Any English based 'twitchers able to point me toward a 11k climb that I can ride to simulate Richter Pass for August? I’m based in Bournemouth and so ideally something this side of London would be best, otherwisw it’s over to Llamberis to ride the passes.
Long climbs.
I dont know what the elevation gain is at Richter but assuming you are happy with the fact that there will be nothing comparable here the longest climb I have come across in the south east is from Lewes to Wych Cross, it does go up and down a little but I have only ridden it the down hill way as I suspect coming the other way would be an absolute Bitch.
It is a lot longer than 11k. Other climbs over Ashdown are Hartfield to Kingstanding thats a slog. Groombridge to Kingstanding which is probably about 6 miles and a long ass climb, it is almost a constant grade with one small dip, I’d say that this might be the best climb about in the Kent / Sussex area for what you are looking for.
In fact the ride that you could do would be Groombridge to King standing, to Crowborough, to Hartfield to Kingstanding and repeat?
There are lots of good 2-6 mile climbs. The Lewes to Wych Cross I would guess is close to 15 miles but nowhere near as steep.
If you need info let me know.
Andrew
I came back 2 years ago b4 IMC and did a ride from Maidstone to one of the race courses (either BHatch or Silverstone) all along an A road, anyway it involved climbing for good chunks of time and in one section along a Dual Carriageway for a decent amout of time. In any case it was a tough climb and worthwhile…
FWIW Richter is not that tough- Yellow Lake later on is the bitch, catches you at the end and is not done any justice by the profile maps.
Weeman
I can’t speak for the south of england but if you want some proper long climbs you have got to head north. The passes around Llanberis get very busy & are a favourite with motorcyclists. For quieter & more demanding climbs drive to Bala (not far from Llanberis) & head out from the town & climb the Hirnant Pass over to Lake Vyrnwy. From the lake, head for Dinas Maddwy & climb the Bwlch Y Groes & descend back to Bala.
These climbs were used in the mountain stages of the Milk Race back in the eighties & on the climbs themselves you will hardly see a car. Other than this the only better climbers terrain in the UK are the endless gradients in the NW highlands of Scotland, most of these are 10k+ & some will take to to over 2000ft(Bealach Na Ba, Applecross)
Regards, John
What about doing Boxhill loop a couple of times?
I did the first two HIMUK’s up in Llanberis - then I did Wildflower in 2003 with all the wet weather and found it a piece of cake compared to Wales - Llanberis was harder, wetter and colder!
Snoot and Davet, thank you for your suggestions. I made a number of visits to Llanberis for the two HIMUKs that were held there and know that the passes there will fit the bill. I have that area for my reserve if I can’t find anything closer to home. Box Hill is no longer than a number of climbs that we here in Dorset so I shan’t make that trip unless I return to the 'Buster.
Thanks, Guys.
Thanks Andrew, I will look at that area, and how long it will take me to get there from Bournemouth, this evening. I expect I will be back to you will more questions 
In Southern Wales, just across the Severn Bridge, there are some climbs with 250m elevation gain. About half of Richter I guess but still pretty good. Doing a loop one can easily get in three such climbs without going on the same route twice. Nice.
Julian,
I lived in Crowborough and worked in Southampton last year. I could do Chandlers Ford to Crowborough in about 90mins to one hour.
If however you drove to Lewes and then parked, you could do that easily in 90 mins and then a long ride would allow you to do all those climbs as it is approximately 25-ish miles from Groombridge to Lewes so you could do the long ass drag climb from Lewes to Wych Cross, drop down to Hartfield, ride up towards Edenbridge, across towards T-Wells, down to Groombridge, then to Kingstanding and then back to Lewes.
That would be a long ass slow ride.
To give some idea of how hilly the area is, the similar loop ridden by the local Cat 1 team, pulling as a group including the long down hill to Lewes they can only average approx 24 mph so it is not ez.
That’s the kind of information I am after. Any idea of the road numbers? I’m guessing it’s not too busy along that route, hopefully!
i don’t mean to sound glib, but are you really sure there is any climb in the SE that is 11 km long. I used to live in Eastbourne and cycled extensively around the areas you mentioned and there is nothing that long. There’s a smallish climb over the Ashdown Forest which is steep in a couple of places and there’s a few other small climbs round there. Predominantly the whole area is flat, but could be described as rolling.
I’ve no idea what the Richter Pass is like (or where it’s located). There’s a few climbs in south Wales (where i now reside) that are longish, but are still nothing like 11 km. Maybe 7 km at the most.
The climbs around north Wales that another poster mentions are some of the most frightening i have encountered but are still only short (if exceedingly steep).
There’s some climbs around the north west England (around Derbyshire) that are long, i.e., the Cat and Fiddle, which is about 10 km long and Snake Pass (coming from Ladybower resovior) which is a little longer (but it’s a big ring climb apart from the click and a half).
There’s nothing in the UK like the passes in e.g., the Alps or Pyrenees
Ric
define climb?
I lived in Boulder where we could climb from 5 to 10k feet in 8-9 miles. Is there anything like that in the UK? No.
Given we are in the south of England, the best you have is from sea level to 6-700 feet. Thats not a roller in Colorado, here its a climb.
Thats the best I can come up with thats south of London.
Just so you have some idea, I can ride 100 miles with I would guess 6-10k feet of climbing down here so whilst the climbs are not long, they are very very similar to Ironman Wisconsin.
I’m not sure why you replied to my comment in the way that you did, as i’m in agreement with you. I said that the SE is flat, and there ain’t no ‘proper’ climbs there! and i reside in Wales, not the south of England
ric
Do the Chris Boardman method as hed did in his book. Get your bike onto a treadmill set at 10% and climb away for hours…
ahh… joy! the hours of endless fun i had in the lab with this idea. never a dull moment or a chance to relax on the “climb” as the thought of shooting off the back of the Woodway was too frightening.
It was good to see CB and the others doing MAP tests on the treadmill this way
ric
I can see that going down well at David Lloyd!
While we are at it, does anyone have any insight into, or tips about the Windsor Tri? My wife are heading over to the UK & Ireland for vacation next month and are bringing our bikes so we can do that race…
My tip would be that if you want to ride and run around Windsor do so mid week, it’s a beautiful place. My personal take is that the race numbers are way too large for the area now, although it is frequently voted best race so I may be alone in this opinion. My recollections are of gastro-enteritis from the swim in the Thames, although to be fair it rained solidly for the 3 days before and so general nastiness leeched into the river. I don’t like drafting in my races, and it is nigh on impossible to race clean as the waves are very large and very close together, add in a large number of newbies that have not learnt race etiquite (sp) and it is immencely frustrating. The run is 3 laps of an X shape which requires that you return to the centre 12 times in total, and run along dead straight roads zig zagging through crowds of runners.
It does have a good atmosphere and is good to spectate as there is always a number of world class Brits from various parts of the world like Tim Don, Andrew Johns, Simon Lessing or Spencer Smith competing in the elite wave.
Have a look at the organisers site at www.humanrace.co.uk (or .com) to get details.