100 Climb #23 Whiteleaf and Another 100 Climb #122 Kingston Hill

Today we dropped one of our sons off very early at Heathrow Airport for travel to Russia as part of his University Course. Given that the timing meant that a normal Sunday ride was going to be difficult I looked at my little books (100 Greatest Cycling Climbs and Another 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs) and spotted 2 of the hills just off the M40 near Princes Risborough. These were #23 - Whiteleaf and #122 - Kingston Hill. With a little negotiation with Mrs Midland Cyclist she agreed to sit on the car for a couple of hours while I rode a circular loop of just over 20 miles to get both these in. Originally I was going to do just Whiteleaf but Kingston Hill was only 7-8 miles from Princes Risborough so it seemed worth the effort. I parked in the  Princes Risborough Tesco car park, got the bike out of the car and got changed - my Focus is just about big enough for a quick kit change! 

I set off - not a bad day at all with light wind and about 6-8Deg C, although it was overcast and grey with low cloud. It was a reasonably quick spin for the 7 miles or so to the bottom of Kingston Hill, but for some reason despite feeling warm and ready at the bottom of the hill I struggled and made it harder work that I think it would be normally - its graded as a 2/10 but I found it harder than that today. Here's my effort: https://www.strava.com/segments/6655533

#122 Kingston Hill

I managed 6:02 vs a target time of 5 minutes.

At the top I turned onto the A40 - I had not spotted this busy road when plotting the route and it was also quite misty at the top. Fortunately the traffic was light. My route then had a 12 mile or so run back to Princes Risborough with quite a tough climb (Radnage) in between.

On getting back to Princes Risborough I crossed my route and turned towards the Whiteleaf Climb. As soon as you turn onto Peters Lane you can see the climb a few hundred meters ahead and it looks tough from the outset. I dropped onto the small 34 ring and tried to spin up, but the gradient increased very quickly and I was soon in the 34-28 and struggling. It seemed steepest as the road bent to the right and stayed steep for another few hundred meters - a slight kick at the end and then it was over. It was hard and deserved the 7/10 rating.

Here's my effort: https://www.strava.com/segments/6681416

#23 Whiteleaf

I managed 7:25 against a target time of 6 minutes - again nothing special but it was tough

This ride increases my list of completed climbs of the (now) 200 total:

No	Name (rating/10)	My Time Book time	Strava Link
1	Cheddar Gorge (3/10)	14:17 (13:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6665302
14	Box Hill (3/10)	07:50 (7:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6695759
15	Yorks Hill (6/10)	04:20 (3:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691251
16	White Lane (5/10)	03:41 (3:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691229
20	Toys Hill (7/10)	10:50 (8:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691062
22	Ditchling Beacon (6/10)	06:47 (6:30)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6691384
23	Whiteleaf (7/10)	07:25 (6:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6681416
26	Mott Street (3/10)	5:21 (6:30)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691219
80	Honister Pass (9/10)	15:02 (17:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/667735
81	Newlands Hause (8/10)	10:52 (9:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677326
82	Whinlatter Pass (5/10)	12:16 (13:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment http://www.strava.com/segments/2646437
83	Kirkstone Pass (7/10)	18:38 (21:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677526
84	Hardknott Pass (Failed - had to walk) (10/10)	16:35 (15:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677392
85	Wrynose Pass (10/10)	15:56 (15:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677446
98	Rhigos (6/10)	unknown (19:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment
99	The Bwlch (5/10)	unknown (21:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment
117	Chalkpit Lane (7/10)	08:03 (8:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/2659930
122	Kingston Hill (2/10)	06:02 (5:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6655533
132	Gun Hill (5/10)	10:24 (11:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/2376214
136	Edge Hill (1/10)	04:20 (5:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/781198

I've made a new page on this blog here to put the table rather than keep embedding it on the main pages. Hopefully I'll try and make the table "better" with some other information about each climb

As well as just completing the climbs and ticking them off you can compare your efforts against other people using the excellent Veloviewer "extension" sites - there's one for each book.

For the original site this link lets you compare yourself. Before today I was in 161st place and afterwards I was in 146th place overall out of 2183 - I am pretty pleased with this:

Before

After

For the "Another 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs" leader board I moved from 633 to 419 of 1729 places:

Before

After

Overall - a pretty satisfying result

One Year TIme Trial & Tommy Godwin

Via the beauty of the internet I cane across this amazing challenge: One Year Time Trial, and as a result some more reading about Tommy Godwin - an amazing challenge in 1939 and still an incredible undertaking in 2015

My personal best is 118 miles, so I can appreciate what 180miles is like - every day!

Rear Lights for Commuting

A few posts ago I wrote here about some of the things I did or used for commuting in the dark. I wrote about the rear lights that I used which were 2 Smart Lights and a Fibre Flare Shorty

Last week I was fitting a piece of Meccano as a bracket between my pannier rack and one of the Smart LED lights in the garage in the evening

I took a few photos to see how effective they were and these are below. Admittedly this is not particularly scientific as I was quite close and the camera was not very good at capturing the real light levels. The first photo is with flash which I then disabled:

With the flash on the reflection from some reflective Scotch tape on the mudguard overrides everything else

The 2 Smart Lights and the Fibre Flare in "on" mode

Just the Smart LEDS

I also made a small Video:

What the video shows is that with 3 flashing lights at least one is always on and the it really draws attention to the bike

100 Climbs #26 - Mott Street

I went to visit my parents on the weekend of 7/8 February 2015, but after a quick look at the "bible" - 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs I saw #26 - Mott Street a stones throw from J25/J26 of the M25. This was an "ideal" location for a lunch stop on the way down and then a quick ride up and down to tick another one off the list.

We stopped at The Plough in Sewardstone - right on the junction of Mott Street.



We had a lunch from the Light Lunch Menu. Reasonably priced, freshly cooked and very good service - highly recommended.

After that I got changed in the car, put the wheels back on my bike, cycled out of the car park, turned right to the junction (20m), did a U-Turn, dropped onto the 34 ring and started the climb - no warm-up and no preparation.

The first 1/2 mile or so was fairly flat and I got a good cadence going. After that it started to increase in gradient gently and then there was a small kick up just before the mile mark before easing off a bit then steepening finally for the last 1/4 mile or so. The fact that I'd just had some lunch and done no warm up started to show just about here but then it was over. The steepest parts were probably 10-12% only and for a short distance. I rode on for another 1/2 mile or so to be sure I'd got the the end, turned at the T junction at the top and rode down.

And that was it it - 3.1 miles, 302ft of ascent and 13 minutes and 25 seconds of riding:

The key segment data was:
Link: https://www.strava.com/segments/6691219
Length: 0.9miles
Height Gain: 254ft
Average Gradient: 5%
My time: 5:21
My Speed: 10.5
My position: 1111/2142

Book time is 6'30" so the time of 5'21" is pretty good

I'd hoped to be in the top 1/3rd but given no warm up and quite cold weather will take that time and tick the hill off the list. I know I could do better but probably won't ride it again.

I have now done 15 of the 1st 100 - so only 85 to go!

Here's my table of progress:

No	Name (rating/10)	My Time Book time	Strava Link
1	Cheddar Gorge (3/10)	14:17 (13:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6665302
14	Box Hill (3/10)	07:50 (7:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6695759
15	Yorks Hill (6/10)	04:20 (3:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691251
16	White Lane (5/10)	03:41 (3:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691229
20	Toys Hill (7/10)	10:50 (8:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691062
22	Ditchling Beacon (6/10)	06:47 (6:30)	http://app.strava.com/segments/6691384
26	Mott Street (3/10)	5:21 (6:30)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6691219
80	Honister Pass (9/10)	15:02 (17:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/667735
81	Newlands Hause (8/10)	10:52 (9:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677326
82	Whinlatter Pass (5/10)	12:16 (13:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment http://www.strava.com/segments/2646437
83	Kirkstone Pass (7/10)	18:38 (21:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677526
84	Hardknott Pass (Failed - had to walk) (10/10)	16:35 (15:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677392
85	Wrynose Pass (10/10)	15:56 (15:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/6677446
98	Rhigos (6/10)	unknown (19:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment
99	The Bwlch (5/10)	unknown (21:00)	Ride not meeting 100 Climbs segment
117	Chalkpit Lane (7/10)	08:03 (8:00)	http://www.strava.com/segments/2659930
132	Gun Hill (5/10)	10:24 (11:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/2376214
136	Edge Hill (1/10)	04:20 (5:00)	http://app.strava.com/segments/781198

Obsessessed?

On Saturday I went out for as short a ride as I could to do just over 2000ft of ascent. There was still some snow on the ground and it was cold - so why on earth would I do that?

Basically - Strava. I sign up for the monthly challenges and try to complete some of them. Last year (2014) I managed to do 11 of them: http://midlandscyclist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/jlr-strava-club-longest-ride-we-21.html.

Normally the ones I managed to complete were the Grand Fondo - made easier last year as the distance was reduced to 80 miles from 100 the year before. I managed all of them from April to December. I also completed two others by a lucky alignment of when they fell in the months (a 5 weekend month always stands a higher chance of higher mileage). I have not yet managed to complete an MTS challenge at 1250km for a month though

For 2015 there were some new challenges introduced in January - there was a shorter Fondo of 100km (64 miles), a Grand Fondo of 150km and a climbing challenge. I felt I was in for a good chance for the shorter Fondo with a planned ride on 1 Jan from my parents to my sister in law in Billingshurst which was just under 60 miles. I thought that a few extra loops near the end would strike that one off, but I ended up being 0.5miles too short - I was really quite annoyed. Here's the ride: https://www.strava.com/activities/235324641

Given 60+ miles in January is 4+ hours for me in the Winter I felt that that was it for any of the January challenges. I plodded on riding miles through January and because there was some ice I rode a few trips over to Rose Hill in the Lickey Hills to do repeats (the roads there and back are mainly bus routes so clear of ice). The first time I rode the Bilberry Hill ascent and the second time the other side of the Old Birmingham Road ascent. These rides are not really climbs but the roads over from home are rolling and it is easily possible to get over 100ft/mile - not bad for a city. I managed a couple of 50 mile rides and commuted to work twice. All in al this riding resulted in me getting to Saturday 31 Jan "needing" just over 2000 feet to a challenge. So I did, back over to Rose Hill again:

I also completed 381miles in January - most definitely a PB.

And on Sunday 1 Feb as it was dry I rode the Scott again for the first time in several months - it was a pleasure and always feels "better" than the Giant. With the massive tailwind I achieved a 20mph average for the first 20 miles although I paid for it when I turned back into the wind.