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Anyone know what the best hill climbs are in preferably east bristol area? Looking for something 10mins + but seems the biggies are out over dundry way so would prefer something more on the doorstep. Would probably do it on my mtb to add length.
cheers
Tog Hill? I think long ones on your doorstep might be limited tbh. You might need to head a little towards Bath.
I think long ones on your doorstep might be limited tbh
+1
I think East of Bristol the best you will get is anything going up on to the top of Lansdown, towards Bath.
Assuming you are talking about MTB then unless you are quite slow, there aren't many, if any, 10 minute climbs. On the road bike getting to top of the same hills via the lanes will be even quicker.
If talking MTB, then the bigger climbs up to the Lansdown area start in Upton Cheyney (largely lanes and gates break up the flow offroad though), Kelston (extremely muddy at the top but a nice climb and there won't be much traffic on the roads around Kelston at the moment), Weston (the longest in time, rockiest, steepest and most fun IMO but furthest from you), North Stoke (shorter but ok in all weathers and pretty fun), Langridge (quite fun and a good test especially if wet as the middle grass sections can be sapping) type areas which may or may not be convenient for you.
have a look at local Strava segments.
Get fatter and then the hills will take longer 🙂
Also, use Bing maps as they have OS maps for the whole of the UK and you can scout out the contour lines around you 😀
Thanks all, as I expected, need to go a bit further out. Will have to deflate the tyres a bit and chuck a backpack full on sand on. Longest from the doorstep would be up from the river to kingswood high street. 1.6 miles 300ft 🙁
The water tower on the Downs is at about 100m, you can climb to there from sea level if you want to ride up Park St & Whiteladies Road?
Off road descent to the Portway, then do it all again.
Lansdown from Bitton. You've got the choice of steeper and sharper (Brewery Lane) or longer and more dragging (Golden Valley Road). To the top takes around 15-20min. The climb from Langridge is pretty heavy going to. I'm in East Bristol and have a few road routes out to Castle Coombe, north of Bath and looping all the way round Bath and back to Bristol. PM me if you want some routes of fancy a ride.
http://www.strava.com/segments/766128
http://www.strava.com/segments/1331605
http://www.strava.com/segments/1224665
Looking for something 10mins
2 x 5min hills - almost as good and more useful if they are closer to home.
egb81 cheers for that, look like good ones. If you have any good mtb that would be ace, explored the bridleways immediately east of Kingswood but nothing of any note until getting out towards lansdown.
Thomthumb: that's a very good point, particularly if I speed back down to the bottom!
If you go up the Brewery Lane climb then there's a right turn half way up, which becomes a bridleway up to the golf course.
Mountain bike wise I don't know of many around Bristol but there's a decent length climb up through Leigh Woods from the Portway path to the top car park (the one you skirt the edge of 4/5 of the way through the Yertiz trail). can't find the Strava segment.
10 mins on the MTB? Tricky if you're at all quick.
Maybe up cadbury camp lane or similar (under the M5, couple of bridleways) but not sure they're long enough. Rocks might make them take 10 mins...
Head down to the mendips? Options there.
Those Strava "climbs" are a few short climbs with a lot of flat to make a long segment (except Langridge Lane of course) 😀
The climbs I mentioned before as named by Strava with my typical time up on the MTB:
Upper Weston, 2.1km, 139m, 7%, 11min
North Stoke to golf course off road, 0.9km, 99m, 11%, 7min
Langridge lane-tadwick full, 2.0km, 135m, 7%, 11 min
Up Langridge to Lansdown, 2.2km, 144m, 7%, 15min
Lansdown Lane Up, 2.3km, 128, 6%, 13min
The B*stard, 1.2km, 108m, 9%, 9min
2 x 5min hills - almost as good and more useful if they are closer to home.
If wanting hills to put in a nice route and enjoy time out on the MTB then then all of my above hill suggestions are great. If you are wanting to do hill repeats then not many of them are that good as there are gates (giving you rest and breaking up the climb) and in winter often have impassable mud sections. As I said, great in a ride but not great for "training". The consensus seems to be that VO2 Max intervals give the best bang for your buck if severely limited with time, which is in the 3-8 minute mark of steady, very hard riding. Basically, any climb ridden at a very hard, constant pace above 3 minutes should yield very similar gains to 8 minutes or more, providing you ride at the right intensity and pick the right number of repeats. I am no physiologist though so am happy to be corrected!
A lot of clubs (including the Cheesy Riders) use Belmont Hill. You could ride it twice........
Through Pucklechurch and Hinton and you'll see Dyrham Park on the ridge in front of you. There are a few trails between there and Toghill at the South end of that ridge that can take a while to wind up.