A Ride to Clent - 24 November 2013

This Sunday I rode over to the Clent Hills and Clent. In particular I wanted to go to St Kenelms Pass - given the mythical name (and it being a Strava Cat 4 Climb) I felt it might be worth the effort. I have known that the Clent Hills are relatively close but was never sure exactly where they were - by this I mean what roads are worth using to climb and what are just boring roads and what are downright dangerous. To help in this however one of my followers (and I follow as well), Neal Lamont, had posted just such a ride on Strava in September this year that I could use as a template - the link is here: Saturday Ride and here is a screenshot:

This was actually a much longer ride than I wanted to do (a maximum of about 40 was what I was looking for) so I could keep it to around 2.5-3 hours in duration, but Neal had done a load of riding in Alvehcurch that added quite a lot of distance, so I felt if I cut all that out and rode direct to Catshill I could make it more suited to what I wanted to do.

I used Garmin Connect to create a route:

This route meant I rode over to Rose Hill and onto Catshill. This is part of a route I have done quite a few times in the past. What was new was continuing on to Belbroughton and then on to St Kenelms Pass and Clent where I added some loops.

As you can see from the image above the climbs started at about 18 miles. In fact St Kenelms Pass was a long but steady climb which suited me well, apart from a very short steep bit right at the end. It was quite scenic even in the cold grey winter morning and would be great in the summer. I followed the Garmin over the route above, which I created with quite a few loops back on itself to try to get all the climbs in the area in. All was well until the Garmin said turn left on to what was at best a farm track - clearly it did not go where I expected so I turned around to the last junction. The Garmin seemed happy enough but I was on a stretch of road I'd been along not long before, so at that point I decided to abort the route, ride up to the top of St Kenelms Pass from Chapel Lane again and then ride down and exactly retrace the route I'd used to come over.

The other reason for deciding on this approach was that it was actually a lot hillier than I'd expected, and with the cold weather, and my Giant in full Winter mode I was felling pretty tired. Finally given that I had another ascent of Rose Hill to do on the way back I decided discretion was the better part of valour and needed to head back.

It was the right decision because the ride home was a real drag and I was pretty shot before I even got to Rose Hill. I ground up Rose Hill at a steady but slow pace. The direct (as the crow flies) route from Rose Hill to Solihull (through West Heath, Kings Norton etc) is also extremely rolling, and I was finally glad to drag myself home.

After a shower and some calorie intake I uploaded the ride to Strava. It came out at 45.9 miles which I was OK with but what surprised me was over 4300ft of climbing and explained why I felt so tired. That seemed a really big number so I used Veloviewer which allows you to sort all your rides by a huge variety of criteria:

This shows that the ride came out as the ride with the 6th most ascent of all I have done (496 to date), the most ascent on the Giant and not far short of the same climbing as some of the 100 mile rides I have ridden, so I was decidedly happy with the achievement. I was also surprised at how much climbing I could geton a "local" route and without driving to start a ride somewhere more naturally assumed to be hilly. I'll definitely do the ride, or a variant, again - it was scenic and challenging and somewhere I have not been before. I went for a walk a few months ago with my wife to the Clent Hills and we parked by the National Trust visitor centre. When we left we went down a very long climb and I think its worth adding this to the route - however that climb will have to be a "down and up" as there was only dual carriageway at the bottom - decidedly unpleasant on a bike.

Again I am not sure why the Garmin got confused. Whether in this case its associated with planning to use the same bit of road several times I am not sure, but its something I need to get to grips with as I am keen to continue venturing further afield and need to rely on the Garmin to do this. I'll probably have to plot out local rides to follow that I know I can just experiment on without getting lost. On the way over to Rose Hill within the first few miles it threw a wobbly in Kings Norton, insisting I was off route and seemingly wanting to navigate back to the start. It appears if you go off route near the start it will give and navigate you back to the start as I found in Suffolk. Its a great device but not without its foibles.

Sheffield (Again)

Sheffield November 2013

I went to Sheffield and rode the route I'd ridden in March 2012 again. Actually I went to Sheffield for a long weekend with my wife, partly for her birthday and partly to see one of our sons who is at Sheffield University.

I got agreement to spend a morning cycling and I'd wondered about doing something else route-wise but having done the route once before it meant that (a) I was pretty confidant that the roads were OK, (b) that the time was realistic and most importantly that by doing the route again I sweep up a load of Stava achievements!

Here's the route:

and here's a link as for some reason the code to "embed" the ride in a blog gives a corrupt image: http://www.strava.com/activities/94293681

It started in Low Bradfield. Plenty of parking at 9am on a Sunday and, in an improvement from 18 months ago, working public toilets - an increasingly rare sight in Britain these days.

I got the bike out of the car, put the wheels on and got changed into my cycling clothes (I already had my shorts, baselayer and jersey on from the hotel). The forecast was for sun, with a light wind but temperatures around 2-3Deg C. It was the latter I was more concerned about as on the radio it has reported that Snake Pass was closed to traffic due to ice. However given the sun I decided that baselayer, jersey and long sleeve "over jersey" would be fine on the top and for my legs a pair of bib shorts and Aldi's finest leg warmers, with 2 pairs of socks and my BBB Hardwear overshoes (I get cold feet).

Once I was ready I set the Garmin to follow the route and set of. The disadvantage of Low Bradfield is, as its name suggests, its low, and every route out is a reasonable climb. Last time I got caught out but the first climb, it being quite step and within the 1st 1/2 mile. This time I turned left by the pub and rode along Dungworth Reservoir for a mile or so to try to warm up a bit. I then returned and went back down the hill slightly to ride the full hill. However given the temperature this was not enough and I was puffing and panting again at the top. What's more I still have not really got to grips with the route following on my Garmin (after 3 years!) and because I deviated from the route at the start it wanted to return me to the end. So I had to stop and reset the route.

It's then a long undulating drag for s number of miles to join the A57 and then descend down towards Ladybower Reservoir. Last time there was road works making it single track - this year I kept the speed down as I was not sure how slippery the road might be - there were small ice patches in puddles at the side of the road up to that point in the shade where the sun had not yet reached. Its a fantastic descent and I'd like to go again in the summer when its dry. Fortunately despite being a relatively major road the traffic seems pretty light. You then skirt the reservoir and drop down into Bamford - again another quite quick stretch.

Then there's a sharp right to head back on yourself and towards Brough. Once through the village this is the second long and undulating climb onto the A623, this is a generally rolling road for a few miles and then another long and fast descent. At the bottom is a left back on yourself again towards Grindleford which marks another long climb upto the A6187. This is probably, of all the climbs on the route, the one I find the easiest - whilst it's long its a pretty steady gradient with a few places where it briefly flattens to give a respite.

Then I turned on to the A625 for a fast gentle down hill run to "Long Line" - a dead straight road with an increasing gradient to the end. It was about here that I was beginning to feel a little tired and I knew that there was a climb last year that made me get off so I was trying to conserve some energy as well.

There's then some meandering miles, with some short sharp climbs to Lodge Lane near Rivelin. This is a monster descent - as last time I spent the whole descent down riding the brakes. I saw 3-4 riders coming up and it looked an absolute beast. Its not helped by the fact that near the bottom there is a sharp left hander followed by a short straight that stops at a T Junction - the road goes from a 10-12% gradient to the next road - there's no taper or flat - it's a really nasty junction. I am pretty sure that I would not make the climb the other way as its so steep quite long and these are not my strength - I much more a long drag person.

On the descent I could look across the valley and see the climb that was my nemesis last time. This is (on Strava) "Rails Road". I got in a low gear and rode up - it was much easier this year I found. I also vaguely remembered that there was a 2nd climb after this one that I gave up on as well last year, but again managed to ride up without great difficulty this year. From here it was basically to Stannington, Hill Top, Dungworth and back to Dungworth Reservoir and Low Bradfield.

I found the ride almost as hard this time as last time. However I was about 10-15 minutes quicker than last time and on all the climbs got a PR which I was very satisfied with. I think I was quicker because I was on my very best best bike (the Scott) whereas last time I rode the Giant with its original Giant wheels. These wheels are very heavy (almost 3.5kg from memory with tyres and tubes) compared to about 2kg for the Shimano RS80 wheels. This meant I was riding a 8kg bike this year versus a 11.5kg bike previously. Also and probably more relevant, last time I rode in March with relatively few miles in the preceding months, whereas this time I had done a lot of miles up to September so was much more ride fit. Its a great route but is very challenging.

As a bonus the Village shop was opening and served a half decent cup of coffee and some cakes so an even better finish to the ride.

Compared to the recent ride in Wales it was very similar in distance and total height gained, but in Wales it was mainly 4 steady climbs whereas in Sheffield its a relentless climb and ascend for the whole distance with some very short, sharp and hard climbs on the route. I am a much stronger climber on the long steady climbs between 5-8% gradient - the steeper ones I find very hard for some reason.

Here's some pictures (not great as they're from my phone):

My Scott after the ride in Low Bradfield

My Scott after the ride in Low Bradfield

The requisite selfie, me looking very red

Low Bradfield Village Green and Cricket Pitch

Low Bradfield Bowling Green

Low Bradfield Village Shop and Post Office

Low Bradfield Village Shop and Post Office