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Middle Therfield hill factoid

Martin LMartin L
edited January 2011 in General
If you climb the 'middle' hill up toward Therfield [near the A505 Shell garage] 16 times [well 16.1 times, by my calculator], you will have achieved the same vertical ascent as Alpe d'Huez.

Comments

  • ScouseChrisScouseChris
    nice one martin!

    shame we haven't got the altitude, weather, views, switchbacks or EPO to make it realistic!!

    still, we can pretend!

    i will paint your name on the road if that helps!
  • skeldersskelders
    edited January 2011
    To alleviate 'some' of the boredom, I was doing the ‘M’ around that hill last year. So up from the Ashwell Station, down & up the one you mentioned, down & up the little Chief one and repeat three times, then over to Weston via Sandon & Wallington and down & up the George IV hill (also club hill climb 2010), 1/2 way through Weston, down, up & down hill before Gravely, onto Gravely, left before Citroen garage and back up that cheeky little hill. If you have anything left after that go back through Weston to George IV for two to three goes :-)

    closest to Alpine fun i could find near home ;-)

    can’t remember the exact climbing figures but have them at home...
  • James DJames D
    So who's up for an evening session then??? lights on, preferably wind and rain as discussed this morning

    Great route Tim whats the total elevation on that? Maybe someone who knows the Hexton area ( i seem to remember the Hexton Road coming into Hitchin is quite lumpy too) could come up with a similar excercise and then we could link the two togther in one ride for the ultimate experience :)-
  • skeldersskelders
    4-5000 feet seems to ring a bell??? I think Stef recorded it once..
  • Martin LMartin L
    Good training route that Tim. I calculate that as about 3,500ft climbing in 56 miles. About two-thirds the Alpe d'Huez climb [5,300ft]. Trouble is, Alpe d'Huez climb is only 10 miles long.

    Terrifying!

    Am up for lo-fi mid-week evening blasts up the middle hill.
  • Lee HLee H
    last time I looked though, Alpe d'huez didn't go up and down 16 times, or even up and down, it just goes up :-)

    Lee
  • Senecio [Daniel D]Senecio [Daniel D]
    There's a Dutch 'challenge' event called Alpe du Sez in which you attempt to climb the fabled col 6 times in (I think) 12 hours.

    Martin, you should try 16 times, having done you Therfield intervals ; - ))
  • StefStef
    yep my garmin recorded 4376 feet in 56 miles when we did the skelders m last summer... no idea how accurate these things are. cant understand why none of our local climbs feature in the "100 greatest cycling climbs in britain" book that i got for christmas...
  • skeldersskelders
    I got that too :-)

    I believe the Cheshire Cat one is in there though :-O

    can't wait!!
  • StefStef
    it is indeed in there... rating a 9/10... where 1/10 is "hard" and 10/10 is "its all you can do to keep your bike moving"... lovely!

    couple of the climbs from the chilterns ride in there too i think
  • gsmithgsmith
    Sorry if this has already been posted, but I've just been out for a spin and noticed that the middle Therfield hill at the top has a big old sign saying it will be closed from Monday to Friday, so best avoided until Saturday.
  • Martin LMartin L
    Cheers for the info. Maybe it's getting resurfaced with some super smooth Alpine tarmac..! Hang on. Herts county council. So probably redone with Weetaflakes or something.
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