Another 100 Hill - #16 White Lane

I was at my parents again over the weekend of 26/27 July so I decided to revisit the route I rode a few months previously when I had attempted to ride 4 of the hills in the100 Greatest Cycling Climbs Book. On this earlier ride I missed White Lane due to insufficient attention to detail when looking at the map, so the plan was to ride the same route and make sure that I did White Lane, but I'd skip a second run at Chalkpit Lane this time round. My son, also a keen cyclist (and benefiting from youth and lots of time to train and so faster than me) came as well.

I had the route programmed in to my Garmin but felt I could probably remember most of it. We set off from Dartford about 8am and made good time through the Darent Valley villages (Sutton at Hone, Horton Kirby) and then onto the A20 briefly before turning off through Eynsford. From Eynsford we rode through Lullingstone and then got onto the Pilgrims Way. We followed this for a number of miles before dropping down over the M25 next to the Clacket Lane services and down further onto the A25 to Oxted. Its a right off the A25 to follow the road as it crosses under the M25 and then sweeps round to the left up Titsey Hill. White Lane is a small right turn just after the steepest part of Titsey Hill as it sweeps to the left.

The push up Titsey Hill to White Lane is in itself pretty steep (around 15-16%) so the slight flattening on the start of White Lane was a relief. However this relief lasted only a few meters as it kicked up straight away to a steep drag. The surface was very poor and the gradient always steep, with occasional easing of around 8%, but over 16% in many other places. My son got wheel spin on several occasions and for him with a 34-25 gearing it was harder than me on my 34-28, although it wasn't easy for me. I managed to struggle up remaining seated but was dripping with sweat and with a very high heart rate. It was one of those hills that seemed to go on for ever and there were at least two false summits before we finally crested the hill. After a moment we carried on left and the doubled back on ourselves and rode back down Titsey Hill - my son having less fear reached 50mph on the descent but I am far too cautious and only made about 45mph

The link to the Segment: OFFICIAL 100Climbs No16 White Lane. I am 378th of 1857 with a time of 3:41 - I was pretty pleased as again I was easily in the top 20% with that time.

We rode the same route as previously (although missed out Chalkpit Lane this time) and I improved my times on both Toys Hill and Yorks Hill. Toys Hill was more a case of chasing my son who prefers this type of hill. Yorks Hill was still very tough - the kick to ~20% over the last 50m or so is a beast. However on Yorks Hill there was another cyclist walking up so there is no better spur than seeing someone walking to force you to put in a bigger effort!

The Strava link to the whole ride is here: White Lane, Toys Hill, York Hill.

The comment my son made was "I didn't know Kent was so hilly" and that's from someone who cycles around Exeter on Dartmoor!

The next ride in the south east is I think No 19 - The Wall down near Tonbridge Wells - in itself a fair round trip form Dartford