Thursday 13 August 2009

Up the Garth

I have strict views on cycling. Cycling should be enjoyable. Going up hill can be enjoyable. But going up stupidly steep climbs is just stupid. With some exceptions, any road that is more than 15% should be banned to all cyclists. Enjoyable climbs should be alpinesque - these are pleasurable. Anyone who gets pleasure out of climbing really steep hills is just nuts. This is why I would never ride up Porlock hill; why I wouldnt be bothered with Woolacombe hill; and why Id rather ride longer than go over caerphilly mountain (main road route).

So why did I today ride up the steepest climb near Cardiff? That's right the lane from Gwaelod y Garth up to Pentyrch. Probably because I'd never done it before; compact gearing makes anything seem possible; and the profile of the hill doesnt seem to bad on the computer, despite its two arrows on OS maps.

I got up, but it was bad. Walking pace. Heavy breathing. Grunts. Not nice. I wont do it again, ever. For good measure I also rode up past Castell Coch. We used to organise a hill climb up here, but I struggled to find the climb until the end - so in that sense it was a good climb, but I expected more. But after going up the Garth, probably anything seems easy.

Just noticed that the altitude gain on this 20 mile ride is nearly 400m, not bad.


Bike route 280052 - powered by Bikemap 

No comments:

Post a Comment