I first rode Horseshoe Pass back in September 2015 when we went to see the Tour of Britain in Wales - I wrote a few words about it here. This time we went on the Railway at Llangollen just after the August Bank Holiday.
Here's the picturesque station from the bridge
After we had ridden the railway and had some lunch and I rode the Pass again. We'd parked about 1/2-3/4 mile up the road from Lllangollen towards the pass so I rode back into the town and beyond before doing a U-turn to ride back up. I'd forgotten that the steeper sections were between the town and the cattle grid, after which it was a lot steadier, and whilst I was not overly fast I felt nowhere near as stressed on the climb as I had previously when I had very little warm up and was on the limit. In fact I felt pretty good and was riding well in my comfort zone and felt faster than the previous time. The hairpin came up sooner than I expected and I had some effort in reserve so I pushed harder at that point all the way to the Ponderosa cafe Here's a video of the climb and descent:
This time I remembered to start the camera in Llangollen so its the full climb.
Despite feeling faster than the first time I was slower everywhere except the segment approaching the summit. I was a bit annoyed as I had some left in the tank and should have gone faster everywhere.
If I ignore being slower than the previous time I was happy with my power numbers - a high average and high Dr Coggan value (weighted power in Strava speak):
On Sunday 6 September 2015 we decided almost on the spur of the moment to go and watch the Tour of Britain Stage 1 finish in Wrexham. On the way I took the opportunity to climb 100 Climbs #90 - Horseshoe Pass. We parked in Llangollen and I initially rode the "wrong" way to warm up a little before turning around and starting the climb. I was not sure what to expect as it was classed as a 7/10 and 22 minutes of climbing. It was a reasonable day but there was some wind blowing. The road climbed gently out of Llangollen with nothing too taxing but then it gradually started to steepen. The lack of a proper warm up soon became apparent and my heart rate was too high and it was hard work even though it was never too steep. After a mile or so I realised that I had forgotten to start my Garmin Virb and did not start it until just before the cattle grid. Around this time I had also started to get my heart rate under control by easing off the pace slightly and I began to feel more comfortable as well. I passed a couple on matching his 'n' her Giant bikes - we'd seen them cycling on the A5 towards Llangollen earlier, so they were making slow but steady progress:
A little further on this rather alarming sign appeared
Fortunately the sign was a complete mis-representation (it says this in the 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs book as well) and fortunately the climb maintained a steady gradient. After the sign the road swings left and then right (I think this bit is the 'horseshoe') and then climbs steadily up. In the photo above you can see the road climbing (the grey line) but fortunately once you have got to this bit the gradient progressively eases all the way to the top and I could keep shifting into a higher gear (still on the small ring though) and continue to the top and see the sign for the top:
A few hundred yards beyond the top is the "Ponderosa Cafe" - clearly a very popular motorcyclist haunt.
A quick turn around and small climb back to the top meant I was back on the proper descent. I saw the Giant pair again a few 100 meters from the top. The first pat of the descent was not great - I needed to avoid both potholes and sheep. However once through the horseshoe the surface was super smooth and I got up to 40mph on the descent for a couple of reasonable periods. Taking the cattle grid at 40mph was a moment of focus! All to soon (after a short small climb) I was back in Llangollen and back at the car Strava gave the stats here as: Distance = 3.8m Height Gain = 1026ft Average Gradient = 5% My Time = 22:15 My Average Speed = 10.3mph Position = 1235 / 5616 I was pretty pleased with that. It was a 7/10 in "The Book" but I don't think it was that hard. The hardest part was at the bottom as the gradient kept changing making it hard to get a decent rhythm but as the climb progressed it become more consistent. Here's a video from my Garmin Virb:
