Good hills for reps in Kent

vpnikolov

Do you guys have any recommendations for hill reps in Kent (apart from Toy's and Ide Hill)?

Looking for something to mix things up a bit and ideally something similar to the mentioned ones.

londoncommuter

pppp

vpnikolov

That's a good one, will look into it. Any other?

bsharp77

I used to live n Beckenham and done a great loop that took in Star Hill, Westerham Hill, Titsey Hill - and if I was feeling good, Chalk Pit Lane (also easy to add in Toys or Ide Hill).
Titsey is good for reps as you can turn right at the roundabout at the top and loop back down and around.

Hopefully some of these are of some use, I used to love riding in the Kent hills - you have lots of choices!

mrpbennett

This is one of my routes starting in blackheath which goes into Kent I have including some decent climbing.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27655686

Tiesetrotter

I think repeating White Lane is cruelty. What about Yorks, that's a nice easy one and you are only a couple of minutes from the Cafe at Toys when you have had enough.

The other way is to zigzag the escarpment hills. e.g:
Go along Pilgrims Way:
Hogs Trough
Brasted
Sundridge
(repeat)

If you are looking at longer ones which are quieter:
Bower Lane : Eynesford
Luddesdowne-Dean Road-Dean Lane : Right out East, but is a long steady climb and very pretty

Or a similarly long steady climb is going from Pratts Bottom all the way to Cudham lane through Knockholt. That is a good training run close to London.

sloppyschleckonds

I chose different hills depending on if i'm doing, 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 minute repeats.

HTH

motogull

There's eff all in Brasted now, so all these years ago this must have been a real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkLL9Q_v5Y

Lovely stuff. Proper hard men unlike us pampered prats.

londoncommuter

Motogull wrote:

There's eff all in Brasted now, so all these years ago this must have been a real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkLL9Q_v5Y

Lovely stuff. Proper hard men unlike us pampered prats.

Those trousers weigh more than my bike and I bet they didn't need gels to ride more than 20 miles or protein powder to recover.....

motogull

londoncommuter wrote:

Motogull wrote:

There's eff all in Brasted now, so all these years ago this must have been a real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkLL9Q_v5Y

Lovely stuff. Proper hard men unlike us pampered prats.

Those trousers weigh more than my bike and I bet they didn't need gels to ride more than 20 miles or protein powder to recover.....

And now we know that bibs started life as braces.

timmyotool

Try the Super six - reps with a bit of variety.
https://www.strava.com/segments/4136609

motogull

timmyotool wrote:

Try the Super six - reps with a bit of variety.
https://www.strava.com/segments/4136609

One more to the east, Carters would make that a suicidal seven.

londoncommuter

ppp

prhymeate

Motogull wrote:

There's eff all in Brasted now, so all these years ago this must have been a real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUkLL9Q_v5Y

Lovely stuff. Proper hard men unlike us pampered prats.

That's awesome

timmyotool

londoncommuter wrote:

I've never done them but I thought when people referred to hill reps they train on one hill rather than just do a hilly route?

Shouldn't the priority be good tarmac (at least on the route down), be relatively free from cars and have a short loop to get back to the hill?

The OP's Toys/Ide would be perfect here.

Yorks is obviously a nasty hill but it's a filthy and slow road to get to it and you've got a lot of messing about just for the ramps at the top (and you get your bike dirty which we all know is unacceptable).

True, normally the same hill but if you're just trying to get hill volume in, I'd prefer to do a route for sanity's sake.

I'd be looking for something reasonably consistent gradient without any super steep sections, and I prefer to loop than go back the way I came. The ones that spring to mind are:
Ides Hill,
Godley Stock Road (loop back down Moorhouse)
Bayleys
Row Dow (quite steep but consistently so https://www.strava.com/segments/1075258)

davep1

Does anyone have a route linking all the hills around Westerham? I'm thinking of starting at Succombs Hill in Warlingham and heading east, trying to do as many as possible, ending up at York's or Carters? Thanks in advance, trying to save myself the route-planning hard work...

londoncommuter

[ppp

timmyotool

DaveP1 wrote:

Does anyone have a route linking all the hills around Westerham? I'm thinking of starting at Succombs Hill in Warlingham and heading east, trying to do as many as possible, ending up at York's or Carters? Thanks in advance, trying to save myself the route-planning hard work...

No specific route but I'd probably look to do either all those north of M25 (Woldingham, Chalkpit, Titsey, Hogtrough etc.) using Pilgrims Lane as your main route or south using the A25 (Pains, Godley Stock, Toys, Ides)

willnewtonclare

Up Ightham Mote, down Carters then the "Super six" out to Toy's and back is a lot of hills for the distance! Bayley's
hill is brillant...up or down!

Tiesetrotter

You could also try Beddlested and then throw in one of the nasties whenever you feel like it.

If you are looking at shortish 2000m climbs out there then I found this one:
https://www.strava.com/routes/11278382

or a much prettier route I found was this:
https://www.strava.com/routes/13044911

vpnikolov

So many good suggestions, thanks for all the comments! Kent is such a lovely place to ride, I find it to be much better than Surrey. It is also quieter.

I ended up doing this on Sunday:
https://www.strava.com/activities/1644376809

But had this planned:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27798115

joe_totale-2

Technically it's just over the border in Surrey but you can do a loop of Gangers Hill, Tandridge Hill Lane and Chalkpit Lane that'll soon have your legs aching. Godstone is only a short distance away for a coffee or toilet stop.

Maybe add Yorks Hill to your Toys and Ide Hill reps for a bit of variety?

Further east, near Otford you can do a loop of Rowdow and Cotman's Ash lane which are two decent hills just off Pilgrims Lane.

Otherwise as others have mentioned a loop of going up Hogtrough, down Brasted, up Sundridge, down Star Hill, up Sundridge, down Brasted and back up Hogtrough will be a good workout.

davep1

I did a combination of Joe's suggestions - Gangers, Tandridge, Chalkpit, then Westerham, Hogtrough, Brasted and Sundridge. I missed the turning to Titsey and White Lane, otherwise I would have attempted them, although that would have stopped me doing Brasted and Sundridge. Westerham was too busy, Chalkpit the hardest and then I'm not sure I could separate them.
I died on my censored going home, nothing left in the tank. Got a bit lost at Hartfield, went too far south, took a right and found myself at the bottom of Kidds Hill! Dodged that one and made it home eventually.

motogull

DaveP1 wrote:

I did a combination of Joe's suggestions - Gangers, Tandridge, Chalkpit, then Westerham, Hogtrough, Brasted and Sundridge. I missed the turning to Titsey and White Lane, otherwise I would have attempted them, although that would have stopped me doing Brasted and Sundridge. Westerham was too busy, Chalkpit the hardest and then I'm not sure I could separate them.
I died on my ars* going home, nothing left in the tank. Got a bit lost at Hartfield, went too far south, took a right and found myself at the bottom of Kidds Hill! Dodged that one and made it home eventually.

:shock:

Well played fella.

iron-clover

DaveP1 wrote:

I did a combination of Joe's suggestions - Gangers, Tandridge, Chalkpit, then Westerham, Hogtrough, Brasted and Sundridge. I missed the turning to Titsey and White Lane, otherwise I would have attempted them, although that would have stopped me doing Brasted and Sundridge. Westerham was too busy, Chalkpit the hardest and then I'm not sure I could separate them.
I died on my ars* going home, nothing left in the tank. Got a bit lost at Hartfield, went too far south, took a right and found myself at the bottom of Kidds Hill! Dodged that one and made it home eventually.

That is one hell of a ride. It reminds me of the first ride I did when moving to the area: Ide (from the North), Yorks, Ide, Toys, Chalkpit and White Lane.

Of all of them, I reckon Chalkpit is the hardest (proabbly the toughest climb in the South East, I reckon it's slightly worse than Barhatch in Surrey) closely followed by Yorks which is always very hard.

Hubbard's Hill is another tough one (especially when it comes in the middle of our hilly TT), and is not too far from Bayley's.

For a quick evening session you can't go too far wrong with Hogstrough, Brastead, Sundridge and Star Hill, all along a short section of Pilgrim's Way.

davep1

iron-clover wrote:

That is one hell of a ride. It reminds me of the first ride I did when moving to the area: Ide (from the North), Yorks, Ide, Toys, Chalkpit and White Lane.

Thanks, feeling it now! I did a similar 100 in the Surrey Hills a few weeks ago, and yes it was hard, and I knew all about it by the time I got home, but not like this. I guess yesterday the majority of the route was on roads I don't know so I was always expecting wrong turns and mistakes but thought I wasn't too worried about it. I am without a phone at the moment (broke the screen :roll: ) and my Garmin's nav isn't great so I had some old school paper maps with me. It was probably hotter than the Surrey ride, and I had a pub stop which involved a pint of ale and two shandies. I think I was already done by that point but the booze probably didn't help.

iron-clover wrote:

Of all of them, I reckon Chalkpit is the hardest (proabbly the toughest climb in the South East, I reckon it's slightly worse than Barhatch in Surrey) closely followed by Yorks which is always very hard.

You should try Bignor Hill if you are ever down this way. I think it beats Barhatch and Chalkpit, but it is the inverse, the steep part is at the bottom. The road is a bit ropey and it is a dead end at the top, but there is a real sense of achievement in getting up it.

joe_totale-2

Good ride Dave! That turning for White Lane is so easy to miss as you're zipping down Titsey Hill. Well I say zipping, more like hanging on as the surface is so bad.

With regards to Chalkpit I'd say it's up there with Vigo Hill for the hardest climbs in the area. Vigo Hill is further east, past Brands Hatch.

davep1

Joe Totale wrote:

Good ride Dave! That turning for White Lane is so easy to miss as you're zipping down Titsey Hill. Well I say zipping, more like hanging on as the surface is so bad.

With regards to Chalkpit I'd say it's up there with Vigo Hill for the hardest climbs in the area. Vigo Hill is further east, past Brands Hatch.

Yeah, I had a look at Vigo when I was planning Friday's ride, there's a few more out that way. I think I could justify driving some of the way to those! I also want to do the Super 6 at some point...

Tiesetrotter

I know this is off the hill climb repeat part of the thread but, I created this route to try and make the most scenic route I could in Kent and a little bit of Surrey. It passes every major castle and palace in Northern Kent and does over 2000m of climbing. I love going past Churchill's pad and then climbing up Puddleduck lane so you can stop at the Well and admire one of the best views in Kent.

https://www.strava.com/routes/13044911