Westfield Road and Broad Road
GR486502 (Junction with the A371 in Rodney Stoke) to GR507507
Height Gain: 189m Horizontal Distance: 2.1km Category: 3
Having made short work of Harptree Hill yesterday I decided it was time to take on the area's biggest challenge - New Road, Draycott... I plotted a course to give some 'wind up' mileage round Weare and Cocklake and got my son along for a 'training ride' ahead of our trip to North Wales in a few weeks time. Mike flew up the lower section of New Road, up as far as the A371, I pulled up behind and there it was - the ROAD CLOSED sign. Thinking back, there have been road closed signs on the other approach to this for a while now. Is it shut permanently? Time for a new plan...
I'd considered Westfield Lane before we went out, but decided to take on the bigger challenge. It's only a km or so along the main road, so it made a natural alternative.
The climb starts straight off the A road. The first half km is easy enough, averaging 8%, with a lovely right hander at the bottom pulling up round Hill Farm, followed by some steady pedalling to a tiny lane going off right - "Which way?", says Mike. "Up - left". Unfortunately my pace maker proceeded to suffer 'sprinter's legs' soon after this leaving me to kick on up the first of the arrowed sections. This first one felt more 1 in 7 than 1 in 5 (the range of the single arrow on the map) and died relatively easily. The road surface remains good so the 'between steep bits' sections at about 9% angle are acceptable, if fairly taxing. The second arrowed section doesn't let you off so lightly - it's the section just before 2km on the cross section.
There's about 150m of 20% gradient here which, after what's gone before, is a reasonable challenge. I was taking it at only 5mph. It leads to a right hand bend. I knew that if the angle lessened around that bend then I'd won. I suspected that if it steepened I would be in trouble. It lessened. This is, effectively, the top, as the road lies back to that 11-12% gradient that it has over most of the climb so you can reclaim a gear or two and relax - or do as I did and wave arms about like Mark Cavendish winning on the tour earlier today. Talking of sprinters - Mike got up and then proceeded to take 89 seconds out of me descending Cheddar on the way back. Madman!
Summary: You've got to be rather creative to get this into a logical longer route. It can be done, but it will be a test of your map skills. So, is it worth going to do for the sake of it? Oh yes! Anything which gets the sprinters riding in zig-zags has got to be worth it... If New Road is to remain closed then this is the second steepest climb in the area, only Stancombe Lane which does 10% for 2km is steeper. That's one of the four I have left to do from the original 25. Look out for a post in the second half of August, I hope.
DP
GR486502 (Junction with the A371 in Rodney Stoke) to GR507507
Height Gain: 189m Horizontal Distance: 2.1km Category: 3
Having made short work of Harptree Hill yesterday I decided it was time to take on the area's biggest challenge - New Road, Draycott... I plotted a course to give some 'wind up' mileage round Weare and Cocklake and got my son along for a 'training ride' ahead of our trip to North Wales in a few weeks time. Mike flew up the lower section of New Road, up as far as the A371, I pulled up behind and there it was - the ROAD CLOSED sign. Thinking back, there have been road closed signs on the other approach to this for a while now. Is it shut permanently? Time for a new plan...
I'd considered Westfield Lane before we went out, but decided to take on the bigger challenge. It's only a km or so along the main road, so it made a natural alternative.
The climb starts straight off the A road. The first half km is easy enough, averaging 8%, with a lovely right hander at the bottom pulling up round Hill Farm, followed by some steady pedalling to a tiny lane going off right - "Which way?", says Mike. "Up - left". Unfortunately my pace maker proceeded to suffer 'sprinter's legs' soon after this leaving me to kick on up the first of the arrowed sections. This first one felt more 1 in 7 than 1 in 5 (the range of the single arrow on the map) and died relatively easily. The road surface remains good so the 'between steep bits' sections at about 9% angle are acceptable, if fairly taxing. The second arrowed section doesn't let you off so lightly - it's the section just before 2km on the cross section.
There's about 150m of 20% gradient here which, after what's gone before, is a reasonable challenge. I was taking it at only 5mph. It leads to a right hand bend. I knew that if the angle lessened around that bend then I'd won. I suspected that if it steepened I would be in trouble. It lessened. This is, effectively, the top, as the road lies back to that 11-12% gradient that it has over most of the climb so you can reclaim a gear or two and relax - or do as I did and wave arms about like Mark Cavendish winning on the tour earlier today. Talking of sprinters - Mike got up and then proceeded to take 89 seconds out of me descending Cheddar on the way back. Madman!
Summary: You've got to be rather creative to get this into a logical longer route. It can be done, but it will be a test of your map skills. So, is it worth going to do for the sake of it? Oh yes! Anything which gets the sprinters riding in zig-zags has got to be worth it... If New Road is to remain closed then this is the second steepest climb in the area, only Stancombe Lane which does 10% for 2km is steeper. That's one of the four I have left to do from the original 25. Look out for a post in the second half of August, I hope.
DP
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