I have been trying to tick off some more of the climbs in both the first and second 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs books and due to a few "unofficial cycling holidays" in the last year have made some headway. There's been good progress in the Lake District and a toe in the water in Yorkshire. In addition there's a surprising number in the South East of England that are ridable from my parents house in north west Kent.
The next two in the south east that I was going to approach were #19 (The Wall) and #115 (Ashdown Forest). I had plotted a route to these from my parents a number of months ago, but this was a round trip of nearly 80 miles. 80 miles in early April is still quite a big time commitment (especially when I am meant to be visiting my parents and not spending half the day cycling!). In addition its surprising how hilly the Wealds and Downs of Kent, Surrey & Sussex can be, so it was not just the distance but the likelihood of ~60-70ft/mile or more of ascent as well.
The compromise was therefore to drive to Shoreham (Kent) and this got the distance down to 50 miles or about 3 hours of riding - a lot more socially acceptable. I modified the original route (using the Strava route planner now) to make a shorter one and duly set off.
Here's the route which shows both the "bigger" climbs but also that there are no flat bits:
It was initially a few miles of familiar roads to Sevenoaks then a new route through the town centre and beyond. As it was all new to me from Sevenoaks I really just followed the route on the Garmin without paying a lot of attention. The route was predominantly south to Groombridge with quite a lot of rolling climbing - including one quite long drag (that turned out later to be a Strava Cat 4 I found). At the top of this climb I almost caught another cyclist that I'd been following and was faster who swung off to the right to obviously catch up with his riding partner who was already at the top. Unfortunately he had a clipless moment just as I reached them both! As I turned out of Groombridge I started on a long ascent past a sign saying "Welcome to the Ashdown Forest". This climb was a long steady ride over a reasonable distance - but never really steep.At the top I turned sharp right almost back on myself at the top of the Forest and saw lots of other cyclists so guessed that I was close to The Wall. As I continued a few yards further on I saw more cyclists coming from a road on the left in low gears looking slow and assumed that this was the climb - however my Garmin route made no indication that I should turn - and I rarely plot a route of the length I was riding that day where part of it would be an up/down detour from the route. I stopped in the car park at the junction and looked at the Garmin more carefully and from the depths of my memory thought that the book also called The Wall Kidds Hill as well - so I took a flier and started to ride down the hill. The fact that there were 20 or so cyclists riding towards me gave me a level of confidence that I was probably correct and that the worst case was I had just added a couple of miles and some climbing to the route. It was a fast but bumpy descent and I rode all the way down until it started to climb up again, and at this point did a U-turn and started back up.
The first landmark on the climb was a ford to the left (and the book mentions that the climb starts from here). The gradient gradually steepened for a while but I was able to hang on in the 34-25 (leaving 1 gear left for a while). The road then drifted round to the left before pointing dead straight up to the top. Its clear here why its called the "The Wall" - although not excessively steep being dead straight all you can see is tarmac to the top. The gradient was fairly consistent all the way - a few areas where it briefly eased before reverting to the average. It was just a case of grinding out the climb (and I needed the 34-28 lowest gear) all the way to the top. A dead straight climb like The Wall is both hard and easy - its hard because there's no relief - just keep straight on and the top looms over you - but easy because you know where the top is and you're not caught out by blind summits and summits round the next corner. Interestingly whilst the climb had been swarming with cyclist when I first reached the top and started the descent - once I started up myself I saw no other cyclists at all - either descending or climbing.
I had my Garmin Virb with me and started the camera on the descent, here's the video.
For reasons I am not sure about this time the camera did not store any GPS related data - so this is just a video of my descent and climb.
At the top I took a few minutes break in the car park again to have something to eat and a gel, and read the information board about this part of the Forest and its use in the Winnie the Pooh stories before setting off back. Again the route was good (I have been generally lucky selecting roads less well used by cars for areas that I don't know) and I rode generally northwards.
With signs showing Ide Hill was a few miles to go I was passed by another cyclist. A short acknowledgement and he rode away from me at a slightly higher speed. I thought I might be able to keep up but I knew there was still a fair way to go and, given the rolling nature of the area, quite a bit of climbing left including Ide Hill. He slowly rode away (although not quite as quickly on the upwards parts) and a few miles later I was back on the road I recognised at the bottom of Ide Hill.
I've descended and climbed this several times now and know its just about pacing. It's not massively steep or long but it needs to be approached sensibly. I dropped onto the 34 front ring immediately (even though it was not steep where I joined just to up the cadence and lower the effort before it got steeper.
I could still see the other rider still ahead but I seemed to be slowly catching him. As the climb continued I realised that I was actually going a lot quicker than he was and was going to easily catch him - which I did. As I (literally) cruised up behind I could see he was on a very expensive bike (with Di2 of some sort) and in head-to-toe Rapha. That made the catch all the sweeter! However catching is one thing and passing another and I just sucked his wheel all the way to the top just to be irritating. He didn't acknowledge my friendly greeting when I caught him either!
I had put my Garmin Virb on for the Ide Hill Ascent as well so here's the video:
Once at the top of Ide Hill its then a fast downhill to Sevenoaks and a relatively short ride back to Shoreham.
The ride was 49.9 miles with 4500ft of climbing (so almost 100ft/mile) and 3hrs12mins duration at 15.5mph average. I was happy with that. A good ride.
When I got back and uploaded the route I realised that the planned route was actually for #115 Ashdown Forest and did not include The Wall. It shows I need to pay more attention next time - I got the climb I planned but did not know I was doing, and added a second climb in by chance that I thought I was meant to be doing in the first place!
I have updated the summary of my climbs progress here: http://midlandscyclist.blogspot.co.uk/p/100-gr.html
