On my commute home, Ireleth, come of a fast false flat, 90 degree right hander that goes into a drag and just gets steeper and steeper Strava reckons it's only 12-13% but I reckon it's nearer 20% at the top. Not long, less than a km, but a right little basket.
Always the last hill of my local loop for me. Tiny little thing between Embsay and Skipton, but I'm often a bit goosed when I hit it, plus you get the extra fun of having to concentrate to avoid idiot drivers overtaking on the blind bends at the top.
That and the hill up towards Broughton Forest from Torver. Oh, and the tarmac bit leading up from Reeth towards Fremington Edge which you're never quite warmed up for. Actually, there's quite a few I hate, all of them on tarmac, weirdly enough.
it's not the steepest I dislike but that gradient that doesn't quite fit your cadence and gear, your thinking you could power up it but you end up losing all momentum legs run out of steam before the top and your out of the saddle wobbling up a pitiful gradient and you feel all pathetic 🙂
Hopton Woods, love the place and ride it loads but there's a bastard of a climb there that goes on forever.
Hummer lane, it keeps giving, eh?
The barely a climb out of culter. It really isn't a climb it's about 10m total height gain but I hate it.
Mainly because it's the only 0.5mile of fast a road on my commute. The other 2 miles of road on my 15 mile commute are dead end country lane.
Sam
Not really, he's lovely 🙂
All the ones that go up, I just don’t have the fitness or stamina for climbing at the moment
Bringewood. The first section of tarmac climb from the bottom. It's a total raas claart bloodclot!
Knackers you for the rest then.
The first half of hamburger hill at Gisburn. Not steep, not technical, but takes just enough out of you that you start the 2nd half, which is steeper and more/bigger/looser rocks, knackered.
On Cannock Chase there's a tiny gradient from the Stepping Stones at Sherbrook Valley up to the top of the railway cutting at Milford. This always gets me down and I'd always rather turn left instead and ride up the really steep and long climb (The Bitch) to Bocton Coppice which misses it out.
Although the gradient is nothing at all, it's always been the very last bit of the ride, the one you tackle when the tank's empty. It now has the same effect as a dementor, due to the fact that I've been ending my rides there since I was about 10.
Jacobs Ladder. It should go, but my lungs do first. Then legs. And... Pop!
Locally ..it's Stairway To Heaven on the Lonesome Pine Trail at Kielder..it's a bitch .
Never ever cleaned Pass Peth from Shillmoor to Alwinton in The Cheviots either ( and probably never will unless its on an ebike!)
Edit: Also lets not forget the climb up Whitewater Dash on the other side of Skiddaw ..
any hill going up
the climb from LUccombe over Stoke Pero common.
a complete cow bag.
done it twice, once on a audax, once on a mtb.
The kirkgate up to the Pentland. Only a km at 10 % but it's dead straight, consistent gradient, and seems far longer.
Coupled with the fact I use to use it as a gauge of my fitness I always break myself going up it. I remember back in the day i was top 10 on strava in a time of 3.40 ish.now I'm about 50th and some dude has done it in slightly over 2 min..which is simply depressing.
Always the last hill of my local loop for me. Tiny little thing
Yep. This. It's often slippery with wet leaf mould, it's short, steep and the son of a bachelor!
The Fachwen was horrible until Dinorwic Lodge opened.
Now, I quite look forward to it.
Shoebroad lane in Tod - an utter, utter bastard of a climb.
But the very worst is the climb up to Heptonstall then through Slack and Blackshaw Head back over to Burnley after a long day. It's grim and never ending. I hate it with a passion rare in one so plump.
Holme moss from Holmfirth is a trifle quarrelsome - wouldn't say I hate it but it has that in-between gradient. It's not a monster pitch where all you can do is sit in, but it's not an easy up where you can just spin and admire the scenery, you'll always feel it. Throw a dig in and you'll properly be feeling it.
That one out of Birch Vale (think it's up Morland Road) is a touch irksome. Feels like it goes on forever when you finally get to the top across the moors.
The one I live at the top of, makes every ride from home end in a sweaty mess
Fremington Edge. I think Iv'e cleaned it once, many years ago & every time you ride it it's changed from the last time.
But the list is endless!
Way down south but Plumpton Bostall that takes you up onto the South Downs Way.
The climb up to Carn Ban Mor is always a bit nippy
i have entered a bit of a climb challenge this year.
50 climbs all over the UK.
some proper horrible ones on the list.
making a start on sunday around calderdale.
High Hill lane in Settle, its pretty steep and is about 60 miles in to my ride so i am tired and assumed this is the reason why i hate it. I tried it fresh and hated it even more. Its a stupid hill, with stupid steep section,stupid tarmac,stupid cobbles,stupid walls and every single person riding it is faster than me and that is just illogically stupid.
If I was asked this question over two years ago, my answer would be very different, but now... I love them!
Bring on the short but steep Dell Rd; Speltham Hill; Lynch Lane; Bitterne 13.5%.
Bring on the final ~0.5 miles up Harvesting Lane.
Bring on the Bell Hill cat3s just north of Petersfield; full Old Winchester Hill; climbing to Butser Hill summit from the Butser Ancient Farm.
Etc. Etc.
Currently turbo training to further improve my estimated FTP before hopefully tackling my first cat2 hill this year, Bwlch Y Groes. 😈
To date not found one I liked.
Ingleby Incline, North York Moors.
Only 200m ish ascent but it's an old railway bed for the mines so totally straight, relentless gradient on slippy gravel. Awful. Feels much worse than big 300-400m climbs in the Lakes or Scotland due to the constant pedalling force required.
Yellow brick road (Dewsbury golf/ mirfield woods) 88 metres in 500 metres.
Definately rideable if it’s not too wet, keep on riding it, doesn’t seem any easier.
A lot of tough tarmac hill climbs on a mtb tend to be a doddle on a drop handle so I always aim to stay positive
This one. [url] https://www.strava.com/segments/2786841 [/url]
It climbs 200ft in about 0.2 of a mile once you leave the tarmac, and it just gets steeper and steeper, at the top it's 25% at least. AND the surface is dirt combined with millions of flint rocks/pebbles, so there's very little traction.
Same segment but the top section [url] https://www.strava.com/segments/4269143 [/url]
Malvern Hills. Basically everywhere. Climb from the reservoir mentioned in dispatches. 3 minutes of banging off your max HR.
Leg-Burner- Nant-y-Arin. After the joy of the previous descent. Goes on for ever. Then a bit more.
FoD/Staunton - ‘the bitch’. 20 mins of climbing. Not super steep but start of the day and always feels way harder than to should be
And a climb I did with Ash from the Trans-Provence to leave France and head to Italy. 930m of ascent in one go. All off-road. Apparently it’s all rideable. Just not by me 🙂
The one I live on +1
I can avoid all the others
Anything on grass.
Saddleworth road (westbound) only done it once. I'm still getting over the trauma frankly. 4 pints of Stella and a Christmas buffet lunch didn't really equip me for the headwind and my lights running out of battery.
Still, character building and all that.
The SDW climb out of Amberly going East. Always a long push.
Harvesting Lane hurts quite alot
Bitch of a climb i think in East Worldham , its a steep straight road but hard
I live up a hill.
I hate it when I'm returning from any decent ride.
Yet it's nothing serious and I can whip up it on my SS road bike when fresh.
End to enders may know it - the climb out of Dingwall to Evanton. (BTW there's now a cafe at the very top 🙂 )
The 2,300ft of portage up Ben Macdui from Glen Lui!
There's no big hills I hate tbh, I understand a big hill. the hill I hate most is the one that goes up to the bench at the bottom of the spooky wood climb at glentress. No it's not steep. No it's not long. But it's inexplicably just fractionally more unpleasant than it should be. Not unpleasant enough to get stuck into or any satisfaction from, it's unpleasant like a mild burning feeling shortly after urinating. And I despise it.
Ooh-ooh got a good one, the last 500m of fireroad at the top of whinlatter north loop. Just finish already!
It is just the draggy, bit harder than they should be but you want them out of the way quickly ones that really niggle I reckon
Howden glen in the Pentlands, just keeps getting steeper and then when it starts to level out you can't seem to go any faster. but I live in Denmark now and there's no hills 🙂
10 bastards here, could go on forever.
kettlewell to cam head
starbotton to cam head
cray to kidstones
hawkswick cote to high cote moor
middlesmoor climb over in moor
marsden to wessenden head
holme moss south to north
cowgill up past dent station
arnecliffe to darnbrooke house
oxnop scar, north to south.
cleaned all these prior to my body giving up.
All of them!
Particular hates are puke hill and red road in the pentlands and the climb from musselburgh up to the pencaitland railway
thestabiliser
Ooh-ooh got a good one, the last 500m of fireroad at the top of whinlatter north loop. Just finish already!
I'll l go with that one on my list too. One of the main reasons I prefer the south loop. Don't mind the singletrack climbing on the north side, but once it opens up onto the fire road my heart sinks every time.
Chapel Gate.
Up the back of Jacob's Ladder from Hayfield. Just hateful.
But really, I live in the flatlands so any slight uphill gradient is more then unwelcome.
Any hill when I’m struggling to keep up with the group. I can usually enjoy anything as long as I’m setting the pace.
On my morning commute there's one I detest. It's not steep or long but it's usually into the wind and as it's a blind summit you always get a car stuck on your back wheel up it. I'm always very glad to get to the top of it.
FoD most of them on the Wild Boar Chase, they seem there’s more up than down.
Malvern, the climb out of Mathon to West Malvern is daunting to say the least.
the one coming up next
Living in the mountains means that pretty much every ride includes some climbing, but I like climbing so it's not a problem.
When I do tend to find myself moaning is when I ride a new route for the first time and I'm not sure how long a climb goes on for. Typically, two thirds of the way up (so maybe 4km into a climb) I'll go around a fire road hairpin, see another 300m stretch of climb and curse. For me it's more about not knowing what pace to ride at on a new hill than anything.
We did a climb for the first time two weeks ago that went up 800m in 8km. That's quite a long slog if you don't like climbing but a lovely workout if you do 🙂
I live on top of a hill, so the one back to my house that every ride or run finishes with...
A small rubbish track on the way home. About 1/4 of a mile.
But I've done it thousands of times.
I love climbing and have no hills I hate where I live. Admittedly I don't live on the mountains but it is still very uppy/downy.
On NCR 1, heading south from Ryhope to Murton, there's a stupid incline that just grinds the life out you. It's probably only 1% or something but it goes on for a couple of km or so and it's right near the end of a 50-odd km ride. There's absolutely nothing in its favour 😆 I don't mind a climb if it's an actual proper incline and stuff but this one's awful.
edit- and the climb/push up to Transmission at Hamsters. That one can GRTF as well. It's the reason I only do one practice run at the races there and I won't do the K-Line TT at all partly because of that climb.
9 Barrow Down in the Purbecks. Never ending climb from Corfe Castle or sodding steep from the Swanage end.
Caerphilly mnt coming out of the town centre. Done it loads but it's always a last hurdle on my way home, and to steep to just spin up with tired legs ☹☹
The climb up to Rushup edge from Edale. There was nearly a Rocky Mountain Element in the bogs at the top. Pedal, pedal, crunch/stop on side of rut, pedal, pedal, crunch/stop on side of rut and repeat. Nearly full on mantrum at the top.
I like climbing but I do hate going up Lattrigg from Brundlhome road.
I also have a love/hate relationship with Dash falls & Up to Whinlatter&beyond from Thornthwaite “garage”.
And there’s a short, steep ,flinty bump in Whitwell ,Herts that always makes me blush.
Paul Hill, up out of Newlyn. About 1/3rd of the way in when I ride to work. About 99% of the reason I don't ride to work often.
I manage it every time, but I think that makes it worse. If I knew I'd have to get off and push then that'd be fine in a way, but no - I know I can do it and I know I'll want to throw up at the top. It's just the wrong combination of gradient and length for my puny climbing (and the steepest bit is near the end, which doesn't help).
You can't even enjoy it on the way home, as the parking and the traffic mean it's usually about 20mph tops, unless you have very good brakes / grippy tyres.
There's one in the chilterns somewhere north of reading that we go up semi regularly, it's a b******.
A nice flat run in which seems to leave me at the front being the resident fatty. Then there's a few turns and still not much gradient, then it's a dead straight ramp to the top, and it's utterly horrible, with no real features it just seems to go on and on. In reality it's probably 3 minutes, but it's a horrible soul crushing 3 minutes.
+1 for Fremington Edge. Two current ones are Wolsinghsm to Doctors Gate and Crawleyside Bank - wouldn't say I hate them but they are about 20 miles into most rides. With Crawleyside though, at least there's a decent cafe at the top!
The sixth lap of Butser hill.
Locally it’s the hill back into QECP from Halls Hill/Kiln Lane.
Not the steepest but I only really ever ride it to get back into the park after a longer ride so I’ve either done a heap of miles on the South Downs or been playing in Head Down (but not on my bike obviously as those trails are ‘event only’... ) so the tank is usually empty.
There’s a loose bit in the middle that I hate the most as it’s polished pebbly gravel on top of chalk with minimal grip provision so it needs to be ‘ridden’ not just plodded up.
I’ve been known to divert through Finchdean and Chalton, extending the ride by about 4 miles, just because it avoids that hill
The climb from the banks of Ladybower (Peak District) to Derwent Edge. The paved part just gets steeper and steeper, then throws in some slippery steps at the top just to make you spin out. Once you're past the buildings it gets very techy. Then there's a few hundred meters left to go.
At least the views are nice.
The climb from the banks of Ladybower (Peak District) to Derwent Edge. The paved part just gets steeper and steeper, then throws in some slippery steps at the top just to make you spin out. Once you’re past the buildings it gets very techy. Then there’s a few hundred meters left to go.
That's an awesome climb 🙂 There's a proper horrid one around there, the endless globby double-track that leads up from the track round the edge of the reservoir to the woody thing that cuts over to Hope Brink, erm, this - http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=417452&Y=386549&A=Y&Z=120 - I think. Maybe...
It's just a soulless slog with no technical interest, views or owt else. I don't hate it per se, but I tend not to ride it. The other climb that ends in the same spot is better, at least there's some thought involved.
Generally I've no problem with climbing, on or off-road. Like @ton I've entered that 50 climbs challenge. Last year I did the Strava monthly climbing challenge, pretty easy to do most months, October's was done in four rides. Not sure whether to do it this year but I'm 6 metres short of this month's target - a ride to the bottom of the garden and back would get those!
@martinhutch - I know what you mean about that little rise between Embsay and Skipton. Another local one is the road between Gargrave and Broughton - again always near the end of a ride for me and is one of those uncomfortable angles where you can't quite match gear and cadence. I always find it harder than the next much bigger climb to get home.
Of the big Dales road climbs the one out of Arncliffe over to Malham Tarn is a brute (sic). But the one I really hate isn't really a single climb, it's the ride up Coverdale to get to the top of Park Rash.
Never managed to clean Fremington Edge, got closest early last year when I got to about 50m from the top of the steep stuff.
I live on top of a hill, so the one back to my house that every ride or run finishes with
^^ this
0.9 mi with a 0.2 mi kick at the end. Strava times vary wildly. I got off and pushed once when there was too much snow
Any hill when I’m struggling to keep up with the group. I can usually enjoy anything as long as I’m setting the pace.
This. Good example yesterday when I was flogging my arse off in a headwind trying to keep up with a road group heading North towards Burnsall. Nothing insanely hard, but the pace was brisk and I was knackered. The end of the climb couldn't come quick enough!
Once we turned and headed South again, my legs came back in, I moved to the front and the rest of the climbs whistled by, with some other poor bastard having to wheeze "half off!" on the back instead of me 🙂
I live on top of a hill, so the one back to my house that every ride or run finishes with…
So do we but the hill we have to climb up is ok for some reason, dunno why. I think I'd rather live at the top of a hill than the bottom though because every ride starts pointing down. If we had to climb a hill at the start of every ride I think I'd take up knitting instead...
The bottom of the climb up Minch Moor on the Inners XC route.
The steepest bit of the whole route is straight out of the car park. It's a total bastard way to start a climb
Roman Lakes nr Marple. The climb to the pub from Strines station. Its OK but gets steeper as you go with a rocky step up right at the top which i can only clean when its bone dry. Every other time my wheel spins out with 2m to go and i curse very loudly!
The Coal Road up to Scout Moor wind farm. It's very unpleasant in the wind.
I've got Streatley hill in my neck of the woods and that's a bit of a bugger, there are other routes up onto the ridgeway but it's the most direct...
The main problem with it is it's straight up ~18% for the steepest bit in the middle and just drags on a bit, plus there's always some fitter whatnot that comes dancing past you...
If I want to test myself I'll work Whitchurch and then Streatley hills into the first few miles of a ride, and then see how much I've actually got left in the tank...
I suppose I don't actually "hate" any hills but I'm more concious of how challenging some can be and how much they fatigue me reducing the stamina I have left for the rest of a ride...
I’ve got Streatley hill in my neck of the woods and that’s a bit of a bugger, there are other routes up onto the ridgeway but it’s the most direct…
The main problem with it is it’s straight up ~18% for the steepest bit in the middle and just drags on a bit, plus there’s always some fitter whatnot that comes dancing past you…
If I want to test myself I’ll work Whitchurch and then Streatley hills into the first few miles of a ride, and then see how much I’ve actually got left in the tank…
I suppose I don’t actually “hate” any hills but I’m more concious of how challenging some can be and how much they fatigue me reducing the stamina I have left for the rest of a ride…
The thing with Streatley hill is that it doesn't train/prepare you for anything really other than Streatley hill.... Other hills you can pick a gear and spin, or grind it out, you can accelleerate or crusie.... Streatley is just a grind and a bloody hard one... No finesse, no tactics or technique, just a grind...
I'll take the gravel one past the golf course any day of the week.
I rode Cragg vale on sunday, in gale force winds, hitting me at about 10 past the hour.
was not too bad really.
I then rode Mytholm steeps, the hill that saxonrider crashed on. what a complete bastard.
I would buy a ebike if that was on my commute home........... ;o)
The climb up to HMS mercury East bound on the SDW. Lots of flint,pebbles and step up roots.
I would say the last bit up to the top of old winch hill but I just push up now.
Another 'top of hill' living person here, every ride finishes with a 150m vertical climb over about 1.5km of varying gradients. Its horrible!
Yeah, sort of down a hill that you need to climb first to get to us. I nipped down to the village a short while ago - 7km with 210m of climbing for the return trip.
I think I’d rather live at the top of a hill than the bottom though because every ride starts pointing down.
I grew up at the top of a fairly small hill and every winter morning on the way to college was awful - freewheeling into an icy wind before you've warmed up.
