My 20 minute Cragg Vale hill climb challenge

[Kbrook]

Reading this inspired me to seek this out and do it. Whilst I am no racer I didn't find it particularly hard. I had harder hills getting there . I even passed 4 other cyclists going up Cragg Vale, admittedly 2 were on mountain bikes.Now I thought I would have done a good time for me, when you are talking these sub 20mins are you referring to the Strava segment that is described as "cragg vale junction to junction, 5.9 miles "because it would appear that only 6 people have ever done it sub 20 mins. Am I looking at the right thing because I now realise how rubbish I am. I am not revealing my time for reasons of embarrassment, the first figure starts with a 3 and the second figure isn't 1,2,3.

 

[ColinJ]

Reading this inspired me to seek this out and do it. Whilst I am no racer I didn't find it particularly hard. I had harder hills getting there . I even passed 4 other cyclists going up Cragg Vale, admittedly 2 were on mountain bikes.Now I thought I would have done a good time for me, when you are talking these sub 20mins are you referring to the Strava segment that is described as "cragg vale junction to junction, 5.9 miles "because it would appear that only 6 people have ever done it sub 20 mins. Am I looking at the right thing because I now realise how rubbish I am. I am not revealing my time for reasons of embarrassment, the first figure starts with a 3 and the second figure isn't 1,2,3.

No, I am referring to the official time trial course which is shorter. See this post.

That means your time is much less embarrassing than you think it is! Well done for having a go, and keep on trying.

 

[ColinJ]

The sun was shining, it was dry, and the wind had dropped considerably by mid-afternoon. I was feeling fairly well despite having had a poor night's sleep so I decided to time myself up the climb today, the first time since before Christmas ...

I made 2 mistakes:

1. I had a large bowl of porridge only an hour before setting off. It was sitting there like a lump in my stomach as I made my effort. I felt like throwing up on the first half of the climb so I backed off a bit higher up to avoid that happening.
2. I didn't warm up properly - all I did was ride 2.5 miles from my house to the official HC start point. I could feel that my body was reluctant to get going. Next time I will do 5 or 6 miles extra first, or 20 minutes on my gym bike at home before setting off.

Despite the sunshine, it was pretty chilly. I would not look at my time until I got to the bus turning area on the steeper section of the climb, and would decide what to do when I got there. This is what I made my mind up to do:

• Time looking bad ... accept it and relax for the second half of the climb.
• Time borderline ... make enough effort to take a few seconds off my current PB of 31:11.
• Time looking good ... Go For It and try to break 30 minutes!

So ... I made my effort and got to the decision point in 14:55! I was definitely on for a good time (by my current standards) as long as the wind remained benign further up the hill. It did, so I went for it!

I ignored the time on the GPS until I saw the 1 km line across the road. (I think that is 1 km to the top point of the climb, just before the reservoir. The HC finish is less than 1 km from the line.) I took a quick glance at the screen and could see that a last big effort was justified ...

Update on my Cragg Vale HC times:

• 19/05/13: 39:15 [Finished first Warfarin treatment regime but already reclotting!]
• 25/10/13: 35:15 [8-10 kph cross/headwind]
• 04/11/13: 34:26 [ ditto ]
• 10/11/13: 32:19 [ ditto ]
• 25/11/13: 31:19 [5-7 kph cross/headwind]
• 11/12/13: 31:11 [8-15 kph cross/headwind; chilly]
• 28/02/14: 29:49 [5-8 kph cross/headwind; chilly] YAY!!!

Pretty chuffed with that - 1:22 off my best (recent) time.

A better comparison is with the ride at the end of November which was in similar conditions - 1:30 off that, with only about 200 miles or so ridden in between.

There is obviously still a lot of room for improvement, but eating 2 hours earlier, and warming up properly would probably get my time down to close to 29:00 with very little extra training.

I still want to lose another 10-12 pounds in weight, which would help a lot.

Ok, next target is 28-something! (It would be nice to do it in one step, but if it takes several, so be it.)

When I finally break 25 minutes, I will switch to using the Cannondale for the timed rides and see what I can do on that.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

I'm gonna smash this this year!!!!!

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Cool my best is 24:55. I mite try this too (next Year goal)

Because I remember say that ^^^^^^^^^^ last year!

 

[Rob3rt]

I'm gonna smash this this year!!!!!

Going to smash what?

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Going to smash what?

this

 

[ColinJ]

It's a big jump to go from 24 min 55 secs to smashing 20 mins! If you really think you can do it then you ought to have a go at the official TT in the autumn.

Good luck trying, anyway!

 

[Peter Armstrong]

Yeah why not? Set big goals to make big improvements. I will defiantly do it this year, first attempt should be sometime this month.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

And when I say smash I really mean 19:59

 

[ColinJ]

And when I say smash I really mean 19:59

Hmm ... 'smash' to me means something else. I thought you were talking about something outrageous like 16:00!

Still, 19:59 (or less) is what I want to do too, but I have way further to go than you. I am fairly confident that I will get down to 25:00-ish at some point this year, but beyond that there is a big question mark!

 

[totallyfixed]

Anyone doing it in under 20 mins is good [strong tailwind excepted], to knock 30 secs off a climb of this length let alone 1 min is massive if you are already near the top of your game. Saying that we might come up to have a crack in July because I reckon dr_pink could take the women's hill record and go closer to 18 mins, Robert could do a short 17 I would think. Conditions are everything for records.

 

[ColinJ]

They are actually forecasting an 11 mph tailwind one day next week, but I will not time myself that day because I would consider that 'cheating'!

I am keeping my eyes open for a day with no wind, but there are only a handful each year.

I got a ride in last week when the cross/headwind was only 4-5 mph and apparently it was the same today but my legs were sore after yesterday's 63 miler so I have been resting.

 

[oldfatfool]

Only ridden it once and looking at the gps figures it took around 28 mins, might have to have another go.

 

[ColinJ]

Only ridden it once and looking at the gps figures it took around 28 mins, might have to have another go.

When checking your times, don't forget that the HC course is about 1 km shorter than Mytholmroyd-Blackstone Edge.