Final post - including the HARDEST climb and a bit of a shock discovery...

So, we have seen which of Sheffield's many hills is the steepest - but for a rider like me the short punchy ridiculously steep hills are actually easier than some of the less steep but longer hills.

There isn't really a scientific way to determine which was the hardest to climb. It is a very subjective thing. Hills that I find a real struggle might be much easier for others. If I somehow lost eight stone and 30 years, I would probably find them a lot easier too!

This was the Top 10 steepest hills:

The noticable thing here is that only one of the Top 10 is longer than 300 metres. This feels like a line in the sand for me. Anything less than 300 metres didn't really cause me real difficulties, so cannot be considered for the title of my hardest climb.

Waller Road is the exception in the Top 10, and I think the combination of being over 300m and also over 15% gradient has to put it in contention.

So, lets look at the 10 longest climbs on my list:

Twentywell was longest by a distance, but actually was reasonably easy due to the section in the middle where it drops back down a little and allows you to build speed for the final steep section. For me, it is some combination of gradient and length that hurts the most, so if you drop out the five shortest and the five with the lowest gradients, it leaves two more contenders; Jenkin Road and Highcliffe Road.

For me, along with Waller Road this feels like a really worthy top three. All three stand out even this far after the event as being the ones where I struggled most. As I say, purely subjective and purely personal choice, but I would place Waller Road in third. I did find it extremely tough, but I think part of that is that I thought it was much shorter, so was caught by surprise at having to keep going longer than I expected.

That leaves Jenkin Road and Highcliffe Road. Highcliffe is slightly shorter, but Jenkin is slightly less steep. For me, what swings it is that Jenkin Road had short sections that were much steeper and other sections where the gradient drops to around 5% so you could recover a little. For me, Highcliffe was just unrelenting; there is no point in the entire climb where the gradient changes by more than a % or two, so that clinches the number one spot.

There you have it, the Hardest Hill in Sheffield (for me) is Highcliffe Road. Try it if you dare; it is brutal whether you are walking or cycling.

And that is that.

Well, not quite!

There were a couple of suggestions for additional climbs given to me (thank you!!) 

Bonus Hill 1

First up was Lodge Lane. This was near the Rivelin Valley, where so many of the really nasty hills hide. The stats are:

So, very long compared to most, but as you will have started to expect by now, that means that the gradient was quite a bit lower. So, not one to trouble the overall list, or even the hardest hills. However, if prizes were given for scenic climbs, this would easily take home the trophy. There were a couple of switchbacks in the road where the gradient went over 15%, but what they gave was a fabulous view over the Rivelin Valley. This was actually quite lovely to climb up!

Bonus Hill 2

The other hill that was suggested to me was Pea Royd Lane. This is much further out of Sheffield than any of the others, and notably has been used several times as the site of a national hill climbing competition. I thought it would be interesting to end this blog with a slightly different challenge; which is: how much difference does an eBike actually make?

I drove out to Pea Royd Lane with both my eBike and my regular bike in the back of the car. They are basically the same bike, a Cannondale Synapse, just one has a motor - so it should be a really good way to judge how much difference the power assistance really makes.

It was really no surprise that the eBike made it easier, and no surprise that it was also quicker. I kind of expected that actually the real difference is that the eBike makes it possible; I didn't manage to get to the top of the climb on my regular Synapse at all! What came as a real shock, though, is that when I got on the regular bike I genuinely thought that there was something wrong with it. It was so sluggish, I pulled over after about 100m because I thought I had put the front wheel on wrong and the brakes were clamped on! No, the wheel spun freely. I got back on and strained up another 150m or so before I just couldn't keep going. Halfway up, and I was done!

Note that time - it took 3 minutes and 39 seconds to go 260m! To be fair, the gradient was around 15% (14.99% to be exact), so this was a very steep climb, and I suspect included at least a minute of trying to work out what was wrong with the bike before working out that what was wrong was me!

On the eBike, up I went with no problems. Got to the top, so a clear victory for the eBike. Even more startling was the time:

Again, look at the time; I was quicker up the full climb of 420m that I was for half of it on the regular bike even allowing for that minute of shocked fumbling with the wheels. The wattage is about right - the eBike in Turbo mode adds around 250 watts, so I was putting in a similar amount of wattage from my own legs.

That is what an eBike can do. It makes things easier, yes, but for an out of shape rider it also makes things possible. I couldn't have climbed most of these hills on a regular bike and as a consequence didn't go out for long rides in and around Sheffield just because of how difficult it would be. This challenge has proved beyond a doubt that there is nothing that Sheffield (the city of seven hills) can throw at me that I can't cope with. Over the course of this blog, I have gone from doing short commutes on the flattest route I can find, to going out for 50+km rides at weekends and seeking out hills to climbs and views to enjoy.

It has genuinely changed my cycling world. 

Thank you for reading, I hope it has been interesting. If any of you are inspired to get an eBike and change your own worlds, that would be truly amazing.

Last four hills - and the official outcome

This is it, this is when we find out just what is the steepest hill in Sheffield?

Well, I can tell you - the last four was a really good group. These could definitely shake up that final table. But could they knock Hagg Hill off of its perch? Let's find out...

Sheffield Hill #22

Bates Street was just the kind of climb I was starting to expect from Sheffield. Not too long at 225m, but really steep. With an elevation gain of 27m, this had a gradient of exactly 12%. Tough enough, though just outside the top 10 in the table.

Sheffield Hill #23

This was a much longer climb, the road is called Whitehouse Lane which climbs up from Infirmary Road. It snakes up the hill for 522, climbing 53 metres along the way. That gives it an average gradient of 10.15%, though like most of the longer climbs, this varied a bit along the way with some easier sections and some harder ones.

Sheffield Hill #24

Then it was time for the big ones. Blake Street, which many online commentators felt was the steepest hill in Sheffield, and certainly in "proper" Sheffield. This is the one that gave me stress issues all those years ago, so I have been determined not to overthink it and trust in my bike. It did not disappoint, as it was seriously steep - but the big question is would it challenge Hagg Hill?!

As it was one of the original "big four", I added all the charts for this one!

The Strava stats above would put it at 14.5% average gradient, which would fall short of Hagg Hill's 17.8%. However, as ever, Strava struggled with accuracy for these short climbs. The real length is 185m, and the real elevation was 31m.

I wish I could spin this out longer, but the sad fact is that this gave it a real average gradient of 16.8%. That is seriously steep, but not enough to knock Hagg Hill off the top spot. In fact, it put it into third spot behind my own beloved Prospect Place.

Sheffield Hill #25

So, that was it. Not that I knew at the time, of course, but the issue was decided. The big shootout between Blake Street and Hagg Hill had gone the way most commentators had thought it would. Hagg Hill was Number 1.

Well, no - it might not be all over yet. Hold tight, there is a twist at the end of this tale...

I came to the last climb in the whole challenge, Wellfield Road. It was unexpectedly steep. It had the white handrails for pedestrians, which I have come to learn is a sign of the real top-end steep climbs.

Could Wellfield Road be a contender? It hadn't really been suggested much by people, but standing at the bottom of this I thought it might well have a serious chance. Here are the stats.

Strava's suggestion of 11% was clearly nonsense. They don't put handrails on roads that have an 11% gradient! So, it was down to Google Maps and PlotaRoute to give more accurate readings. And, let me tell you now, the gradients for Wellfield Road and Hagg Hill are close. Really, really close.

So close, in fact, that I had to go back and get an even more accurate calculation. That more accurate calculation moved Hagg Hill up a little from 17.82% to 17.84%. Wellfield Road's vital statistics were 22.86m of climbing over just 128m. That gave it a gradient of ...

... wait for it ...

17.86%. 

Right at the death, the final climb came through and stole the crown. By just 0.02%!!

We have a champion, and one that I didn't expect at all: Wellfield Road is officially "Sheffield's Steepest Hill".

Here is the final table with gold, silver and bronze medallists:

Poor Blake Street; all that hype and it finished outside the medals. Even it's claim to be the steepest hill in 'proper' Sheffield is shot down. Hagg Hill and Prospect Place could be argued to be outside the boundary of the original city (at whatever point in time this distinction was made!), but Wellfield Road is just around the corner from Blake Street, so must be "proper" Sheffield as well. A clear-cut winner.

This been surprisingly fun to do. It has been really enjoyable taking on a challenge during the Covid-19 lockdown and having something to keep me occupied. I hope you have enjoyed reading about it too.

I will have another post to add, to give my views (rather less scientifically, I am afraid) on which has been the toughest climb. Many of those at the top of the ranking table above were (mercifully) short, so for me were actually easier than some of the climbs with less gradient but longer length. I have had a couple of recommendations of climbs to try sent to me, and I will add these in for that final assessment.

But for now, if you happen to overhear locals arguing over whether Hagg Hill or Blake Street is the steepest hill in Sheffield, you can casually drop Wellfield Road into their conversation.

Getting there; five more hills

I took a day off work, and went up five more of the steepest hills in Sheffield. Could any of them threaten the top of the rankings table? We will see...

Sheffield Hill # 17

Conduit Road was my first port of call, and there was a fair bit of climbing just to get to it. Conduit Road runs near the Management School building which is part of Sheffield University. It was pretty steep, and much like many of the climbs on this list relatively short.

With 29m of elevation (according to Google Maps) and 221m length (from PlotaRoute), the gradient came in at 13.12%. That is a steep climb, and put it firmly in the top 10. 

Sheffield Hill #18

After Conduit Road I had the lovely experience of a long fast descent from Crookes all the way down to Hunter's Bar roundabout. On a Friday afternoon during the holiday season and with travel still reasonably restricted due to Covid-19, this was an absolute joy on very quiet roads. I hit 60km/h at some points, and if I was braver could probably have pushed it higher. That's why we struggle up those hills; so we can fly back down again!

Still, soon enough I got to Hunter's Bar and after a left turn onto Ecclesall Road South found myself at the bottom of Botanical Road. This is a lovely quiet road, and I had the joy of riding past a small family group pushing their bikes up. Hopefully, they didn't realise I was on an eBike and were impressed by my climbing ability!

As you can see, my speed was reasonably high, which is usually a sign that the climb isn't too steep. Sure enough, the official statistics are that the gradient was just under 10% after climbing 31m in 312m.

Sheffield Hill #19

The next climb, Dobbin Hill, was a bit of a surprise. I had walked a few of the roads in this area, and was confused as to why anyone had suggested one of them might be the steepest hill in Sheffield. Clearly, I had never walked up this particular one! It was indeed very steep; the start was pretty easy as you can see from the elevation chart below, but it soon ramps up to be much more challenging.

However, that first section meant that the overall gradient was pretty low at just 8.7% after climbing 49m in 565 distance. I think Strava must have dropped out part way into the ride; either that or it has got really mardy after I decided to use Google Maps and PlotaRoute to get a more accurate reading! 

I could have gone back and just done the steepest part, but calculations suggest it doesn't get much beyond 11%. That is steep, but never going to challenge most of the roads on this list!

Sheffield Hill #20

This seemed to be a day of riding parts of roads, as this hill (Carr Bank Lane) was the third in a row where I decided to just record the steep section rather than the whole road. This has been a bit of a quandary for me, to be honest. Both Jenkin Road and Twentywell Lane have very short sections that could probably challenge the gradient of Hagg Hill. My view was originally that I should find the road whose full length had the steepest gradient, but there have been a few where the road reaches a maximum height and then either levels out or goes back downhill so it just feel right to include those stretches. If I had to be absolutely honest, a fair part of that decision was because none of them really had any chance of hitting the top of this list. The ones currently at the top are all full road stretches, so snipping some of the longer roads doesn't really invalidate the list, and gives them their chance to shine. That was until I got to Carr Bank Lane.

When you stand at the bottom of Carr Bank Lane, it rises up like a wall of tarmac in front of you. This was clearly one that was going to be very high up the list indeed. Except that - it is a road in two parts. It isn't just a steep bit that then eases. It is a steep bit that becomes a different road (Armthorpe Road) if you carry on straight, so you have to turn left into a different road (Carr Bank Close) then immediately right and you are back on Carr Bank Lane; but a much easier climb. I've included a map so you can see what I mean. Its nominally one road, but is really two roads with the same name. This one was a real quandary.

That first section is very short indeed. Not as short as Strava thought, but also had a bit more elevation than 0m!! The actual measurements were that it was just 59m long so one of the shortest on the list (in fact, just one single metre longer than Fox Hill), but with 9m of elevation. With my breath held in case it made a mockery of my entire blog, I ran it through the spreadsheet. The gradient was 15.3%.

Phew!! 

Very high up the list (and deservedly so), but thankfully not right up there at the top. Disaster avoided...

Sheffield Hill #21

Final hill of the day (or so I thought) was one that I had been dreading. I had done a step challenge a few years ago, and in my quest to find different places to walk to build up my step count, I had found myself walking up Highcliffe Road a couple of times. Walking up it (back when I was a bit younger and quite a bit fitter) was seriously hard work.  It is steep, and it just keeps going. Highcliffe isn't just a name, it is a fairly accurate description. If walking up it was hard, what would cycling up it be like?!

There is no way I would have made this without my eBike. This is a monster of a climb. It might not challenge for the steepest hill, but when I consider the touighest road to climb in Sheffield, this one is going to be right there in the mix. Therefore, I have included the full set of charts.

Strava cut it a little short again (must have been having a tough day) and the correct length is 673m, so the 4th longest road on the list so far. With 83m of elevation, while not at the top of the steepest gradients with an average of 12.3%, it is significantly steeper than any of the other longer climbs. There is no let up either until the last 10 metres; it is a slog from the word go right to the very top.

There is actually a little bit of a run up to the start, as the road that leads into Highcliffe Road has a nice downhill section - but fools like me who for some reason feel they have to stop at the bottom of each climb, start the recording and then get going get no benefit from it. The things I do for this challenge!

That should have been that for the day, but for some reason I had recovered enough on my ride back home that I decided I needed to try Twentywell Lane again; and for the sole reason that my heart rate monitor hadn't given me a reading when I did it for the first time. So, up I went again. I got one, which was nice. It was 154 bpm average, so nothing special. 

When on earth did cycling up Twentywell Lane become a bit of an afterthought? A bit of a, well, ho hum - might as well since I was passing kind of climb?! I used to have to get off and walk going up there not so many years ago. I used to plot routes to avoid having to go up it to get home!

This, if nothing else, should tell you what a difference an eBike can make to an unfit, casual cyclist's life. It has genuinely changed my perceptions about what I can do on a bike, in fact it has completely changed my entire mindset. Instead of intricately planning routes to try to make them as flat as possible, I just don't care what hills are on the route now. In fact, I now look for a good hill to include. 

Come to think of it, I'm now the kind of cyclist who actually enjoys going up the steepest hills that Sheffield has to offer!!

What am I going to do when this challenge is finished? Well, I'm going to find out pretty soon - there are only five hills left on the list.

Before I go, I have an updated table for you to enjoy. No change at the top, with Hagg Hill still sitting just above Prospect Place. As you can see, Carr Bank Lane jumped into 5th place, with Highcliffe Road breaking into the top 10 despite being much longer than any of the steeper climbs above it. Still, Blake Street is in that final group of climbs, and is the last of the "big four" that were most often mentioned as the steepest hills that Sheffield has to offer. Could there be a last gasp winner?

The rankings so far ... and a BIG change

 I thought that there were enough climbs in the bag to make a rankings table meaningful, so after 16 out of the 26 hills this is the list in order of the steepest.

As you can see, my very own Prospect Place - the genesis of this entire challenge - is clear and away in the Number One spot. Hagg Hill is running a bit behind, but then there are a cluster of hills around 13 or 14%. Twentywell Lane is the one languishing in last place, which is a big surprise as it was one of my original "big four". Of course, this is purely in order of the steepest. Later I will try to assess which were the toughest climbs, and I suspect there will be quite a different look to this table.

Now, there is an ulterior motive to showing this table. This is how it stands according to the statistics calculated by Strava. However, as I said in my previous post; the recordings for Fox Hill were clearly wrong on Strava. As you can see, it sits right down in the table, just fifth from bottom place, but there is simply no way that could have been just a 10% gradient.

I did a little research, and what I found is that Strava is pretty accurate overall. In terms of recording distance and elevation, there are few apps that can rival its accuracy. However, it is designed for cyclists and runners who routinely travel many kilometres in a single ride or run - not for recording the very short distances that some of the climbs on this list are. Strava has a tolerance of around 10m in distance recording (and that is at each end), so the distance of a climb could be out by 20m. It also seems to suffer when climbs don't cross more than one elevation line (this is the line on maps to show elevation in 5m increments). For very short climbs, this can have a significant effect on the gradient, which obviously is a combination of both distance and elevation.

Looking at lots of mapping websites and apps, as well as altimeters, I struggled to find any that gave a clear and accurate picture. One of them actually suggested Fox Hill was a zero elevation climb!!

However, I eventually concluded that I needed to find pages that specialised. Google Maps seemed to be the best for elevation, as it measured it in feet so hopefully gives it more accuracy. It is not so good for distance, though, as it rounds to the nearest number ending with 5 or 0 - and has a bad habit of snapping to a point of its own choosing (usually an intersection) rather than where you want it to be. The best I found for accurate distances was Plotaroute, as that allowed you to pinpoint the exact point to start and finish and recorded this to the nearest metre. So, using Google Maps for the elevation and Plotaroute for the distance I recalculated all of the gradients so far. I also decided to recalculate the average speeds, as distance obviously plays a part in that.

The new revised table was a bit of a surprise. As you can see below, despite my deepest wish for it to be Sheffield's steepest hill, Prospect Place is knocked off of its top spot!!  NNNOOOOoooo...

Here is the revised rankings of the 16 hills so far.

To be honest, this feels like a much closer representation of how I felt about these climbs. It didn't feel to me that Prospect Place was 5 degrees steeper than Hagg Hill - it is now extremely tight between them which feels right to me. Kent Road and Waller Road are also much closer, which again is exactly how I would have expected them to be.

Fox Hill has now shot up to fifth from top instead of fifth from bottom. Below that, it is pretty much unchanged, which I think is a reflection of Strava's increased accuracy over longer distances.

So, there are 10 more climbs to go. Will any of them challenge Hagg Hill for the top spot? Blake Street is the last of the "big four" and I think will be the main contender for that coveted number one spot. Will any of other climbs make a surprise entry like Prospect Place, or challenge for the secondary title of Sheffield's toughest climb?

We will soon see...

And the hills keep coming!

 After the difficulties I had in the Rivelin Valley, I had left one of the "big four" - Hagg Hill - so needed to return to that. I also went out for the next group of three, which included another of those "big four" - this one Jenkin Road. So, two biggies in this one report to look forward to, you lucky things!

Sheffield Hill #13

So, I went back out to the Rivelin Valley on the Sunday, after a day of rest. I was only attempting one climb (at least, that was the plan) so hoped for a nice long and relatively easy ride. The ride out was really nice - very flat and the Rivelin Valley Road is a joy to ride on as it has lovely smooth tarmac and an easy undulation so you can get some speed up and maintain it. But, soon enough that lovely ride was interrupted by Hagg Hill. This is the one that most people on the web suggest as Sheffield's steepest, and it certainly did not disappoint. It starts "easy", then cranks it up in the middle third before the final section brings the real pain. By the top I was in my lowest gear and the front wheel was lifting off the ground with every pedal stroke!

As it is such a contender, I thought you would want to see the full stats:

As you can see, it is just 260m long, but with 44m of elevation that translates into an average gradient of 16.9% (though more on this later). Average speed was 8.9 km/h which was surprisingly high considering I ended in such a low gear. The climb is a brute, and there is no way to escape as there are no footpaths to the side so you don't have an easy option to stop (which you will want to do!) This really is a genuine contender for the crown. Not as steep as Prospect Place, perhaps, but over four times longer - so a real killer of a climb. Very interesting to see the relationship between speed and heart-rate - they could almost dovetail.

Back down to the Rivelin Valley Road for more serene gliding along that fabulous piece of road. However, my lovely day on the bike was then rudely interrupted by Google Maps. I had set it to guide me back, as I didn't want to go back the way I came. After a little while, it directed me to turn left. There was no left turn except for a pathway. I carried on, thinking that it was recalculate and find me a road. About two miles further on, and ignoring pleas from Google Maps to turn round, I found a left turn which was a lovely little road along the side of a pretty reservoir. However, at the end of that road was a dead end. Checking the map, it looked like the next road across was going to be somewhere around Baslow - so I reluctantly turned back to find that pathway. Big mistake!!

The pathway was pretty short, but ended at the side of the Rivelin River. There was a crossing, but it was stepping stones across the river. Let me tell you, stepping across wet rocks wearing cycling shoes and carrying a heavy eBike is a nerve-wracking thing to do!! Somehow I made it without falling in and found myself on the other side, looking up at the pathway climbing up a steep slope through the woods. Picking up the bike, I slowly made my way up the steps made in the path carrying the bike. Little did I know it carried on for around 400m. That, trust me, was the hardest climb I have had to do since starting this challenge - and this one with no assistance from the eBike because I was having to carry the darned thing!

I thought that was it for the day, but on my way home decided to go back to Prospect Place and see if climbing that at the end of a ride rather than at the start would make much difference. The answer is, surprisingly, not really. My average speed was maybe 1km/h lower, so not significant I think. The main reason why I was able to take this quicker than other hills despite it being steeper seems to be the length. Because it is so short, it is all about power so stamina fatigue doesn't have a chance to set in.

Sheffield Hill #14

The following weekend saw me head out for the next group. Jenkin Road was the furthest away, so that was saved to last. In the meantime, I went to Rutland Road, which is a turning off the main Penistone Road which you take if you are heading to the hospital.

As you can see, I found this pretty straightforward. I just did the steep bit from the railway bridge, but even then managed a comfortable 15 km/h. Elevation was an average of 8.8% (anything under 10% feels like an easy climb after the monsters I have been up!) It was almost 600m long, which would normally add to the difficulty - but the gradient was pretty steady all the way so once you get into a stable rhythm the eBike just flows up the hill fairly easily. Almost disappointing!

Sheffield Hill #15

Fox Hill caused me a bit of a headache in a couple of ways. Firstly, it was a one-way street - meaning you are only supposed to go down it. Sorry to say, for probably the only time in my life I deliberately broke the Highway Code and cycled up it. Secondly, it was so short that Strava seemed to really struggle with the measurements. This is what I got:

The stats are a bit of a nonsense, so I included a photo of the climb. A 4m elevation in 40m suggests a 10% gradient. I think you can see from the photo, this is definitely not a 10% climb!!

It was only after I got home that I realised something had gone wrong with the recording for this climb, so at the time I carried on in blissful ignorance to the main event for the day.

Sheffield Hill #16

Jenkin Road is one that I have been worrying about for a while. Having seen the footage I posted earlier in this blog of professional cyclists struggling to move beyond walking pace, and knowing that it is also one of the longest climbs on the list, I knew that this was going to be tough going. I got to it about halfway up, which didn't help as it mean that I could see the sharp bend in the road to my left where the gradient hits 25% - but had to turn right and coast down half the hill knowing that I not only had to go back up but had that scary looking ramp to deal with towards the end. I had to take a few minutes to compose myself, as nerves definitely started to kick in...

Again, I have included a full set of charts for Jenkin Road, as it is a worthy contender for being Sheffield's toughest climb - though you can quickly see it certainly isn't the steepest. With 90m of climbing over 800m, the average gradient is 11.3%. Over that distance, and particularly with not one but two severe ramps near the top, this is a truly tough climb. What was unexpected to me was that I seemed to level out in terms of my heart rate; previous climbs had seen this going up and up the longer the climb was, but for this one I seemed to have reached my maximum level and managed to stay there - I even pushed the speed up towards the end when there was a "false flat". Of all the climbs so far, this was right up there with Waller Road as being the toughest. I needed a long rest at the top, half a bottle of water and a cigarette! Even the arrival of a fire engine to deal with a fire on the hill didn't manage to get me moving.

Rivelin Valley - first signs of real difficulty...

The day I went to the Rivelin Valley was hot, really hot. It was in the high twenties at the point I was going up the climbs, and what climbs these were. Most of these were firmly in the middle of the table I had come up with, but I suspect will feature closer to the top of the final list. They were all really steep, and all relatively long as well - and on a hot day that turned out to be a dangerous combination...

First, it was an easy ride out through the city centre and along the Penistone Road. A quick skip across my absolute least favourite road feature - tramlines - to get to the first of the five hills I had planned. Tramlines, for those lucky enough not to come across them while on two wheels, are a disaster waiting to happen. If your front wheel gets on one, or even worse in one, you are going down. It is like hitting a patch of ice, but ice that sits there waiting whatever the weather. Sheffield has a lot of trams, most of which are safely penned up in their own little separated routes, but quite often they come out and snake across or along the roads. They aren't too bad when you follow along them (assuming the planners left enough room between them and the edge of the road) or when you cross them at a right angle; but when you have to cross them at a shallow angle they are very dangerous indeed. I will always create a better angle to cross them at, and like the route on this day, that usually means having to move out into the main traffic lanes (to the annoyance of the car drivers) to get the right angle to cross safely.

Sheffield Hill #09

The first hill to climb was just before you get to the Rivelin Valley Road, and is called Dykes Road. At 280m long, it one of the longer climbs so far, and with an average gradient of 11.4% it shouldn't have been too difficult. However, the start is probably the steepest bit, which takes it out of your legs so I definitely found it a bit of a struggle.

My Heart Rate Monitor finally started working properly, so I included that chart - which clearly shows the impact that a longer climb has in terms of maintaining an effort. When your 'normal' heart rate is 70 to 80, then 174 bpm is pretty high!! I didn't know it at that point, but this was the easiest climb of the day.

Sheffield Hill #10

I had planned to go from here to Hagg Hill, which is one of those top contenders for the title of Sheffield's steepest hill, but when I double checked my route realised that this would take me down Walkley Road, so I decided to save Hagg Hill for later in the day and go back towards the main road to find the start of Walkley Road. I messed this one up, as I thought I had reached the top of the climb only to realise that I had stopped part way up! I was thinking "that wasn't so bad", which in hindsight was a sure sign that something had gone a bit wrong.

This is the summary screen of the second part, which was the longest and steepest bit.

The full length was 870m, with a total elevation of 78m. The average gradient was therefore just 9.0% - but this was the opposite of Twentywell Lane as it was a constant grind all the way up. Yes, there were some changes in the severity of the gradient, but certainly no point where you could recover. This was a tough climb for me, as once again my lack of stamina showed itself. Still, I plugged away and finally got to the top with an average speed of around 16km/h.

Sheffield Hill #11

Onwards to the Rivelin Valley proper. All of the final three rides were roads coming off the Rivelin Valley Road itself. The first two looked to be pretty much opposite each other, so that is where I headed. To get to #11, I had to find a road down from Walkley Road, which when I did was so steep I started to wonder why no-one had mentioned it in those discussion sites. It was called Cliff Road, so the signs were definitely there. I filed it away, thinking I might need to add another climb to the list.

Then I got to the bottom and found Hollins Lane rising up in front of me. It is an intimidating start - it must begin over 20% gradient before it disappears round a corner. Luckily, around that corner it eases off a little, before a last little kicker at the top.

As you can see, although 400m long, the elevation was 49m, meaning an average gradient of 12.3%. This was a very tough climb, especially as the sun was starting to reach the high twenties (by the afternoon the temperature reached 33 degrees, so I am really glad I went out early).

A quick shot back down to the bottom, then about 50 metres up the road I had come down before was a right turn into the next climb.

Sheffield Hill #12

That climb was Waller Road. It looked short but brutal, as you can see in this picture:

Looks can be deceiving, though. It was indeed brutal - but it was definitely not short. The "top" you can see in the picture isn't actually the top. It turns a corner, then loops back where I thought the top must be, but then there was another long steep stretch up to the top. I think the combination of the heat, the tiredness from three pretty tough climbs so far, and the way it played with my head made this really hard. When I looked up at that final stretch, it was the first time I seriously considered stopping and conceding victory to the hill. Somehow I didn't, and just tried to put the road out of my head and focus on keeping my feet moving round. Eventually, I made it to the top.

You can see from the speed chart below, I was really struggling over the last section.

By the time I got to the top I was wheezing and a little unsteady. The gradient was 14.2%, so the second steepest of the 12 hills I had ridden so far. My heart rate chart showed that I averaged 179bpm with a maximum of 188. That is probably a little too high. I found a patch of shade, drank lots of water and waited for my heart rate to calm down. 

During that time, I think my sensible side found its voice. Eventually I began to convince myself that continuing on to Hagg Hill (one of the Big Four!) was likely to be not just stupid but possibly dangerous. Waller Road had left me gasping and shaking, and with the heat steadily climbing higher, I thought it was time for a slow easy ride back home.

So, for the first time I didn't get up all the climbs I had planned. Still, I had said at the outset that the groupings were wishful thinking and that if necessary I would do them one at a time. Hagg Hill would have to be one of those. Hopefully, on a cooler day.

Still, at least I now knew why no-one had suggested Cliff Road as Sheffield's steepest hill - with Waller Road running alongside it, you would always remember this one rather than its close neighbour! I certainly won't forget it in a hurry...

Second group

Sheffield Hill #05

This hill was actually ridden on the same day as the first four, but it seemed neater to include with the next group, which was just three. The climb in question is Bishopscourt Road.

  

The total distance was 290m, so with the 40m elevation shown above the gradient was 13.8%. As you can probably see, the gradient was maybe a little higher for the first two thirds, then reduces a little at the top - but it felt pretty consistent to me, which actually made this a relatively easy climb as I was able to get into a rhythm and let it flow. The average speed was 11.1 km/h.

After almost a weeks break, it was then on to the second batch. I rode these on the way to my mother-in-law's house to walk her dog, so are the ones most local to where I live. 

Sheffield Hill #06

First up was the one I broke my chain on all those years ago when I first started to think about this challenge. Prospect Place is it's name, and for anyone who knows it - it is very steep but very short.

I included both elevation and speed charts, as this shows up an interesting variable in these figures. Despite the elevation being significantly higher than any other hill so far at 21.7%, the average speed was around 10km/h - so quicker than a couple of other climbs. I think this could be down to a couple of factors:

1. I start strong, but fade a little towards the end on most climbs. I think this is mainly because I am muscular, but overweight. All strength and no stamina! However, I do think that this lends weight to my belief that the length of a climb is as big a factor in its difficulty as the steepness.

2. It is very close to where I live, so I didn't need to cycle far to get to the start of it, so was a little fresher.

I may come back to this one at the end of a ride, just to see what impact that second factor really has.

Sheffield Hill #07

Next on the list was one of the big ones. At the outset of this, there were four hills that I thought were going to be the main contenders, and this was one of them: Twentywell Lane.

As it turns out, I was wrong. Twentywell is by far the longest climb I had attempted at this point (at 1,190m it is almost as long as the first six put together), but has much more noticable variation in its gradient. It goes up fairly gradually at the start, then eases before a steep section, but then there is a long middle section where the road actually goes down slightly, so you get a good run-up to the final section, which is the steepest part of all.

As you can see, this means that my speed varied significantly, and that fast downhill section meant I got up to 30 km/h at one point, which brought my average speed up to 17.7 km/h - the fastest of any climb so far. The average gradient was also therefore low at 6.5%, even though that final section would have been close to 20%.

That downhill section also had the benefit of letting me recover slightly, so adding another learning point which is that the hardest climbs are ones with no let-up. Overall, I found Twentywell Lane less tough than some of the other much shorter climbs. Interesting...

Sheffield Hill #08

The final climb of the day is a great one. You probably won't have ridden, walked or driven on it - as it goes nowhere and ends with a pathway into Graves Park. The road is Cobnar Road, which is at one end of Woodseats. It starts reasonably easily, but just keeps getting steeper and steeper. The final section has a gradient of around 30%, which is brutal!

So, a 390m climb with a 50m elevation means an average gradient of 12.8%, and as you can see my average speed was 10.5 km/h.

Heart Rate

When I set out my the key measurements I would use in this challenge, I wanted to use heart rate as a measure of how hard I had to work when going up a climb. Unfortunately, what I have realised is that my old eBay purchased HR monitor probably isn't that good - for two of the climbs I got no reading at all (and I am pretty sure I didn't actually die and yet continue on!) and for the others I got one single reading - so I think this may need to be set to one side as a useful measure of difficulty.

The next group of climbs will be out in the Rivelin Valley, somewhere I have never ridden before, and including another of those initial "big four" of climbs I expected to be the hardest that Sheffield can offer; Hagg Hill. 

The challenge continues!!