Thursday 2 July 2009

Early morning ride

Seeing as it's still so hot outside, and I wasn't particularly in the mood for a morning or afternoon ride, when I woke up at 6am unable to sleep any longer I got out on Everest and took her for a trip to Hartshead Pike....the hillier way.

Usually I'd head up Lees Rd and past Oldham Golf Club for a short climbing experience with a few 11% sections. This time I head out the way I would normally come back - climbing Mossley Rd, passing Ashton Golf Course and turning off at the brow of the hill up Broadcarr Lane. I did this on purpose knowing full well that I'd have a 2 mile climb with an average of 5% followed by a short sharp 11% section that rears straight up from Mossley Rd with no let up - for me that is fairly evil as I can do short and sharp, I can just about do long climbs, but to combine the two was evil; but it had to be done seeing as I can't avoid hills all my life!

Anyway, after getting to the Pike, savouring the breeze up there, I knew I'd have to leave again pretty sharpish if I wanted to avoid the rush hour traffic as they headed out to work.
I came back down via Lees Head Rd, Lees New Rd and Abbey Hills Rd (with its 20% section) to Alt Lane and a lovely descent through Park Bridge to Bardsley and more descending until an 11% climb brought me back out of the valley to a flat section through Failsworth and Newton Heath before reaching my hill repeat hill.
Sadly (or gladly, not sure which yet) there are lots of roadworks on this hill now and it's been narrowed down to a single lane while the work is going on, so I couldn't really do my hill climb on it as stopping halfway up a hill for traffic lights would really bugger up my times - I felt slower getting up it anyway, so numbers wouldn't really tell me much different!

Stats - view route
Already 20 degrees and sticky
Average speed: 12.4mph
Miles: 17.3
Climbed: 646ft

4 comments:

  1. I always thought Manchester was pretty flat, Obviously not!.

    A 20% hill!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's flatter than most places this direction, but we still have some hills. they're mainly less than 10% but some have steeper sections.

    I'm just not a fam of hills full stop really, although I have gotten lots better than I used to be. Still not that great though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 10% is about as steep as I can cope with on the fixie so if I lived there I would probably be avoiding most hills in that area too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't think I'd manage anything over 5% on a fixie. I have enough problems as it is on any hill on Everest!

    ReplyDelete