This is the steepest road in England and it’s my third attempt of trying to get up this beast. Is it third time lucky or back to the drawing board? First issue here. Let’s get started. Right, that’s that done. Right. First bit done in the lowest gear right from the get go. That’s just going to stay there the whole time. Debris on the floor, but like I said, it’s not too wet, so it’s not too bad at the minute. You may be surprised, but traction was not a problem today. As you can see, there’s debris all over the floor. But I’ve tried before when it’s been wet and it’s been impossible. So, I purposely picked today as it’s been dry for the past 4 days. It was dry today, so it was a perfect chance to give it a go. So far, so good. First of those drains. Those drains are an absolute nightmare. And there’s several of them on Bamford Cluff because when you’re going up and like you go over it and you just bump up and down and as you’re trying cuz it’s so steep, it may not look it here, but it’s already 25% and it’s going to get steeper as you go further up. as we approach another one here, you just like bounce over it and like you want to keep that front wheel under control as you go through that narrow section there and it just makes it so much more difficult than it already is. And as you’ll see as we go further up here, it gets narrow and narrower where the gap is where there’s okay tarmac and just covered with leaves and debris and all sorts on the floor. It it’s it just gets harder and harder as it gets steeper and steeper. At this point, I’m really pleased with myself because I’ve now gone further than I have before without stopping. It’s feeling 50/50 with the power in my legs. Can I get to the top? But my bike handling is becoming more and more of an issue as this gets steeper and more narrow. No, that front wheel, it was such a problem. It just kept bouncing up and down and I just I lost control of the bike and had to stop. But I wasn’t going to give up. So I walked back down. I tried two more times. On the second go, I still had the power in the legs, but the problem was still the bike handling, but I got a little bit better at it. And then on go three, I felt very much right. I’ve got control of the bike now. I’m no way I’m like handling it. But through the previous two attempts going full out and it’s like max effort, the max power I needed to get to the top of this had completely gone and it was a a no-go. So in the end I had to call it quits and I’m going to be back here in spring next year and I will I will definitely get up this at some point. I I’m not giving up.
4 Comments
Impressive ! You’ll do it for sure with your attitude and power!
Well done for the progress and positive metal attitude. It’s unbelievable isn’t it?! I too climb predominantly in the saddle, but you have to get angry and pretty much hump your stem and get out the saddle to avoid that front wheel lift by putting your body weight over the front end to balance the bike. It’s like doing a bloody plank on your shifters for the next 100m.
Really impressive climbing journey. For this kind of stuff, being able to confidently climb out the saddle is really important. Part of that for is being clipped in (I think you're using flat pedals). It brings, its own challenges, e.g. being able to clip out at slow speed and then getting clipped in again. Maybe something to try over the winter.
It is evil – I have also failed it twice… I live close by so have no excuse to not keep going back but I really need to get my power up / weight down / VO2 up first!