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There's a slight chance that I may get my shit together for a charidy K2ing attempt next week, and reckon that Lower Cliff at Cannock is an ideal location. AFAIK it has car parking below it for resupply, nice gentle 0.65km long 21m climb up Marquis drive, followed by a 0.421km steepish climb up Insiduous incline, 40m ascent, then down Lower cliff with another 23m of up (that last bit confused me too). Giving a total of 80m of ascent. IMHO the descent fulfils the criteria of "not possible [repeatedly] on a road bike"
Anyway, getting to the point:
Google maps appears to show that there is no barrier at the car park on the A460 where The Monkey Trail starts. Is this correct?
If it is indeed correct, does that make it a magnet for ladies and gentlemen of questionable moral standards indulging their more salacious proclivities? Will I get rudely accosted as I grab a snack and change into clean lycra half way through the night?
When I cycle I like to eat lots of nice food.... hot food. I don't have spare time to cook anything so was wondering about takeaway. If I phone up Deliveroo and ask them to deliver to the dodgy lay-by on the right, half way up the A460 then will they tell me to jog on?
Perhaps I just need to order enough for the joggers too...
Anyone fancy a night ride one evening next week?
Any other useful suggestions?
Buy a pizza on the way and just keep it warm in your bib shorts while you ride.
I suppose that would at least solve the dogging problem
/shudders
I like to think I'm helpful.
We park there a fair bit when over that way. I don't know what night time activities happen there but to be honest,I don't think I'd want to leave my van there unattended at night.
We've seen a few dodgy folks just in the daytime and the freaks come out at night, according to the song anyway.
I thought BJ had banned dogging for now?
You’re more likely to get Chavs than Doggers at Moors Gorse lay-by. Just behind the pumping station there are a couple of houses and it’s the entrance to the PRoW up to 2 further houses. It’s not a guarantee but the trouser round the ankle brigade are more likely to be at the car parks top and bottom of Stile Cop Road.
Have you checked if Deliveroo cover the area? I’ve never seen a one (or Uber Eats, or Uber for that matter). There is a Dominos Pizza 5 minutes along the road as you drop down into Rugeley. It’d be worth speaking to them in advance to square it off, given that it’s a “proper” location with residences I’d image it’s possible.
I’m not familiar with the challenge but if it’s height you’re after how about pulling in Upper Cliff? After Castle Ring it’s the second highest point on the Chase. Expanding the loop to climb from the end of Lower Cliff all the way up to Upper Cliff and back would more then double the ascent of every lap.
Reminds me of when I rode a local loop and saw a topless dressed up lady in the nature reserve carpark in daylight.
Buy a pizza on the way and just keep it warm in your bib shorts while you ride.
Tell me about Pizza Delivery and Dogging Spots
Don’t take the slice with extra mozzarella
Don’t take the slice with extra mozzarella
And don't ask them to hold the pepperoni either
Interesting. I might actually be free on Wednesday to come and shout at you. There is a strava segment for up and down and up lower cliff which might give you a better indication of time but as a guess I'd say 15 minutes of riding to loop from the bottom, if you're not a complete bimbler. A guy on the other thread reckoned 111 times so going by my estimate of 15 minutes that means you'll be cycling for approximately 27hrs! Does that seem correct? Allowing time for peeing, eating, drinking and fatigue you might be looking at 30hrs of nearly continuous riding. I guess that's the challenge you were after.
As Stu said above you might want to include upper cliff as well, the gradient's a bit steeper on some parts of the climb so might be tougher after a few reps. There's also a bit of (wasted?) flat at the top whereas lower cliff is straight back down.
Good luck mate. What time are you starting?
Buy a pizza on the way and just keep it warm in your bib shorts while you ride.
Naan bread would be a more appropriate shape, surely?
Op's done one. ?!
Sorry jekkyl. Rude of me not to reply. My fagpacket estimate came up with 9 minutes base per lap, but TBH that fails even a cursory sense check. I've only ridden those chunks in isolation, but I reckon your 15 minute estimate is much more realistic than my 9 minute. Which, as per your further analysis, gives a pretty scary looking duration...
I wasn't so keen on upper cliff based on memory and your post seems to confirm that. TBH all my memories of the hills there bring to mind pain and suffering, but I'm trying to convince myself it will be different on a light bike, not towing my son. But still scary stuff.
It looks possible someone from work may also be doing it. If he doesn't them it would be beyond absolutely awesome if you came by for a few laps. If he does come then it would still be really cool if you dropped by.
I might head down this weekend for a test lap to see how long it is and how long it takes. Will probably end up freaking myself out. Certainly if my first lap takes anything more than 12 minutes then it sounds like too much.
My plan is to get up at a normal time and then take it from there, so between 9 and 11 am start. I may drive down from Manc the night before and kip in the van, but unlikely due to concerns raised above.
Move your ride to Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
Used to do nightrides over there and had the Domino's Pizza guys delivery at the viewpoint vista chinesa in the park up a mountain. That's like a couple of k's from nearest house up a mountain where at night gangs tend to discard unwanted body's from small misunderstandings/differences in opinion.
Pizza guy delivered no questions asked...
Here's the segment
https://www.strava.com/activities/2670159757/segments/66850742400/sharing
My 15 minute estimate was near enough bang on. My PR on it is 11 minutes and the KOM is 5!
As regards the other point about security, there have been a number of break ins at the bottom carpark over the years but there is no barrier so you could drive up the fireroad a little way so your vehicle's out of sight. Even all the way up to the top.
I think even attempting that would kill me. No, actually, the thought makes me feel a little queasy.
Huge, huge admiration for even attempting it matey and best of luck!👍
thegeneralist,
Let me know when you intend to give this a go. More than happy to do a few laps, bring you pizza/big macs and/or cheer you on.
Dogsby
Dogsby, awesome offer many thanks.
So we took a look at lower cliff yesterday and I was quite perturbed to find Strava rated the full loop as only 57m of climbing, rather than the 80 odd that Trailforks shows. I then recorded the three sections separately to try and see what causes the difference
After a bit if internet searching I found that Strava doesn't register height changes of less than 10m on a non baro device.
https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001294564-Elevation-on-Strava-FAQs?mobile_site=true
Elevation data on Strava is smoothed to take out noise— we have a 'threshold' where climbing needs to occur consistently for more than 10 meters for activities without strong barometric data or two meters for an activity with barometric data before it is added to the total elevation gain.
Which has solved a puzzle I've been wondering about for ages.
According to Trailforks, and obvious when riding it, Lower Cliff has loads of undulations around 2-6metres high on the downhill, which Strava ignores on my device, but Trailforks includes. If you include them then it's around 80m, without them it's only 57.
According to the letter of the E rules these undulations are not allowed as part of the total height gain. Which I'm not bothered about, since I'm not actually Everesting anyway because I'm cyclisting a loop instead of a there and back.
But nonetheless it would be a shame to go to all that effort and get a 33% lower Strava reading than if I shelled out and bought a barometric device. But then the hill's the same hill regardless of what device i am using.
Should I just ride the bloody thing 111 times.... or am I just kidding myself that it is a total height gain of 8km?
To complicatea matters a work colleague is keen to have a go, which is great, but he's keen on the full E tick and has searched out an alternative route....
https://www.trailforks.com/trails/minton-batch/
Minton batch on Long Mynd.
It does look great, but a bit longer and I'm not sure how rideable it is.
Looks very narrow deep rut at the top, is it actually possible to pedal up?
Also seems to get boggy.... Any view on whether it gets boggy in long midwinter or even in summer after the rain we've recently had?
PS, the lap of lower cliff took 10 minutes, which is positive. The other problem is that I'm just generally knackered. I'd be an absurd mess for days/ weeks even after half the target.
Anyway, tell me about Minton Batch