#RaphaRising In London

charliew87

Who’s trying to complete this in London? I clocked up around 10,000ft over the weekend up north so got a good base for the Strava Challenge.

Can do a lot of Swains but could get boring. Would need around 15 ascents a day I think to complete. It’s the best hill I know in terms of ascent in short space but the loop round the one way system takes a bit of time.

Anyone recommend any efficient alternatives?

iPete

f**k that, I did the last ascent challenge by doing Box Hill 10x plus a few other bits and bobs but this one is on another level! You could ride out of London and do a loop around the Surrey Hills and take in the bigger climbs, maybe loop around quite a few times!

If you do head to Box its not super steep so you can do lots of reps without blowing up.

Mccaria

I'm doing it based around Toys, Ide and Bayleys Hill. Finding the reps pretty boring. Think I would struggle going up the same hill that many times. On Saturday I went overs Toys Hill x4 and that was my limit.

charliew87

Have done 11x Box Hill in a row before. Found a hill called Hillway which runs parallel to Swains Lane last night, it's more useful as can go straight up and down without the one way system loop.

Having day off today as feel terrible but will resume on Thurs onwards if I reckon it could be doable. Can do 10000ft on Hillway I reckon on Friday then top up the end at Box Hill at the weekend

mlgt

Is the Hillway the private road bit? Its quite a consistant climb which is good. Then recover by coasting back down again

Good luck.

vimfuego

Did the Leith Hill Octopus route at the weekend - got about 8,000ft with a climb back over Box on the way home (Coldharbour Lane all the way up through Coldharbour and on to High Ashes gets you about 700ft). have done 15 x Box since then along with some messing about getting to & from and am about 65% of the way there. So some more Box reps to go. Incidentally there were three or four others doing the same thing on Box yesterday - obviously a popular method down here.

Good luck all.

Mikey23

I try most of the strava challenges... But not this one, and i live in cornwall

Mccaria

Got to 7,400 metres with 2,000 metres today : Toys, Ide, Toys, Bayleys, Bayleys, Bayleys and Toys. One more ride tomorrow should do it.

charliew87

Finished this yesterday. Probably hardest thing I've ever done. Did 180 hilly miles on first weekend then 127 hill repeats in North London, box hill and Richmond park. 22 hours on the bike this week. And full day at work each day.

Had half an eye on everesting something next year but this has made that feel nigh on impossible.

vimfuego

Managed to finish this in the end. Too many reps of Box Hill for my liking but managed to stick in a nice tour de Surrey Hills which netted a decent amount & then topped it off with a MTB ride on Saturday to collect the last few hundred metres (and have some fun into the bargain).

Chapeau! if you did it - tough one but do-able if you use the Jensie method on your legs

Mccaria

Ended up doing just over 10k metres by Friday and then spent the weekend aching. It was tougher than I thought it would be, basically a series of 10 minute reps around hills of the North Downs.

elbowloh

I rode 3 HC cat climbs, plus a few cat 3s and 4s in the Pyrenees in the last week, plus a Surrey Hills loop yesterday and I still managed to fall short of the target.

Don't like doing repeats of the same hill though.

borisface

Piece of piss. Did it in 4 ordinary rides and ended up with 11,266m in five rides and about 200 miles, just a normal week really. But then its unfair as I live in the mountains of Portugal and I can do 1,000m just riding the bread shop and back. Less good for recovery rides though.

pipipi

Well done to all those that completed.
I started and had done 1000m a day for the first 3 days but was getting really bored of hill repeats. I missed a day and realised I wouldn't be able to catch it up due to time constraints. Gutted as I completed last year's and really appreciated getting a patch and was looking forward to the tshirt.