Cycling In the Lake District - Day Two - Hardknott Pass

Day 2 - Hardknott

(updated 2 Jul 2014 with some photos)

It started well enough with a pleasant but long drive from Thirlmere to Ravenglass - in fact Eskdale - as we went for the day on the Ravenglass & Eskdale Steam Railway. We drove to the station at Dalegarth for Boot Station which is the Eastern end of the line. As an aside it took us over 1½ hours to drive south, east and north around 3 sides of a square rather than driving directly west across Wrynose and Hardknott.

We had a very pleasant ride on the railway (very cheap tickets as we used some Tesco vouchers), and a lunch at the station at Ravenglass before heading back. The weather was OK at lunch time was but we needed a fleece over a T Shirt but the sun really came up and was beautifully sunny for the ride back.

I had chosen the Dalegarth end as it was fairly close to the start of Hardknott, so my wife read in the car whilst I got changed and got the bike ready. I then turn west and rode back to the village of Eskdale Green to try to get a few miles in and warm up a bit before starting to climb Hardknott Pass.

It was a little further than I though from Eskdale Green to the foot of the pass and was nicely rolling so I was as warmed up as I was going to be. With about a mile to go you can see the pass climbing up ahead and from the few cars on the road you could see, even from that distance, how incredibly steep the road was. I won't deny that there was an element of concern about the difficulty of the climb and I was not sure if I would make it, I was in 2 minds - I had completed Wrynose the day before and that was hard but knew that at 30%, some of the slopes on Hardknott would be even tougher.

The bottom of Hardknott Pass

 I arrived at the phone box at the foot of the pass proper (I knew this because there was a huge warning sign!) and immediately in the trees was forced into 2nd gear. 200 yards further on I hit the cattle grid and was in 1st (34-28) and 50 yards further on was standing on the pedals to try to keep going. There was a stretch of 17-25% (25% on the hairpins) for 500 yards or so, that with a very poor road surface meant that the riding was very very hard, and I needed to stand for most of the steeper parts. I hate standing on the pedals as its very tiring and for me means that I have nothing more in the bag as its a last resort.

I was determined not to fail (my assumption was if I could make Hardknott I could do any other climb in the book) and dug even deeper. Fortunately the road eased off a little (to around 12-15%) so there was some respite. At home this sort of gradient would be a monster but here I was just grateful for it as it was so much easier. Given the way the road wound up, this stretch almost looked flat as well! This phase also gave me a chance to drink some water and pour some over me. The good weather earlier was now fantastic. I was in the lee of the wind on this side of the pass and the sun was beating down and I was pouring with sweat.

Although the short less steep section had been a respite, it did not take long before the road really kicked up to the 30% section of hairpins. This was incredibly steep. It was almost impossible to keep momentum. Earlier on the climb I'd needed to stand to keep going but also to try to keep the front wheel on the ground. At 30% it was almost too steep to stand but sitting just kept lifting the wheel off. I made 50-100 yards at a slower and slower speed and was down to about 3mph. At such a low speed it was getting even harder to keep the wheel on the ground as the cadence was so slow. I had a couple of wheelies and just as I was going to stand to get more weight over the front wheel I pulled another wheelie and lost enough balance that I had to unclip to avoid falling over. I managed to push the bike another 50-60 yards to a slightly lees steep section (although walking was hard as well) and then paused for about 30 seconds more as I had a small stitch and form my heart rate to drop from 192 to a more sensible 175-180. I was able to remount the bike and managed to ride to the top which was another 2-300 yards or so.

So I had got to the top of Hardknott but had failed to cycle all the way, having needed to walk that 50-60 yards or so. I rode just far enough over the top to be sure of completing it and then turned around and rode back down. I think this was worse. It felt as if I were going to fall over the handle bars. Keeping the back wheel from locking was almost impossible so all the braking was through the front but I managed to keep the speed to around 10mph or so. I even unclipped at a few points. Once over the cattle grid it was easier and a pleasant ride back to the car.

On reflection - could I have ridden up it? I think just - but I need a 30 tooth cassette to get the cadence up a bit more as I ran out of low end power on the section that I stopped on. Also I need to practice very steep climbing technique to try and keep the front wheel on the ground better and keep control of the bike - with a lower gear again it would be even easier to lift the wheel. The fact that I made almost all of it and failed due to poor bike handling gave me some confidence that I have the base fitness and I could do it again in one pass, although it was incredibly difficult.

When I got back and uploaded the ride I was surprised to see how relatively well I had done on the only segment I cared about:

"OFFICIAL 100Climbs No 84 Hardknott Pass", 1.4miles, 979ft, 13% average - my time 16:35, placing 727 of 3727 (just about the top 20%)

Statistics for the ride:
Distance: 13.2 miles
Ride Time: 1hr 00mins
Height Gained: 1460ft
Average Speed: 13.2mph
Link to Strava Ride: http://www.strava.com/activities/160059334

 Some photos:

From the ruins of the Roman Fort looking up

Not quite sure where this is from!

Another view from the ruins of the Roman Fort looking up