New Road, Draycott

NO GO - ROAD CLOSED

'The' challenge of the area is closed...

SOMERSET COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT OF MENDIP PARISH OF RODNEY STOKE Temporary Closure of New Road, Draycott

TAKE NOTICE that in pursuance of Section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulations Act 1984, as amended by the Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions) Act 1991, the County Council of Somerset have made an Order PROHIBITING ALL TRAFFIC from proceeding along New Road, Draycott from 5 metres east of the junction with The Binnings to 65 metres east of the junction with Vicarage Lane a distance of 90 metres.

This order will enable Somerset Highways to carry out drainage works in this road.

The Order becomes effective on 02 July 2012 and will remain in force for eighteen months. The works are expected to last for 10 days excluding weekends. While the closure is in operation an alternative route will be signed as detailed below.

So everyone will have to wait. And get fit. And then get used to cycling with their underpants over their bike shorts...

What are we waiting for?

800m of 1 in 5.3 (that's 19% in new money) with a lead in and a lead out that total a climb of 217m in 2km. An average of just about 11% (1 in 9). In French terms this is hard to classify. Category 3 is 1km at 10% to 6km at 5%. This is both longer and steeper than the steep end of category 3 then. On the other hand, category 2 spreads from 5km at 8% to 15km at 4%. New Road isn't long enough to qualify for this, but then it is rather steeper than the 8% here. I reckon that this is the West Mendip area's only Cat 2 climb - well, Cat 2 and a half anyway!
Good luck. Enjoy the wait. Keep eating the spinach.
DP

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

Harptree Hill
GR 552568 (junction with A368) to GR 543552 (Gibbett's Brow)
Height Gain: 150m    Horizontal Distance: 2.2km    Category: 3

When I did the parallel route up Highfield Lane I said that I was hoping for a better surface on this one. It is. The road is considerably wider, a number of vehicles passed me while I was on the climb and none of them involved a dive into the hedge which would have been the only solution on the other route.

The base of the climb is easy to find, the road down from the A368 to Chew Valley Lake is clearly marked. It could be argued that you should start this climb from the road by the lake, but I'd been that way a few days previously so I decided that the road in from Blagdon was enough compensation. Purists - there's a car park by Chew Valley Lake, but be warned, you'll be climbing from the outset if you use it.
From the junction the pull starts fairly easily but once it kicks in it stays there - this hill does not let go until you reach the junction with Western Lane. There's a twisting section (on really wide road) past Beaconsfield Farm where by staying well left on the road you can keep to a reasonable gradient - I guess this is the bit that shows steepest on the cross-section, but in the main, this is a hill where you (I) adopt a pretty low gear and keep on pushing the pedals round, only your pain threshold will determine your pace. Once you're through those bends and the bit immediately above it, the angle eases back just

enough as you get in sight of the Wellsway Arms. You can't stop - you haven't finished the hill! You've  climbed 86m in the first 750m of the climb, that's an average of 1 in 8.7 (or 11.5%). The steepest section through the bends is about 1 in 6 according to the map and the cross-section above, that feels about right even though there is no arrow on the map. At least that excellent road surface makes progress only a measure of your leg strength and breathing! All that remains is to finish the hill - but you're past the steep part of this convex bank now so you can steadily wind that pace back up...

Summary: Rather better than Highfield Lane, which deals with the same challenge in effect. This route forms part of a logical north-south ride passing Chew Vally Lake and up on to the Mendips. Go do it!
DP

Lye Hole to Row of Ashes Farm
GR 501623 to 519634
Height Gain: 103m      Horizontal Distance: 2.5km    Category: 4

You might take this climb in as part of a west-east ride across the area where you are looking to avoid the built up nature of Bristol, and traffic in general, or possibly as a way of getting up to Bristol Airport from the south avoiding potential death by speeding drivers on the A38 up Red Hill. Whichever, this is the epitomy of a quiet road, or as it was when we did, uphill canoe track! The map shows the general location.

We'd arrived from Wrington via Long Lane so, once the A38 was crossed we'd to drop down to Lyehole Farm. In the dry this might be a rapid descent, in the wet it was technical - one to avoid losing the back wheel and or sliding into the hedge or an on-coming car. Fortunately there were no cars.

Sutton Lane is also very narrow. It shows the lack of wear up the middle caused by there being only room for one car - anywhere. There's a 1 in 9 section close to the bottom, straight so you can see what you're in for but the top of it, which threatens more steepness eases off. The next half a kilometre is fairly easy, though still narrow, before a further steep section just after another little road goes off right. This bit is about 1 in 8 but looks worse as you approach it - "Oh heck - there's a wall" being my son's response on seeing it - to be fair he was cycling without access to any back cog bigger than 16 teeth.

Once up this the work is more or less over. Turning left at the T-junction at the top of the steep stuff there's a further rise to Row of Ashes Farm, but nothing of significance.

Appraisal: Quieter than the A38, but definitely off the beaten path. The climb has enough challenge to make it worthwhile, though it's spread out enough that it's never going to 'get you'. All in all - classic Cat 4.
DP

Limeburn Hill 
Follows the B3114 from GR 561632 to 563660
Ascent: 149m      Horizontal Distance: 2.4km         Category: 3

Starting from the roundabout where the B3114 crosses the B3130 there's a short drop down to a bridge but from there the work begins. I passed some poor soul pushing his bike expensive bike within the first few hundred metres - to be fair I was on the smallest of my three chain rings. 5 or 600m in and the road eases though and a steady rhythm gets you through that middle section relatively easily but, turning north as you pass the junction with the road down to Chew Magna, the

rest of the real challenge comes into view. As the cross-section shows, there's a brief but serious pull through some pleasant open farmland before rounding the top bend at Elton Farm throws you back onto flattening terrain and allows easier breathing.

Overview: Pretty good hill this with a decent road surface - though unfortunately much of the surrounding tarmac if pretty rough. Come on BANES - do some re-surfacing!