Cycling up Cragg Vale – the longest continuous gradient in England

On Sunday, I cycled up Cragg Vale – a completely different climb to the ones I’ve been doing recently.

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Music – “Release” by Josh Woodward. Free download: https://www.joshwoodward.com/

On Sunday, I went cycling up Cragale, the longest continuous gradient in England. I was staying at my auntie’s house because we had a party to go to in the afternoon, and I thought I’d do some cycling in the morning. Because it’s hot, I put my hair in little plats and then put some sun cream on. I had my nice Leicester Forest pattern jersey on and then it was time to add my helmet and my gloves and then I was ready to go. [Music] I’ve only ever done a couple of rides from where my auntie lives, but this first section I have ridden before. [Music] I started by cycling past Tongworth Lake and then quickly turned onto unfamiliar roads, particularly the A646, which I viewed on street view to check they would be okay to cycle along. And there was also a route on the cycling UK website which had a loop around Cragvale that used this road. And it was very quiet particularly when I went on a Sunday morning. And there were also quite a lot of areas where the speed limit wasn’t national speed limit because it was going through little villages as well as quite a few temporary traffic lights. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] I went through Hebdon Bridge and then Maloid to get to the bottom of Craig Veil. And whilst I haven’t cycled around here before, I’ve been on plenty of car trips around here with my grandma. [Music] And here I was at the bottom of Crag Vale with the 5 and 1/2 mile climb ahead of me. The Straa segment has it as an average of 3.2% which I did in just under half an hour. I kept a steady pace checking my bike computer to show the gradient and how long it thought I would have left. The first section out of village is up a residential road and then past the ice cream vans. [Music] [Applause] [Music] It turns more rural as it continues upwards gently. and passes the Crag Vale Village sign. [Music] And then you pass the monster dog something in the hedge. [Music] You continue up past some more houses and round the bend. [Music] It then turns rural again and gets a bit steeper. I had to stop to retighten the clamp for my camera because it was going to fall off, which is why I was restarting again here. Annoyingly, when I stopped, it reset my bike computer, so it no longer showed the climb or how long it thought I would have left. But I kept climbing upwards at a steady pace, and I’d just reached the top when I got there. A lot of my climbing recently in Leicester has been short and steep hill efforts between 30 and 90 seconds as fast as I could. So, it was nice to take this steady on a long and gentle climb. [Music] It was a bit gray and not very sunny, but the views were still amazing. [Music] And then I eventually passed the 1 km marking. [Music] I really enjoyed the climb. It got a bit tough at the top, but generally it was really nice. [Music] And then I saw the reservoir which was very empty and knew I was at the top. [Music] I made it to the top. The views going up the climb were definitely better than the views at the top, but this is what it looked like. There’s only one thing after a big climb, and that’s a big descent. So, I descended towards Little Burough and saw lots of cyclists climbing up in the opposite direction. Whereas on Crackail, I didn’t see any cyclists until I got to very near the top when they were descending. And I didn’t get overtaken or overtake any other cyclists. [Music] The descent was amazing. It was long and steep and I went relatively fast. [Music] The views over the nearby towns and over the hills was a bit misty though. And this is the point I spotted Holling with Lake in the distance. A place where we spent a lot of time over the summer holidays when we’ve been staying with my grandma and the family. [Music] It continued down and down and down and I had decided that I was going to turn off the main road and go onto the Blackston Edge old road which was was a sharp turn onto a little country lane. When I got to the bottom, I turned right and headed back on the road I was on and up the hill that I’d just come down, which I instantly regretted. There’s no straa segment for the section I did from that right turn up to the top, but my Garmin when I plotted the route says it’s 2.21 21 miles at an average gradient of 6.2%. And it’s quite nice that there’s a painted bike lane pretty much all the way up to the top. [Music] I’m not used to doing one big climb in a day, let alone two. So, I really struggled up this, but again, kept it steady and made my way slowly to the top. [Music] The views from this direction were just as nice as the views coming down. And once I got into a steady rhythm of the cycling and climbing, I really enjoyed it. [Music] The White House came in view and I knew I was nearly at the top. [Music] One last push before the gradient slackens out and I reach the top. Once I got to the top, I turned around to head back down the way I just came to continue towards my auntie’s house. And at this point, it even started to rain. Anyway, here’s my selfie from the top. Thanks for watching. Bye.