Toughest Hill

[puddings]

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Cost me a bit in petrol though - but we had a nice trip in the car.

I blew up the engine on my old mini on Wrynose back in the middle of a hot summer in the early 90's. Best bit was that the AA man who came to tow me also broke down with an overheated engine. decided it was simpler just to ride it after that.
(note for the youth on the forum - in olden times, the months of june, july and august were associated with something called the sun and it made it warm outside)

[timothy.john]

(note for the youth on the forum - in olden times, the months of june, july and august were associated with something called the sun and it made it warm outside)

I remember those days. Nowadays, the sun doesn't show its face over England for anything less than an Olympic Games!

[martyn gall]

I did Hardknott, Wrynose and Kirkstone on the same day and what a relief when I got to the top of Kirkstone. If I was gonna do it again I would def look to have a compact or at least something bigger that a 23 on the back had to stop on Hardknott then could'nt get going again as it was so steep could'nt clip in.

[Pete Appleby 3]

I did the Hardknott back in the early 70's on a steel framed truimph it weighed a ton nad had only 5 gears, mind I did have youth on my side then Ive done it since and it seemed harder.
The hardest climb I do now is on the road from Kenmore to Amulree, absouloute pig, steep and long, very hard to keep the front wheel down when seated and hard to stop the back wheel from spinning if out of the saddle

[Greg Quinn]

I had a look at the Kenmore segment on Strava Pete it looks brutal. I'll have a crack at that one next time I'm in the area.

[Pete Appleby 3]

Its harder from the Kenmore side, than the Amulree side, must ride it and make a segment from the Kenmore side

[freester]

If you want a short / sharp tough challenge more in the south then Bushcombe Lane (page down link to find write-up) in Gloucestershire is a tough one.

[LazyCambridge]

I used to live out in Austria, and there was a hill (Austrian standards not English) and it was 6km long with an average of 12% gradient, and it gets to 17% in a few parts. That used to absolutely destroy. I'm still struggling to get used to these short sharp climbs in the Cambridgeshire area though now, they take it out of me as I'm so used to long hauls not 1 minute jobbies.

[Darth Weasel]

Did this today as part of a 57k loop, only 9.3km long, but an average gradient of 9.1%. Certainly not the toughest hill around, but pretty hard going for me.

Col_de_Menté_Saint_Beat_Toulouse_profile.jpg

[Angus444]

I did the Hardknott back in the early 70's on a steel framed truimph it weighed a ton nad had only 5 gears, mind I did have youth on my side then Ive done it since and it seemed harder.
The hardest climb I do now is on the road from Kenmore to Amulree, absouloute pig, steep and long, very hard to keep the front wheel down when seated and hard to stop the back wheel from spinning if out of the saddle

Agree with you there, Pete. Cairn O'Mount up in my neck of the woods is also a challenge, 16% right at the start.......