The week before when I went to collect one of our sons from Exeter University I took my bike and we rode a loop of Dartmoor that included a climb of Haytor. This is described here.
On the way back to the Midlands I suggested that when he went back to Exeter we could take a small detour and stop and cycle Cheddar Gorge. So we did this Sunday 29 Dec. The omens did not look good when we loaded the car back up at 8am in the morning as the car and road was covered with a thick frost. In fact it was thick enough to make me wonder whether the roads would be too icy at Cheddar. However given that Cheddar was still 2 hours travel time and would be about 11.00am before we got there, there was plenty of time to go before we needed to make that decision.. We set off from home just before 9.00am. We reached the Gordano services at Bristol an about 10.30 for a quick comfort break and were a bit put off by how incredibly icy the car park was. We drove for another 20 minutes to the planned start point in Blagdon where there was fortunately a small and free car park. We parked up and I set my Garmin to follow the route I'd planned earlier.
In fact the route I had planned was actually part of a Wiggle Sportive that I'd done back in August 2011 so I ha an idea that at least the roads were acceptable, so for me the route would mostly be a re-ride but it would be new for my son. We followed the main road out of the village for about 2-3 miles to the foot of Burrington Combe which was the first of the two climbs. This was never really steep - probably 5-8% for most of the way, but long and tiring with a false summit. The previous time I'd stopped at the bottom for a quick feedstop so the PR 5 minutes faster is unrepresentative. It was cold in the gorge but there was no ice on the roads and it was good to cycle in the sun that was shining at the top.
We took a right at the top and rode along a generally flat route for some miles. Here there was sign of ice on the roads in the shade of the trees and bushes, so we needed to be reasonably careful. There was then a decent descent (Longbottom) before we joined a more main road (Shipham Road) and rode down into Cheddar. In good weather both these would be really fast and good fun but with the risk of ice we had to be careful, although Shipham Road was OK. It was then a couple of miles through the town/village of Cheddar and then on to the foot of Cheddar Gorge itself.
Even at the time of year and with the very cold weather it was pretty busy at the foot of the gorge. It was also fairly cold as well. I led my son up through the early sections (he was happy to follow) until the steepest part on a left hand turn where it briefly hit about 16%. At this point I needed to be in the 34-28 gear and was huffing and puffing. My son however shot off leaving me pretty well standing. I shouted to him to wait for me at the 1st left fork and off he went. After that very steep part, it was pretty hard work and although I could feel some energy coming back and my speed was picking up I was making hard work of it. I'd completely lost sight of my son by then. As time progressed I could feel my energy coming back and I started to try and push as hard as I could. Just like Burrington Combe it was really very cold in the gorge, but again no sign of ice on the road. As it continued to flatten out I was starting to push much harder and eventually could see the turn and my son waiting.
I felt that I'd gone quicker up the climb than the last time but looking at Strava later was fairly disappointed to see that I was only about 45secs (in 16 minutes or so, depending on which segment to use) faster than previously The times this ride put me at about 1/2 way up the rankings (~1900 out of 3900). I am hoping that in the summer warmer weather would give me another minute or so, and I'd try to hang on to my son's back wheel more as a pace setter. I generally seem to lose speed in the winter so I am banking on that for the reason for a disappointing time by my standard. Any way that's my excuse. On the small road back towards a descent of Burrington Combe was the iciest bit of road and my son momentarily lost the back wheel on ice but managed to keep up. In dry weather the Burrington Combe descent would have been exhilarating but the wet roads meant discretion was best approach. A short ride and small climb back into Blagdon saw then end of an excellent ride. 24 miles and just over 2250 feet of ascent meant we almost hit that magic ft/mile metric as well.
Here is the ride:
