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!!
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