At a glance A superb pocket guide and tick list to Britain’s best hills for road cyclists
Tested by
Jonathan Manning, tester for the bike list
Content
There's surely an element of every road cyclist that's a hill-bagger, a closet polka dotted king or queen of the mountains who's fascinated by the challenge of climbing contours. How hard can it be to pedal up, Ditchling Beacon on the London to Brighton ride, dramatic Winnats Pass in the Peak District, or the Rosedale Chimney in North Yorkshire?
Now a new book, "100 Greatest Cycling Cimbs - A road cyclist's guide to Britain's Hills" attempts to put you in the saddle.
Where most guides of this ilk would adopt one of two approaches - a lifestyle coffee table tome of grimacing cyclists and tales of peril or a technical route guide of directions - author Simon Warren delivers something entirely different. This is a highly personal paperback that brims with his passion as an uphill pedaller, yet includes enough detail to follow in his tyre tracks.
The book divides the UK into eight
regions, each well represented by at least 10 rides (apart from the
north east with four - why nothing in the Cheviot Hills?), so
there's sure to be a challenge within a decent ride from your
doorstep. Each of the 100 routes has a photo, synopsis, altitude
profile, grid reference and Top Trump style statistics of length,
height gain and hill climb time, as well as a score out of 10.
For many cyclists it would be useful to place these climbs within a longer route, and to include better Ordnance Survey mapping than the vague cartography that accompanies each of these rides. But that would be to miss the single-minded devotion of the author to conquer the steepest contours. In doing so, Simon Warren has thrown down the gauntlet to anyone with an addiction, either passing or lifelong, to the challenge of cycling up hills.
British geography might mean that there's no equivalent to Tour de France monsters like Alpe d'Huez or Mont Ventoux, but you won't be thinking of that when you hit the 1-in-3 incline of Rosedale Chimney, or the 623 metres gained in the 9km ascent of Bealach-Na-Ba in Highland.
The overriding question is whether you're up for it, and whether it will become your cycling mission to complete the tick list in the back of this excellent guide.
Buy from www.amazon.co.uk
Publisher says:
Cycling is Britain's biggest boom sport and nowhere is the boom more evident than on the road: once seen as the preserve of serious racers, the road bike has recently found a new lease of life due to the popularity of challenge rides and Sportives. It is now possible for cyclists of all abilities to ride a well marked, well marshalled event just about any weekend of the year, usually based around one, two or sometimes as many as ten fearsome hills. For the first time, here is a pocket-sized guide to the 100 greatest climbs in the land, the building blocks for these rides, written by a cyclist for cyclists. From lung busting city centre cobbles to leg breaking windswept mountain passes, this guide locates the roads that have tested riders for generations and worked their way into cycling folklore. Whether you're a leisure cyclist looking for a challenge or an elite athlete trying to break records stick this book in your pocket and head for the hills.
To watch a video of Simon Warren in action click here
Publication Details:
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
ISBN: 9780711231207
Format: 160 mm x 110 mm (6.3 inches x 4.3 inches)
Binding: Paperback
176 pages
200 colour photographs and maps
Find out more: www.franceslincoln.com
