Haytor

I went to collect one of our sons from Exeter University on 22 Dec, and had suggested that we cycled before returning - in particular I wanted to ride up Haytor. He was OK with this so I put my bike in the car and drove down. I still wasn't sure whether the weather would be ok given the forecast but it was good enough in Exeter at about 11 so we decided to take the risk, although accepting that higher on Dartmoor might be a bit different. We set off and ended up riding on a route that we'd done when I took his bike down in October 2012.

I'd liked to have ridden somewhere different but the advantage of re-riding a route for only the second time is that you are guaranteed lots of achievements. The route heads out of Exeter to Longdown which is a long undulating Strava Cat 4 drag up followed by a fast descent at the bottom of Longdown we joined the 2013 Tour of Britain route and followed this to the top of Haytor.

The next climb was 6 Mile Hill (which isn't 6 miles and the longest Strava segment comes in at 3.6 miles) - compared to Longdown this is a tougher climb, a Strava Cat 3, as it is a more continuous climb. After 6 Mile Hill there's a descent and short climb into Mortonhampstead, and then a 7 mile run, generally down hill, to Bovey Tracey.

At the roundabout you can either turn left into Bovey Tracey itself or right straight into the climb to Haytor, which is what we did. From the roundabout its then uphill for over 3.5 miles to the top of Haytor. After 1/2 a mile from the roundabout there was a left fork and then the road continues on and up. At this point it also started raining reasonably steadily and the wind got up. It had been fairly breezy on the way over but for the next 2 miles or so the wind was very strong and the rain was heavy.

The Haytor climb was relentless. I tried to keep in 2nd (34-25) for as long as possible to save something for the end but I had to use the 34-28 on numerous occasions given the wind. My son was very gradually pulling away from me but I was never losing sight of him. It was tough to the cattle grid, and for a while after, but I soon realised that the trees that lined the road were doing a very good job of sheltering me from the wind, as after another 5 minutes or so the trees cleared and we were on the side of the hill. The wind seemed stronger than ever, and although there was intermittent shelter from the gradient itself it was strong. At about 2 1/2 miles it levelled out a little as we rode past the visitor centre, and although it had stopped raining by then there was no shelter from the wind and it then got steeper again for the final mile or so to the summit. This last bit was incredibly tough, especially as the top was almost in sight. I struggled up and rejoined my son. I was probably about 60 seconds behind him which I was reasonably happy with.

Looking at Strava later, Haytor is a Strava Cat 2. This is therefore the toughest hill I have ever climbed and it certainly felt it. It took me over 27 minutes from the roundabout at the bottom to the top. This placed me about 550th of 1050 riders. My general aim to be in the top 1/3rd wasn't met but given the conditions I was just about OK with this. I feel there is probably a couple of minutes I could pull out of the time given better conditions in the summer but I am not going to trouble the leader boards on a climb this long.

We then rode back down (I realised how long the climb was as we seemed to descend forever even at nearly 40 mph for periods). We stopped briefly in Bovey Tracey at Tesco for some chocolate and the rode back - but given Exeter it wasn't an easy return. We rode along the Teign Valley back to the bottom of the other side of Longdown - although it followed the river it was clear the river was losing a lot of height as its a long drag, and then Longdown is another Cat 4 climb back, and then there's the short sharp Poccombe Hill just on the re-entry to Exeter itself

I was glad to be back, but I am pleased to say, so was my son!

It was 45.6 miles, and 4285ft of climbing, so a very challenging ride - almost the magic 100ft/mile of ascent. 44 Strava achievements were a good reward as well.



Apart from the rain climbing Haytor we were lucky with the weather so for a winter ride a few days before Christmas we were very fortunate. Well worth doing.

Team JLR - STRAVA - Part 2

When I went to get one of our sons from Exeter University I took my bike done and we rode to Haytor (See here)

The distance of this ride together with the rides on Friday and Saturday pushed me to 2nd position for total distance and climbing in the Team JLR Strava club and I was also second in individual ride distance until Gavin Oag snuck in a better ride. So two 2nd places and a 3rd in a single week is another good achievement:

Week Ending 22 Dec 2013

The Number 11 Bus Route

According to Wikipedia The Number 11 Bus Route is "Europe's second longest urban bus route". Part of the route runs past Sarehole Mill which is less than 2 miles from my house. I'd been thinking about the practicalities of riding the route for some time and plotted out the 'A' (anticlockwise) route in Garmin Connect based on the info on the bus company's web site, assuming a start and finish at Sarehole Mill. I was reasonably comfortable that I knew about 60-70% of the route and that part was OK. The other 30% I was less sure about. This part started from Erdington Five Ways and ran through Aston, Witton and Winson Green (past the prison) before joining the Hagley Road where I knew the route again. There looked like a few busy roads so I decided that for this reason, and more generally for traffic that this route would be an early Sunday morning ride only. This Sunday I felt pretty tired and not really up for a long ride so decided to give it a go. The roads were quite wet so I decided to take the Giant (with mudguards) rather than the Scott.

After a short ride to Sarehole Mill off I started on the route. On the whole it was reasonably easy to follow - the Garmin seemed to behave itself on the whole. It got mildly confused somewhere between Erdington and Aston, but fortunately a number 11A bus appeared and I was able to follow it for 100yards or so.

At 9am in the morning the roads were pretty quiet all round. There were some gentle 'climbs' but I was able to keep in the big ring all the way. It took about 1hr 40 minutes for the 25 miles or so. There were a few traffic lights but on the whole it was a pretty even ride round. It would take a lot longer on a weekday or not as early and some of the roads and junctions would be fairly cyclist unfriendly with more traffic.

I had also plotted the 11C (clockwise) route as well and had thought of riding both in the same day but felt too tired to go back round for another 25 miles or so this time.

Here's the Strava Ride:


And to my shame I made a segment for it as well:


Needless to say its a KOM, although when I created the segment it did identify 2 similar segments - both of these were on quite a lot of the route but neither followed it fully or all the way round, so I don't feel too bad.

Would I do it again? Probably once more, and I'll do the 11C route as well to get the set. I am surprised no one else has ridden it to be honest, although it is not the most scenic route by a long way.

Team JLR - STRAVA

One of our colleagues created a Strava Club for JLR PD employees recently. As its all about the bragging rights I joined - as there are some pretty strong cyclist at JLR I never expected to get much recognition.

Recently however I was 2nd highest climber for the week and by a fraction of a mile rode the furthest this week - I won't get many of these so out with the trumpet and a self blown fanfare and upload the images for recording this feat for posterity:

Second Best Climber (w/e 24-Nov-2013)

Longest Rider (w/e 8-Dec-2013)

Clent Again - and a Coffee Stop

I went to Clent again recently, this time with Noel for the first time for 5 months or so. Based on the previous ride I planned the same but added another climb.

 

The new climb was from the A456 "Hagley Causeway" road up Hagley Wood Lane to the Nimmings Car Park and Cafe at the Clent Hills Visitor Centre. This was a tough climb. I went on the Scott and feel it would have been very tough on the Giant in its current "Winter" mode.

We stopped for a coffee at the cafe and then came back. I think there's one more climb to the Clent Hills, up Uffmoor Lane, so I'll go over again to do that one and then I feel Clent is out of my system for a while

Winter Riding = Dirty Riding

I am a pretty well year round rider, but there's one thing about riding in the winter that is a pain and that's the filth from the road. Here's my Scott after 40 miles of the roads between Solihull, Meriden and Bedworth:

I don't think I am overly precious about my bikes but I do tend to try to keep them clean. After this ride I cleaned the Scott properly and assumed that it would not be ridden again until Spring. However a few weekends later the roads were dry and the lure of the Scott was just too great. Its not as dirty this time but its certainly not clean like it was...

The worst thing is the wheel rims that tend to get machined away if the roads are too wet or mucky. I am still using the RS80s on the Scott and these really seem to get eaten by the muck. On the Giant I refit the original heavy Giant wheels in the winter for this reason alone - these wheels are in the £80 region to replace rather than the £350 region for the RS80s. But in the end the bikes are there to be ridden. So I do.