Haytor Again

I first rode Haytor with my son just before Christmas 2013. It was cold and windy and the climb up the (Strava) Cat 2 climb was by far the hardest climb I had ridden. I wrote a few words here: Haytor back at Christmas.

I was down in Exeter for part of the May Day Bank Holiday weekend so took the opportunity to ride it again. This time, rather than ride from Exeter I drove over and parked at a car park just above the Visitor Centre, and rode a circular route of about 17 miles, with the full climb of Haytor at the end:

I did make a small mistake - a road was closed hence the small detour and I ended up no quite doing the planned route. The weather was good - sunny and reasonably warm with a light wind, fortunately a tail wind up Haytor. As a result I got a whole bagful of PRs. 2090ft of climbing and 17 miles meant over the magic 100ft/mile metric

The Scott was excellent as always and I had, like at Christmas, to use the 50-28 gear but a lot less than previously. In fact I was fast enough that I am now about 40 seconds faster than my son on the 100 climbs segment: OFFICIAL 100Climbs No9 Haytor Vale and 223 out of 1193 overall so well pleased. However this was still a very tough climb.

And a car hit a cow behind me just below the visitor centre! The police were still sorting out out 30 minutes later when we drive away.