Which is the tougher of these two hills ?

kingrollo

Hill 1 - winwood heath rd

https://veloviewer.com/segment/4041677/ ... h+Rd+Climb

Hill 2 - Harting Hill

https://veloviewer.com/segment/2724911


Hill 1 is 10 minutes from where I live and its a real struggle - Hill 2 I hit after 91 miles of velo south 23/09

imposter2.0

Not sure what anyone can say really. Leaving aside the self-evident geo data, the main variables will be your own physical state. So the hardest climb will be dependent on your condition when you climb it.

kingrollo

Imposter wrote:

Not sure what anyone can say really. Leaving aside the self-evident geo data, the main variables will be your own physical state. So the hardest climb will be dependent on your condition when you climb it.

I suppose what I was looking for - if I can get up hill 1 - will I be ok on hill 2 (variables accepted)

kingstongraham

Look about the same. Short and sharp. If #1 is a struggle, what gearing do you have?

kingrollo

KingstonGraham wrote:

Look about the same. Short and sharp. If #1 is a struggle, what gearing do you have?

11/28 cassette

imposter2.0

kingrollo wrote:

I suppose what I was looking for - if I can get up hill 1 - will I be ok on hill 2 (variables accepted)

Do you mean 'excepted'..? You can't except the variables unfortunately. Because they can be influenced in too many different ways. How well you get up the final climb depends entirely on how you are feeling, how hard you have ridden that day, how well you have refuelled and how much you have left in the tank. In that sense, comparing a local climb to one at the end of a 90 miler is going to give you nothing meaningful.

kingstongraham

kingrollo wrote:

KingstonGraham wrote:

Look about the same. Short and sharp. If #1 is a struggle, what gearing do you have?

11/28 cassette

and 34 on the front?

kingrollo

KingstonGraham wrote:

kingrollo wrote:

KingstonGraham wrote:

Look about the same. Short and sharp. If #1 is a struggle, what gearing do you have?

11/28 cassette

and 34 on the front?

To be honest I m not sure. Its a 10 year old bike with (I believe) what was at the time a standard double - would that be a 53-39 ? - (Will check later)
I did last year change from a 25 rear cassette to the current 28 - which didn't seem to make much difference at all !!!

I was thinking more from a training angle, are the two hills comparable - Hill 2 has steeper bits and is longer - but hill 1 has more persistent gradients.

Im not looking for 100% scientific proven analysis - I get up most things - albeit slowly !

Velobirmingham last year had this hill at 80 miles - which was pretty easy

https://veloviewer.com/segment/820327

singleton

Hills are simply a function of gearing and effort expended - so Alpe d'huez wasn't too bad with the right gearing and settle into a sustainable rhythm, but trying to chase my buddy up brill hill will half kill me.
Don't go too hard, save some energy / legs for the end and you should be fine.

timothyw

Hill two looks easier to me.

The real question is can you ride up Hill One after 90 miles to see how that feels?

You might want to look at putting a compact chainset on your bike if you don't already have one.

triggersbroom

I'd rather climb hill 2

slowbike

Never ridden hill 1 - but have hill 2 quite a number of times.
Hill2 - Harting Hill - isn't too bad, you can attack it if you've got the legs, but it's fairly easy just to grind up. For some, it's quicker to get off and walk (seen some do that on the Triathlon!) - but as long as your track stand is reasonable you can get up it.
I tend to start seated, then alternate with standing on the second half - but then I do tend to be holding back a bit so I can blat down the other side.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I'm hoping to get over to try the various Harting cat4 hill segments over the coming days for the first time, been meaning to tackle "Turkey Island" since spotting it on Strava Explorer around last September. It might be part of my first century ride, covering most of the major climbs I know of in the South Downs west of Harting, we shall see.

Here is an alternative look at that Harting climb https://www.doogal.co.uk/StravaSegment.php?id=2724911

Here is your local hill https://www.doogal.co.uk/StravaSegment.php?id=4286022

Your local hill looks tougher, more elevation gain and the steeper section of ~15-20% near the start.

But that Harting climb is going to be a killer for some at ~91 miles, who have used too many "battery bars" earlier and/or dehydrated/under-fuelled. I don't think it's the evilest segment, https://www.doogal.co.uk/StravaSegment.php?id=3377582 goes past the Turkey island junction summit! :shock:

cycleclinic

Ride both and you find out which is tougher.

dannbodge

The hardest part of hill 2 will be that it's after 91 miles but with the KOM only being 3 minutes it's realistically only going to be around 10 mins if you go slowly (imo)

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I ended up visiting Harting for the first time as part of my first ever century last Friday, tackling the three major cat4 climbs in succession .

I was pacing myself, I'm more used to ~30-50 mile rides, where I will then do my modest best up cat3/4s (typically averaging ~300W for up to ~14mins). I also had a rucksack of food and water on my back, adding ~3Kg and severely restricting my body's normal method of releasing heat through my back!

But here are the comparisons from the day...
https://www.strava.com/activities/15955 ... 9103/19425 (Velo South cta4)
https://www.strava.com/activities/15955 ... 8024/18482 (Turkey Island)
https://www.strava.com/activities/15955 ... 6794/17426 (B2146 to B2141 summit)

Like with my ride that day, it's not the length or gradient that is too big a deal for that Velo South cat4, it's the state of your legs/heart when you arrive there.

Hoping to return there soon, without a rucksack and drastically improve my times on all three, maybe even this week.

dannbodge

I didn't realise how close my normal route goes to South Harting, so my next ride I'm going to do it.

Hopefully get it in at least a dozen more times before Velo South.

davep1

You can compare them in Veloviewer. If you look at the graphic of the first one, the last tab on the right is Compare, copy the link in there and it will overlay the second graphic.

davep1

https://veloviewer.com/segment/4041677/ ... h+Rd+Climb

lostboysaint

Dannbodge wrote:

I didn't realise how close my normal route goes to South Harting, so my next ride I'm going to do it.

Hopefully get it in at least a dozen more times before Velo South.

Plenty of other decent hills around there without the traffic on them. Cars do tend to take the p155 a bit on Harting Hill.