Climb Signs

Pross

This sign has recently cropped up on The Tumble and I was wondering if they have been put up on any other well known UK cycling climbs or if it is just Monmouthshire ahead of hosting the National Champs and the Tour of Britain stage finish up there



It's just a shame there's some obvious exaggeration going on with it - 6km at 10% would be 600m and the level at the bottom of the climb is around 90m AOD (the top is only around 480m as well according to the OS). I like the idea of the signs though, just maybe change the gradient to say maximum to stop pedants like me making comment :oops:

marcusjb

Brilliant stuff.

There are lots of them in France and Spain, especially around the big climbs like Tourmalet etc. where they have them every km - tell you how far you have left (usually too far) and what the gradient for the next kilometre will be (usually too steep).

drlodge

The percentage may be the median rather than the mean

cougie

I think sometimes I'd prefer not to know how steep and how far the climb is...

Pross

By my reckoning if you include the whole length of what could be classed as climb to that point (I always count the start as being after the canal bridge but it does rise before that) it is 4.6km long with a height gain of 390m so 8.5% (the maximum is probably around 15% just after the hairpin, the final km is a fair bit flatter so knocks the average down) and height at the point of the sign which most people class as the top is around 480m so it only gets the length, gradient and height wrong You can turn left at the sign which drags on for about another kilometre at probably around 5% which they use for the Tumble Up For Life charity ride.

Pross

cougie wrote:

I think sometimes I'd prefer not to know how steep and how far the climb is...

The one at the top is OK, it's the one at the bottom you try not to look at!

d_o_g

Nothing to really add on the sign front, but the Tumble is the most difficult climb I've been up, the drag after the hairpin is horrific.

mfin

drlodge wrote:

The percentage may be the median rather than the mean

At what sample length of segments? ...and either way it won't be right.

Miles253

Those kind of signs kept me going when I was in the French Alps for a week, great motivator in my eyes.

sloppyschleckonds

Yep, and also a signal that cyclists will be using the roads!

JackPozzi

Miles would be nice, I spend half the time on foreign climbs trying to convert kms left into miles that I can tick off on my garmin when my brain is barely working and weary, but that's understandable because they use km for everything. At home when the road system uses miles I shouldn't have to go through that confusion!