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'Lakeland Loop' Sportive
Report by Mark, 15/04/07
25/03/07 - 'only' 68 miles on The Lakeland Loop, but otherwise known as cycling vertically uphill.
Never, in the field of human cycling have I seen so many legs shredded by so few miles. I have cycled some serious climbs in my brief cycling 'career', the Galibier, L'Alpe D'Huez, Ventoux, the Koppenberg, Col d'Izoard etc, but now some new names now join my list and they sound a little more English : Hardknott, Wrynose and Honister passes.
Ok, they aren't high and can't compete for distance - you won't be spending hours in the saddle slowly edging towards the finish - but what these passes have in overdose quantities is steepness. Harknott is aptly named, but 'hard' doesn't do it real justice, it is verging on the ridiculous. From the days when mobile phones didn't exist there is a telephone box at the bottom so that stranded motorists can phone for help as their sizzling engine bays confirm that sustained 30% gradients are not good for cars. Imagine what it does to cyclists. The best site I've seen that has pictures of these crazy slopes is here (thanks Kyle !).
Matt and I travelled up to the Lake District late on Friday evening and found the New Dungeon Ghyll hotel in the pitch black, sunk a couple of beers and crashed. Basically.
The next day's curtain drawing revealed the glorious lansdcape of the Langdale valley in fantastic sunshine. Conditions for cycling were 10 on a scale that went up to 10, we gobbled down breakfast in slightly feverish efforts to get the bikes out of the car as soon as possible.
For our training ride, we decided to take the route of the Lakeland Loop sportive in reverse (we would come to regret this decision a little, but more on that later). This involved the 25% climb up to Blea Tarn to start, and then the horrors of Wrynose and Hardknott whilst the legs were still fresh. No need for arm warmers or any other additional clothing this weekend, we were in the middle of an April heatwave that gave us weather you would hope for in July, it was fantastic.
As we took a photo at the 'Severe Gradient' sign at the bottom of Wrynose, one of several women who cycled past suddenly stopped and said she recognised us from Craig's place near Ventoux in 2005 ! It's a small world, and we chatted about, guess what - cycling - as we rode up the slopes. The first section was extremely tough, but once completed, we then tackled the Hardknott. This climb on an Ordnance Survey map famously has seven severe gradient chevrons in a row, distiguishing it I believe from pretty much anything else in the UK. It was too much for most of the women from Edinburgh road club and there was lots of walking, but luckily my legs held out and I made it up,
........Probably the silliest section of road in the UK
as it did Matt. Some sections were extreme and I made a note that if it was this hard with fresh legs, what would it be like after 70 miles in a semi-race ? Ominously we knew we would find out tomorrow.
The rest of Satruday's training ride involved cycling through some of the most glorious landscapes in the world, and this is not said lightly. The Lake District just looked stunning in the very warm spring sunshine, blue sky, towering hills and glistening, inviting lakes, there are few places that can touch this area in Spring.
We deviated off the loop route to ride Honister pass. This is a road I had not been up before and it looked pretty scary on the map, with the characteristic multi chevroned sections. It proved a beast with one section that asked some very serious questions of my legs, luckily I still had some answers. Don't believe anyone who tells you that there aren't any challenging climbs in the UK, there are some monsters. A motorist who had been watching my battle with gravity gave me a round of applause when he went past me at the top, sometimes little things give you a massive boost.
Down to Borrowdale, along Derwent water to Keswick and then the main road back to Windermere turning off to Langdale - 80 miles of beautiful cycling.
However.....legs felt disturbingly weary that evening and our dinner portions were not really what we were looking for bearing in mind the calorie burning capabilities of this area. Sadly there was no pasta on the menu and as I went to bed I had a sneaking feeling we were under-fed and watered.
After waking on Sunday, thoughts of sitting in a cafe in Ambleside suddenly seemed very enticing indeed. But we realised that if we couldn't ride two 'mountain' days in a row, our Tour credentials looked flimsy.
We signed on at registration and set-off with one another chap. He soon diasappeared, but after a while a bunch came by and I hopped onto the back. The ride to Keswick was fast in a group and before long were were at the feed station on Whinlatter Pass. Casual chat with other riders revealed some bemusement that I had ridden a harder version of the course the day before and I started to wonder if I had bitten off more than I could chew.
Seems a bit unfair, why don't grey squirrels have to drive slowly too ?
The group dispersed and I rode the next 20 miles or so alone until I caught up two riders, Andy and Paul who were moving pretty strongly. Taking the welcome opportunity of a back wheel, we rode fairly hard across to the feedstop below Hardknott, where the severe gradients would reveal who genuinely had any legs left. I downed some energy bars and flapjack in a last ditch attempt to generate some additional power for the next intimidating section.
Noting a campervan that seemed to literally driving straight up a mountainside in front of us, we hit the lower slopes. Even 50 metres or so into the climb there were cyclists walking, the field was being destroyed. As I climbed up with both legs cramping on me, it dawned on me that this gradient was becoming unsustainable, there was too much road left at too steep an angle. Reaching one section of horrific steepness (33%) I realised that a foot down was rapidly becoming inevitable. It was only a momentary pause though, and I started off again as a cyclist slid down the tarmac in his cycling shoes (it really is that steep in some places, you can't stand up). I also then noticed that I hadn't actually been in the bottom gear, I had one more available ! But in all honesty it doesn't really matter, turning the pedals becomes virtually impossible in any gear. Some idea of the gradient can be seen in this video from the Fred Whitton Challenge - a beast of an event.
........Matt's front wheel is off the ground in this shot
Andy continued, Paul was somewhere behind and the hot sun beat down as we finally winched ourselves to the top. The thing about these passes is that the road is so steep, the descents are almost as painful as the climbs. Full braking is required at all times to avoid wheels locking up and careering off the side, the triceps take a real hammering as you try to control the bike. Racing up and down these roads is just not really possible, they are too steep.
Next was Wrynose Pass and we all agreed that somewhere back on the Hardknott we had lost the ability to cycle up hills any more. But digging very deep we hauled our rapidly faltering bodies up the last 30% section that left just the 'mere' 25% section to Blea tarn before the finish. One last glorious view at the top (had started to forget where we were, such was such concentration required) and we rode to the finish.
4hrs 40 mins or so, 17th place, not bad an effort and thanks must go to Andy and Paul, two strong riders and good companions who helped me along.
I was then a little startled to see Matt tapping me on the shoulder, where did he come from ? From Whinlatter was the answer. Matt legs ran out of juice the other side of Keswick and he turned the bike round and headed for base. He completed the harder 82 mile route on Saturday, but two mountains days in succession really destroys the legs and that combined with the heat and food situation resulted in DNF. For the Tour we have to nail these, so more training miles required. And needs to involve climbs (but maybe not this steep).
Overall it was another great weekend's cycling. Bikes have led me to some wonderful experiences in the last couple of years, I've visited some beautiful places and met some great people (and re-met some !).
But this weekend was up there, the Lakes in spring make up for dreary UK winters and Hardknott pass should be on every cyclists itinerary for the sheer severity alone. Maybe doing the route twice in two days was a little OTT (seem to be the general consensus from other riders), but it's all good training.
These lakeland passes are seriously steep, the Fred Whitton Challenge that effectively races over all of them in one day is for hard-as-nails riders only, but I feel it has to be attempted one day. Would be epic.