I rode the Dartmoor Demon Sportive on 5 May 2018. I have ridden very few Sportives over the past few years but this was a Christmas present from my sons. In theory the 88 mile distance did not look too daunting but the 8800ft of ascent did so I was wary and thought I might opt for the medium route at the split depending how I felt.
However I felt good at the split and carried on. All was well until ~70 miles. Two signed 20% climbs in quick succession basically almost finished me, so discretion being the better part of valour I started to (because I needed to) walk some of the steeper hills, although I don't think I could have ridden many of them by that distance anyway.
I needed to stop and the village of Widecombe on the Moor appeared, so I had a can of full fat Coke and then rode on - a few hundred yards further was yet another climb that I walked - uploading to Strava later identified it as #10 - Widecombe - which is the other ascent of Haytor (in turn #9 - Haytor Vale) which I have also climbed I was disappointed that I didn't know it was there but even if I had known and I tried, I would never have been able to ride up it given how tired I was by that point However we had a long weekend in Exeter and circumstances combined that meant we ended up at the top of Haytor and hence had the opportunity to try the climb again.
I rode from the Haytor summit car park to Widecombe - it is about 3 miles with over two miles of "flat" so I tried to get my heart rate up. A free wheel descent to Widecombe, slight push up the climb to the village green and a turn in front of the church and straight back to the climb was the order of the day.
Despite knowing what to expect it. was still a beast - I was just about warmed up and could grind up the hill - on the 34-32 gearing only though. It was tough but I felt OK. It's almost a straight climb with just a small left-right dogleg. I pushed on back to the top of Haytor and then over and down to the visitor centre where my wife picked me up On the first walking attempt I did the following: Time: 13:59 Speed 3.7mph On the second riding attempt I did the following: Time: 9:25 Speed 5.5mph
According to Strava my power meter registered an average power of 232W and a peak of 427W which was probably near the bottom. Here's the same data from Veloviewer
The Veloviewer screenshot above shows a mighty 4.5mph pace at some points
This time put me about 1487th of 4424 (as of 7 May 2018) so just outside the top 1/3 - which is where I have been typically - assuming that I have not not already ridden 75 miles! According to Strava it's 0.85mile long and 530ft of ascent at an average 12%
In the book the "recommended" time is 9 minutes so I ended up reasonably pleased with the effort on this ride Haytor Vale (#9) is a 5/10 and Widecombe a 7/10 - there is no doubt that Widecombe is a much harder climb. I have updated the page on this blog that collates all the efforts I have made on the 100 Climbs series - this is here: https://midlandscyclist.blogspot.co.uk/p/100-gr.html I used my Garmin Virb to make a video here:
And at the top of Haytor my wife took a few photos as I passed by:
Doccomb was part of the Dartmoor Demon and I had my Virb running for this climb as well:
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.
I went to collect one of our sons from Exeter University on 22 Dec, and had suggested that we cycled before returning - in particular I wanted to ride up Haytor. He was OK with this so I put my bike in the car and drove down. I still wasn't sure whether the weather would be ok given the forecast but it was good enough in Exeter at about 11 so we decided to take the risk, although accepting that higher on Dartmoor might be a bit different. We set off and ended up riding on a route that we'd done when I took his bike down in October 2012.
I'd liked to have ridden somewhere different but the advantage of re-riding a route for only the second time is that you are guaranteed lots of achievements. The route heads out of Exeter to Longdown which is a long undulating Strava Cat 4 drag up followed by a fast descent at the bottom of Longdown we joined the 2013 Tour of Britain route and followed this to the top of Haytor. The next climb was 6 Mile Hill (which isn't 6 miles and the longest Strava segment comes in at 3.6 miles) - compared to Longdown this is a tougher climb, a Strava Cat 3, as it is a more continuous climb. After 6 Mile Hill there's a descent and short climb into Mortonhampstead, and then a 7 mile run, generally down hill, to Bovey Tracey. At the roundabout you can either turn left into Bovey Tracey itself or right straight into the climb to Haytor, which is what we did. From the roundabout its then uphill for over 3.5 miles to the top of Haytor. After 1/2 a mile from the roundabout there was a left fork and then the road continues on and up. At this point it also started raining reasonably steadily and the wind got up. It had been fairly breezy on the way over but for the next 2 miles or so the wind was very strong and the rain was heavy. The Haytor climb was relentless. I tried to keep in 2nd (34-25) for as long as possible to save something for the end but I had to use the 34-28 on numerous occasions given the wind. My son was very gradually pulling away from me but I was never losing sight of him. It was tough to the cattle grid, and for a while after, but I soon realised that the trees that lined the road were doing a very good job of sheltering me from the wind, as after another 5 minutes or so the trees cleared and we were on the side of the hill. The wind seemed stronger than ever, and although there was intermittent shelter from the gradient itself it was strong. At about 2 1/2 miles it levelled out a little as we rode past the visitor centre, and although it had stopped raining by then there was no shelter from the wind and it then got steeper again for the final mile or so to the summit. This last bit was incredibly tough, especially as the top was almost in sight. I struggled up and rejoined my son. I was probably about 60 seconds behind him which I was reasonably happy with. Looking at Strava later, Haytor is a Strava Cat 2. This is therefore the toughest hill I have ever climbed and it certainly felt it. It took me over 27 minutes from the roundabout at the bottom to the top. This placed me about 550th of 1050 riders. My general aim to be in the top 1/3rd wasn't met but given the conditions I was just about OK with this. I feel there is probably a couple of minutes I could pull out of the time given better conditions in the summer but I am not going to trouble the leader boards on a climb this long. We then rode back down (I realised how long the climb was as we seemed to descend forever even at nearly 40 mph for periods). We stopped briefly in Bovey Tracey at Tesco for some chocolate and the rode back - but given Exeter it wasn't an easy return. We rode along the Teign Valley back to the bottom of the other side of Longdown - although it followed the river it was clear the river was losing a lot of height as its a long drag, and then Longdown is another Cat 4 climb back, and then there's the short sharp Poccombe Hill just on the re-entry to Exeter itself I was glad to be back, but I am pleased to say, so was my son! It was 45.6 miles, and 4285ft of climbing, so a very challenging ride - almost the magic 100ft/mile of ascent. 44 Strava achievements were a good reward as well.
Apart from the rain climbing Haytor we were lucky with the weather so for a winter ride a few days before Christmas we were very fortunate. Well worth doing.
