# Swiss Hill!!!



## Johnny5 (30 Jul 2009)

Anybody ridden Swiss Hill in Alderley Edge (Cheshire)? I've just ridden it for the first time...BLOOMIN' ECK!! I've never seen anything like it!!! The hill is not that long but it's steep man...I reckon the middle part of it is over 20%!! The steepness is not the problem...the whole road is made of cobbles and it's really slippery!!!

Me and my mate was just went out this evening for an easy ride, rode about 20 miles and ended up near Alderley Edge Cricket Ground. I've ridden pass the Cricket Ground loads of times but didn't realise the legendary "Swiss Hill" was there!! My mate, asked me what time it was and I told him it was only 7.30pm and then he said "OK then, here we go" and he just turned up this road and I followed him when I was on the BIG CHAINRING!!! THAT BUGGER!!!!! As soon as I hit the cobbles, I knew exactly what was coming up and that it was Swiss Hill even though I've never been there before! I managed to change into my 3rd gear (39x21) and just stood up and pushed up the hill!! I didn't even care about the steepness but was more concerned about my tyres spinning all over the place!

If you ride up in a lower gear, your back wheel just spins all over the place, put it on a slightly higher one and it might get too hard to push due to the steepness and the front wheel keeps lifting off the ground! It's a wiard experience but I managed to get up it. Swiss Hill is a funny one, if you live near it and fancy a climb then have a go but make sure that it's a DRY day otherwise you are NOT getting up the top.

TIP: When you get half way up, make sure to stay on the left and use the tarmac where residents park their cars.....I didn't and it was well slippy!!


----------



## Breedon (30 Jul 2009)

hehehe
sounds like you had a good time then


----------



## Hacienda71 (30 Jul 2009)

I used to go up that as a teenager in the eighties on my tracker nobbly tyres fixed cog on the back wheelie cog on the front. If you go up the next road Squirrels Jump you get onto a track that takes you onto the edge proper. You can't ride all of it but its great on an mtb slicks wouldn't be good though!


----------



## RedBike (30 Jul 2009)

Hehe, according to Bike Hike it goes up 68m in 0.68km. That means the average gradient is only 9%. The cobbles do make it seem MUCH steeper though. Probably a good 15% in the middle section. 

The last time I rode up it (in the wet) I was on a Ribble audax.


----------



## I am Spartacus (31 Jul 2009)

It was the last 'climb' on this years Cheshire Cat and I hadnt recced it beforehand but knew it was cobbled.. I nearly missed the turn from the main road into it and somehow managed to get into a 39 x 26 gear quickly.. sat down and started up it.
The cobbles are big and some quite rutted, and gave a perfect lesson in bike handling and balance.
I was caught out only once as the climb did a sharp left 1/2 way up with another lane coming in from the right from which a car was emerging up.
I wasnt about to stop and summoned up enough breath to shout as loud as I could "stop .. coming through.." With the stare of a madman (me), the driver did as he/she was told... at that point I was thinking .. I thought this hill was short...
Actually the residents on the day were I think quite obliging as hundreds of cyclists made their way up it.. it's not as though it is a climb in middle of nowhere.. there are lots of houses all the way.
I wouldnt bother to do it again without a gun being pointed to my head and certainly not in the wet.


----------



## Globalti (31 Jul 2009)

You need to come up to Ramsbottom and try Rawson's Raike then Holcombe Old Road and the zig zags to Peel Tower. You might even be able to see Peel Tower on the northern fells from Cheshire, if you can get somewhere with a view. Bring a mountain bike though.

On the Old Road the cobbles are terribly sapping so most people end up riding the central gutter, which is very slippery so you can only get enough traction if you sit well back.


----------



## ColinJ (31 Jul 2009)

My standard response to 'steep cobbled climb' threads...

















*The Buttress, Hebden Bridge *

Some bright spark included it on NCN route 68, the Pennine Cycleway - just what you want to be riding up or down on a heavily-laden touring bike...


----------



## RedBike (31 Jul 2009)

> Some bright spark included it on NCN route 68, the Pennine Cycleway - just what you want to be riding up or down on a heavily-laden touring bike...



Lol, I thought that was one of the places I had gone the wrong way (again) through Hebden Bridge. Scarily I think that bidleway was one of the ones that was actually marked on my map as a road! 

There were several sections of route 68 that were off-road. While the route isn't really the sort of thing you'd want a MTB for there's various points I wouldn't of wanted to be on a 'pure' road bike. 

Not long after Hebden Bridge I went arse over tit pushing up a bank through a park, somewhere near Soweby. My tyres were covered in mud having just ridden beside the canal and the path was covered in this wet slime from fallen leaves.


----------



## Sh4rkyBloke (31 Jul 2009)

I believe The Fossmeister (Fossyant) rides this hill quite regularly, he was thinking of leading a small CC group up it when we went for a ride out round his neck of the woods to Jodrell Bank, but took pity on us because it was raining and slippery... thank Christ for the rain!!!


----------



## fossyant (31 Jul 2009)

Sh4rkyBloke said:


> I believe The Fossmeister (Fossyant) rides this hill quite regularly, he was thinking of leading a small CC group up it when we went for a ride out round his neck of the woods to Jodrell Bank, but took pity on us because it was raining and slippery... thank Christ for the rain!!!




Hee hee...yes we took one look, slippy as hell, so we went up the Wizard instead.....

Great for testing out new wheels....

I recommended it to a colleague with his new Madone 5.2......he fell off first time..... managed it some other time though.

It's not steep, but it's very slippery, and the bike just goes where it want's to. You quite often come to a stop due to the ruts....

We used to do it loads on club runs....you should have heard the swearing.... if you are not in the first three going up, you'll likely to not make it in one go....you need plenty of space.....

God knows what the locals think..."oh here comes some mad fool again...."


----------



## smavter (31 Jul 2009)

the view looks amazing though, ill have to get myself a cyclocross


----------



## a_n_t (1 Aug 2009)

According to the garmin it maxes out at 16%'ish but only for a short while, not too bad in the dry, wouldn't even bother in the wet!!


----------



## doctornige (31 Oct 2012)

I cannot do the Polocini Winter Sprinter because I am in Italy that day, but I fancy doing the route on my own, just for fun. I see it has Swiss Hill on it. If I tell you that I cannot get up Winnat's Pass, but can manage the Start Lane cobbles OK, how do you reckon I might do on SH? It is one of those scary local cycling monuments.


----------



## 400bhp (31 Oct 2012)

Feckin awesome climb - usually get some whipper snapper racing off (where's Ed? ) in the big ring only to be found lying on the deck shortly after.

Gotta pick your line on it - choose the wrong side (left or right) and you're (swiss) cheese.


----------



## billy1561 (31 Oct 2012)

I must be mad because i hate hills with a passion. It's on my 'to do' list


----------



## doctornige (31 Oct 2012)

billy1561 said:


> I must be mad because i hate hills with a passion. It's on my 'to do' list



I like hills. Well, I think I like hills. Cycling every day or so in the Peak gives you a healthy respect for a hill, but it also teaches you how to deal with them - how to break them down into little parts to sprint, spit, churn and chew up. I like nothing more than a hill that steepens and slackens over and over so that I can develop a rhythm and a feel for when to sit down and when to stand the f**k up. 

This little skill I seem to have developed was tested to destruction on the Polocini Rivington 100. I was near the front. At least I had a sense I was near the front. Myself and Cliff had been barrelling along with a pro am team who made a navigational error. The two of us swung off the main road onto the correct route, while the team stopped and shouted ahead to reel in the three riders who had obliviously blasted past the right-pointing arrow marker. There was nobody ahead of us apart from one of the event organisers. The disoriented team were still reassembling themselves from their mishap. Eventually they caught us, and I exchanged sprints at the head of the 'race' with one or two of their number. Cliff's cramp stopped him from giving chase. I felt fit. King of the hill and all that.

Then came Jeffers Hill, and my whole self-assembled edifice of cycling fitness came tumbling down in an embarrassed and exhausted unclip with a heart rate of 165. 

And I never even saw Paul Talbot, who it seems finished the event some two hours ahead of me. Oh well.


----------



## Rob3rt (31 Oct 2012)

doctornige said:


> And I never even saw Paul Talbot, who it seems finished the event some two hours ahead of me. Oh well.


 
Paul Talbot is a very good climber (and a nice guy)! I have raced against him in a couple of HC's recently and the last time he put about a minute and a half to two minutes into me.


----------



## Hacienda71 (31 Oct 2012)

Swiss Hill is not all that bad it is just the cobbles that add that element to it. Avoid it on wet autumn/winter days when leaves are on the ground.
Winnatts pass is much harder.


----------



## andsaw (1 Nov 2012)

Johnny5 said:


> Anybody ridden Swiss Hill in Alderley Edge (Cheshire)? I've just ridden it for the first time...BLOOMIN' ECK!! I've never seen anything like it!!! The hill is not that long but it's steep man...I reckon the middle part of it is over 20%!! The steepness is not the problem...the whole road is made of cobbles and it's really slippery!!!
> 
> Me and my mate was just went out this evening for an easy ride, rode about 20 miles and ended up near Alderley Edge Cricket Ground. I've ridden pass the Cricket Ground loads of times but didn't realise the legendary "Swiss Hill" was there!! My mate, asked me what time it was and I told him it was only 7.30pm and then he said "OK then, here we go" and he just turned up this road and I followed him when I was on the BIG CHAINRING!!! THAT BUGGER!!!!! As soon as I hit the cobbles, I knew exactly what was coming up and that it was Swiss Hill even though I've never been there before! I managed to change into my 3rd gear (39x21) and just stood up and pushed up the hill!! I didn't even care about the steepness but was more concerned about my tyres spinning all over the place!
> 
> ...


I thought i would have look round my town, nothing as steep as that, did some maths and it works out at 13.17% from bottom to top on that Swiss hill, damm i bet those blood vessels were bulging when you got to the top lol.


----------

