Start: GR 487686 Finish: GR503665
Height Gain: 167m Horizontal Distance: 3.4km
So there I was, up Wrington Hill and still feeling fresh. I had intended just a short run back via Congresbury but now that didn't seem right. Well; I'd had a quick glance at Cheston Combe on the map this morning, didn't look to bad, go and do that...
Starting out from Backwell, dodging the parked cars, the bus and the recycling lorry, this seemed like the easy pull I thought I'd seen on the map. At the 'Y' junction I couldn't remember which way to go but chose left as it looked like the major road. A passing pedestrian assured me that yes, this was the way up to the airport, I just had to turn right at the church. "Bit steep", she said - but I only worked that out later, I was too busy enjoying my sudden emergence from new Backwell into this gorgeous old-world village on a hill.
So, right at the church, steepish but OK, right at the bend onto a slight downhill that meets the other road I could have taken at the Y junction and then hard left. By the standards of what I've done so far, the road just rears round that corner. Battling for every pedal turn I came to realise that not all hills are meant to be climbed on a bike with a 39 tooth small chain drive. Breathing like a man back from 5 minutes under water I pushed on - but then the road steepened just a bit more and I had to accept that I needed a break. But I was not going to push the bike.
BikeRouteToaster shows the relevant section as about 1:5.5 but a detailed analysis of the OS1:25000 map shows that this 50m section of road climbs 15m, that's 1:3.3! I don't know, I'm just not used to anything that steep. I do know that it was hard to push off and get going again and that I couldn't relax sufficiently to get my left foot clipped for about another 2 or 300m.
What remains is neatly summarised by the cross section, banks and a couple of flats. The last pull let me know it was there, but I suspect that was simply because of the 3km before it. What remained for me was a problem. It wasn't that I couldn't do the hill in one go, it was that I couldn't do the hill in one go on that bike. Time for a change! Everything I've described on the blog so far has been done on the Barracuda RS100 that I bought last year. I didn't expect to use it for much more than back and forwards to work, but this bike riding game is addictive. This afternoon I took advantage of the 'Cycle to Work' and set up the order which will in due course, put me in possession of a Scott Speedster S40 Triple. No excuses when that arrives!
Rating: Outstanding. Pretty (once you're out of the new bit of Backwell), steep, hard, long enough to call a climb and an excellent road surface for the standard of road. Go do it. If you can do it in one go on a 39 tooth chain drive I don't want to know!
The Return: October 7th 2012. Re-doing this, all in one go, became the final challenge of the 25. This morning I went back, repeating the run in over Wrington to finish the job. I'd got the beginnings of a cold so Wrington was tougher than normal - didn't bode well for Cheston Combe. But it went. That middle section is still tough going but what a difference a bike makes! Using that 30 tooth chain ring on the Scott Speedster changed impossibility into straightforwardly tough. I think I even managed to keep the top cog on the back 'spare'. I stand by the rating, this is one of the best climbs in the area.
DP
Height Gain: 167m Horizontal Distance: 3.4km
So there I was, up Wrington Hill and still feeling fresh. I had intended just a short run back via Congresbury but now that didn't seem right. Well; I'd had a quick glance at Cheston Combe on the map this morning, didn't look to bad, go and do that...
Starting out from Backwell, dodging the parked cars, the bus and the recycling lorry, this seemed like the easy pull I thought I'd seen on the map. At the 'Y' junction I couldn't remember which way to go but chose left as it looked like the major road. A passing pedestrian assured me that yes, this was the way up to the airport, I just had to turn right at the church. "Bit steep", she said - but I only worked that out later, I was too busy enjoying my sudden emergence from new Backwell into this gorgeous old-world village on a hill.
So, right at the church, steepish but OK, right at the bend onto a slight downhill that meets the other road I could have taken at the Y junction and then hard left. By the standards of what I've done so far, the road just rears round that corner. Battling for every pedal turn I came to realise that not all hills are meant to be climbed on a bike with a 39 tooth small chain drive. Breathing like a man back from 5 minutes under water I pushed on - but then the road steepened just a bit more and I had to accept that I needed a break. But I was not going to push the bike.
BikeRouteToaster shows the relevant section as about 1:5.5 but a detailed analysis of the OS1:25000 map shows that this 50m section of road climbs 15m, that's 1:3.3! I don't know, I'm just not used to anything that steep. I do know that it was hard to push off and get going again and that I couldn't relax sufficiently to get my left foot clipped for about another 2 or 300m.
What remains is neatly summarised by the cross section, banks and a couple of flats. The last pull let me know it was there, but I suspect that was simply because of the 3km before it. What remained for me was a problem. It wasn't that I couldn't do the hill in one go, it was that I couldn't do the hill in one go on that bike. Time for a change! Everything I've described on the blog so far has been done on the Barracuda RS100 that I bought last year. I didn't expect to use it for much more than back and forwards to work, but this bike riding game is addictive. This afternoon I took advantage of the 'Cycle to Work' and set up the order which will in due course, put me in possession of a Scott Speedster S40 Triple. No excuses when that arrives!
Rating: Outstanding. Pretty (once you're out of the new bit of Backwell), steep, hard, long enough to call a climb and an excellent road surface for the standard of road. Go do it. If you can do it in one go on a 39 tooth chain drive I don't want to know!
The Return: October 7th 2012. Re-doing this, all in one go, became the final challenge of the 25. This morning I went back, repeating the run in over Wrington to finish the job. I'd got the beginnings of a cold so Wrington was tougher than normal - didn't bode well for Cheston Combe. But it went. That middle section is still tough going but what a difference a bike makes! Using that 30 tooth chain ring on the Scott Speedster changed impossibility into straightforwardly tough. I think I even managed to keep the top cog on the back 'spare'. I stand by the rating, this is one of the best climbs in the area.
DP
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