You can travel from Wellingborough via Odell, Turvey, Cranfield and Woburn sands rather than using the busy A509.

There is also Edge Hill just north west of Banbury but that would be a 80 mile aprox round trip from Wellingborough.

danlikesbikes

Welcome along mate.

My club Team MK have links to our usual club routes on our website. All tend to start in Stoney Stratford but quite a few go not that far from you & most are Garmin compatible too.

http://www.teammk.com/tracks

jordan_217

The hardest climb I've found is the road out of Rockingham up to the castle (A6003), if you approach it via the Oakleys and Cottingham then theres a few short, sharp kicks to get you warmed up.

As posted above, IME the more challenging routes in the area are North of W'boro, in the Welland Valley heading towards Oakham, Rutland, etc. Look on a map and draw a square with it's corners being - Oundle, Stamford, Oakham and Desborough. I use this area to make up my longer, harder w'end rides. Just remember what we lose out with climbs in this area we make up for with head winds!

HTH

laurentian

BillyMansell wrote:

You're probably the wrong side of Northants for anything descent, not there's much anyway.

You haven'r said how far you're looking to ride but from Wellingborough you could go to Little Harrowden, Broughton, Loddington, Harrington, turn left into Church Road and straight on until you get to the Harborough Road. Head towards and through Market Harborough then up the hill through East Farndon and on to Naseby before heading back through Brixworth, Holcot and Sywell.

There's also some out the back of Weedon Bec, across to Long Buckby or Bringtons onto Guilsborough then long drag up to Naseby or Creaton to Hazelbech. The Spratton to Brixworth road is pretty tough at the top.

A couple of links to the Squires and Spires sportive you could follow;
http://www.justracinguk.com/track/squir ... s-78-miles
http://www.justracinguk.com/track/squir ... s-50-miles

And there's also the Cycle4Cynthia charity ride coming up next month that's pretty hilly;
http://www.cynthiaspencerhospice.nhs.uk ... /index.jsp

Can vouch for Market Harborough to East Farndon and Creaton via Cottesbrooke to Haselbeech. As also metioned above, the road from Spratton to Brixworth can make you blow a bit particularly if you get to Spratton from Holdenby via Teeton. A really good, long climb is from Stanford on Avon to Cold Ashby but you'd have to ride out to Stanford first - suggest going via South Kilworth to Stanford.

CiB

The Tour Of Leicestershire last June managed to find a number of hills out your way - look for Great Bowden and then follow the road (closed to through traffic) to Welham, past Bowden reservoir. There's a nasty little climb there, not long but steep. That'll make your lungs pop. Carry on northwards and the cunningly named Tilton On The Hill and Houghton On the Hill out near Melton are both approached via a bit of a climb IIRC, from the side roads onto the main east-west A road

That one at Bow Brickhill that was mentioned earlier is good little climb too - it plateaus a bit then kicks off again as it rounds the bend into the woods. Approach it from the other direction by coming off the A5 dual c/way by Little Brickhill, follow that road to Woburn Golf Club & into the woods then go left at the T to approach the hill and it's a nice longer climb to get to it from the opposite side. Watch out for the MTBers in there though - odd beasts, some of em.

The Brickhills Challenge is a decent sportiv that manages to take in a lot of climbs round that area, on the southern areas outside of MK. http://www.cyclosport.org/event/09-Oct- ... rtive.html - it's been run in October and March, not sure when this year. It didn't show up in my quick Google search. You may have more time / luck with it.

danlikesbikes

Bow Brickhill is a pretty good climb I use it quite a bit as its only just around the corner from me.

It did feature in a sportive a few years ago what was full of ups and downs - http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/22537368

xpro

PapaLazarou1977 wrote:

Hi

I am reasonably new to the area and am looking to ride some decent hills around Northamptonshire. I live in Wellingborough so I would probably be looking for hills within a 30 mile radius of Wellingborough. Can anyone suggest any that are a good length and reasonably steep.

Many thanks,
Jamie.

Hi Jamie

I live in Raunds just up the road from you, there are a couple of hills over this way and some great quiet lanes. I have added 4 rides starting from raunds here: http://www.bikemap.net (just scan around to Raunds and you will see 4 optoins. The ride labelled "Old Western Medium loop" contains Mickle hill, which is 3 small hills back to back, the 3rd is a little puffy at least! It then has a long old drag of a hill up to Old Weston. The route is about 30miles and you can export the gps to a suitable device or print out the instructions!

There is also a mapped out GPS route that will take you practically all the way to the climb others have mentioned south of Milton Keynes, importantly avoiding all the main roads!

In terms of "proper climbs" there isn't really any in Northamptonshire, its pretty flat really.

Hope this helps.

pride4ever

I need to stop taking Yorkshire and Derbyshire for granted, I really do.

xpro

pride4ever wrote:

I need to stop taking Yorkshire and Derbyshire for granted, I really do.

Lol, yup, in terms of "proper" hill, Northamptonshire is as flat as a pancake! I wish I lived in Majorca!