Evans ride it Lake District - including Hardknott pass

[zizou]

Anyone doing this at the weekend? Looks like quite a nice route around Lake Coniston then along to do Hardknott and Wrynose Passes. About 62 miles in total

Anyone riden Hardknott pass before? Is it as difficult as its reputation....hoping there is some secret tactic to going up it that makes it a bit easier

 

[Philip Whiteman]

Hardnott is obviously going to be hard work but there are two greater problems that you need to be aware of:

- Car traffic not stopping passing places when the cyclist has right of way.
- Be careful of your rims overheating of the descents. Pulsing of the brakes will reduce the problem of overheating whilst maintaining a steady speed.
- Surfaces on the inside curves are rough and a wide berth is useful where possible.

 

[leyburnrunner]

there's footage on youtube, looks tough. it's single track with cars up yer bum and oncoming. i'd love to do it mind!

 

[endoman]

I've driven over them both a few times, that was hard enough. Maybe one day I will be able to tackle something like this, would be a huge sense of achievement when it's done.

 

[zizou]

The ride was today and it was a tough one - lovely part of the country, some very nice roads too - good organisation from Evans too (as far as sportives go their ride it evets are amongst the best value - think it was about £12)

The hills though..wow. The first 20 miles were a bit lumpy but not too bad. Then there were some hills - ok gradient to spin up all of them until the one after coming back through Coniston. Very steep at the start and pretty long...nice descent. Kicked right back up after, steep and long again. After that there was a food stop and then onto a road out of Ulpha, hairpins very steep...difficult. Nice ride on top of the moor then, just had to watch out for the sheep and a very fast descent, was going about 50mph at one point. Then the road along to Hardknott, trying to take it nice and easy and not use up again energy...see it up ahead, couldnt help but swear!

Hardknott itself is the most difficult climb i've done on the road. You cant ease yourself into it either as thfirst bit is very hard, kicks right up probably about 30% gradiant and pretty much on the limit straight away, middle section a bit of recovery and the final third is extremely difficult. The descent was a bit scary, steep and busy with cars and not a great surface. With i had my mountain bike with the relaxed geometry and disk brakes! Then it was Wrynose (this is the 'easy' direction for this), one steep bit that would probably have been relatively easy to get up without Hardknott in the legs, but as it was it hurt...alot. Downhill then another couple of hills which were quite tough but knew the finish was soon so didnt have to worry too much about keeping energy in reserve.

Was riding with a 50/34 compact and on Hardknott it was monumental struggle at the steep sections just to turn the peddles...spin? No chance! Had to put my foot down a couple of times to catch a breather and it was really difficult starting up again. If i was fresh and didnt have the hills already in my leg then i can safely say there is still no chance i'd have made it up. I will be back in the future though, got to conquer this one day!

 

[VamP]

The ride was today and it was a tough one - lovely part of the country, some very nice roads too - good organisation from Evans too (as far as sportives go their ride it evets are amongst the best value - think it was about £12)

The hills though..wow. The first 20 miles were a bit lumpy but not too bad. Then there were some hills - ok gradient to spin up all of them until the one after coming back through Coniston. Very steep at the start and pretty long...nice descent. Kicked right back up after, steep and long again. After that there was a food stop and then onto a road out of Ulpha, hairpins very steep...difficult. Nice ride on top of the moor then, just had to watch out for the sheep and a very fast descent, was going about 50mph at one point. Then the road along to Hardknott, trying to take it nice and easy and not use up again energy...see it up ahead, couldnt help but swear!

Hardknott itself is the most difficult climb i've done on the road. You cant ease yourself into it either as thfirst bit is very hard, kicks right up probably about 30% gradiant and pretty much on the limit straight away, middle section a bit of recovery and the final third is extremely difficult. The descent was a bit scary, steep and busy with cars and not a great surface. With i had my mountain bike with the relaxed geometry and disk brakes! Then it was Wrynose (this is the 'easy' direction for this), one steep bit that would probably have been relatively easy to get up without Hardknott in the legs, but as it was it hurt...alot. Downhill then another couple of hills which were quite tough but knew the finish was soon so didnt have to worry too much about keeping energy in reserve.

Was riding with a 50/34 compact and on Hardknott it was monumental struggle at the steep sections just to turn the peddles...spin? No chance! Had to put my foot down a couple of times to catch a breather and it was really difficult starting up again. If i was fresh and didnt have the hills already in my leg then i can safely say there is still no chance i'd have made it up. I will be back in the future though, got to conquer this one day!

Well done, sounds like a great day out.

 

[Glover Fan]

Nice, I know you say you have a compact on the front, what is the size of your big ring on the back?

 

[Mark_Robson]

Well done, give yourself a big pat on the back.

 

[zizou]

Nice, I know you say you have a compact on the front, what is the size of your big ring on the back?

27 so pretty big.

despite that my cadence was down to about 30

 

[Garz]

Then it was Wrynose (this is the 'easy' direction for this), one steep bit that would probably have been relatively easy to get up without Hardknott in the legs, but as it was it hurt...alot. Downhill then another couple of hills which were quite tough but knew the finish was soon so didnt have to worry too much about keeping energy in reserve.

Did you find wrynose easy then? I have never ridden Hardknott but have scaled wrynose (from the easier side) twice. I found this tougher this time round due to lack of training and being about 5kg's heavier. Still managed to scale it without stopping but almost got mentally broken when I caught a rider in front who made me lose momentum. The downhill is hair raising even with decent brakes. One guy flew past yelling a call I cna only assume he has no fear sensation in the brain.

 

[zizou]

Did you find wrynose easy then? I have never ridden Hardknott but have scaled wrynose (from the easier side) twice. I found this tougher this time round due to lack of training and being about 5kg's heavier. Still managed to scale it without stopping but almost got mentally broken when I caught a rider in front who made me lose momentum. The downhill is hair raising even with decent brakes. One guy flew past yelling a call I cna only assume he has no fear sensation in the brain.

didnt find it easy at all but managed to struggle up slowly and endure the pain in a way that i couldnt do with Hardknott. Going the other direction looks incredibly tough near the top, going down you really had to get body weight back to stop going over the bars when breaking!

Ive read elsewhere that as well as the guy with the broken collarbone someone else had to get airlifted to hospital. Really is no room for error on the downhill, very unforgiving bit of road!

 

[theloafer]

hi zizou
congrats on the ride ... hardknott is a corker have done it a few times with 2 panniers+bagbag ..but with lower gearing which is the secret you right about the first bit it is a little bit naughty

 

[Waspie]

Well done on the ride, the Hardknott is the most difficult hill I've ever tackled on a bike by some way. Didn't quite manage to cycle it all!

 

[PaulSecteur]

Is that REALLY as steep as it looks???

Where is it, and does anyone have an elevation profile?

 

[Waspie]

Is that REALLY as steep as it looks???

Where is it, and does anyone have an elevation profile?

Yep! I think that's looking up the side I cycled down.

This is the profile of the climb from Eskdale My link

and this is the profile the other way My link

The descent was terrifying