Some people find failure much more interesting than success. Anyone who is into schadenfreude might like this blog, then. After coming (literally) painfully close to getting up my nemesis, Haresfield Beacon last week, I determined to give it another go today. Robert the Bruce is said to have been inspired by watching the same spider try, try and try again until it finally succeeded, but that approach was starting to look more like the housefly batting itself repeatedly against a pane of glass approach to me. Something
different was clearly required.
Getting up some of these nasty little hills up the Cotswold Edge actually strikes me as being more like a spider trying to climb out of a bathtub..... they always find an easier way eventually .... up the plug chain, or over a convenient bath mat hanging over the side, or up the slightly easier slope at the head end of the bath. I decided to take
@gordyfinbar's advice this time, and get up out of the saddle at the critical point and stand on the pedals for the killer part of the climb. I very rarely get out of the saddle, but hopefully that would make it easier.
Everything went well at first. Up out of Haresfield past the last few houses on the outskirts of the village .... up the lower ramps feeling comfortable .... up around the first two turns, getting steeper all the way .... still no problems ...up the first really steep ramp with the front wheel starting to skip off the ground (telling me the gradient was over 20%) ...up around the final right hander, where you get the depressing sight of a dramatic further gradient increase where the Cotswold way crosses the road ....ready, steady, GO!..... up three gears and standing on the pedals, breathing comfortably and initial wobble now under control.......and then it happened. The road surface, which had been bone dry all the way up until this point became wet and slimy all of a sudden, and the rear wheel spun, throwing me sideways....I recovered the first big wobble, but then over-balanced and had to put my right foot down. FAILED AGAIN! Couldn't even start off again, it was so steep at this point (25%) that I just pulled a wheelie before the bike even moved a foot. Turned round and dropped back down into Haresfield, where I turned right and rode on to the next right turn up the Cotswold Edge near Harescombe determined not to go home until I was at the top.I was not beaten yet.
Found a little right turn signposted "Harescombe" and decided to go for it. At an unmarked Y junction I then opted to go right and the road immediately kicked up noticeably. This road was muddier and wetter than the Beacon, and the surface was covered with leaves, twigs, conkers and other tree debris. After a few hundred yards, maybe half a mile, it started to look like a Cornish lane, entering a cutting with steeply banked sides and a deep gully at the left side where the tarmac just fell away vertically into a ditch. Here I met my first car coming the other way. The road was only just wider than a car, with very little room to pass, and nowhere to put my left foot down.... had to go for it and hope I didn't wobble ......
just squeezed past, wiggling my body to miss the wing mirror while riding only an inch or two from the edge of the tarmac with the ditch at least a foot or two below. Phew! .... Another steep section followed ... slippery surface again (really slimy mud) ... then a tractor came. Had to put my foot down and pull the bike out of the way. Took a slurp of my drink and thought about pressing on, then caught sight of the gradient and the narrow slippy road ahead. I kidded myself for a moment that it was unsafe, but basically I dipped out. Too steep, too soon after Haresfield Beacon. FAILED AGAIN!
Right! That was it. There was no way I was going home until I had got up to the top somewhere. So like the spider in the bath, I headed for an easier route. I rode past a further turn to the right and ignored it, as our club had done that one without me the other week and had struggled. Most of the lads had a very prosaic name for the climb, but
@gordyfinbar referred to it more poetically as "Ladygarden Hill". I pressed on until I hit the main Gloucester to Stroud main road and went up the long, steady (2 mile or so) drag up Horsepools Hill as far as the church at Edge instead. A few years back, it took me three attempts before I could climb this one non-stop, each time gradually getting a bit further up than on the previous attempt. Nowadays I find it much easier and always get up comfortably in one, so I felt a pennance was necessary after my two failures, and I vowed to get up it in the middle chain ring for the first time.
Good news! Sailed up it easily on the middle ring, about 1mph faster than ever before. Followed that with a lovely 32mph glide back down Horsepools Hill and a sprint back home via Kingsway, taking the ride to just under 20 miles, with 3 big hills attempted. 90% of the first one done, 50% of the second one and then finally succeeded on the third one ..... Good climbing practice, I suppose, so not a wasted ride in any way. Back out again tomorrow morning for the first couple of hours of the club ride. Hope they are not doing any monster hills tomorrow, though.
Cheers.
Donger.
.
Sounds like you were fortunate to get away with just damage to the bike. Don't know about the insurance claim but if you've got good video of it I think you've got a chance (and I'm sure the insurance company would be delighted to be aware of the standard of their client's driving
)
. Going out, I saw 2 buzzards (one sitting still and allowing me to cycle within 2m of it! and the other flying off down the road in front of me) and 2 herons. the first heron was at a bus stop and stayed put allowing me to cycle within 1m of it! (I will point out that there is a canal on the other side of the bus stop...). I was a touch surprised that it let me get so close, but knew that stopping would scare it off, so didn't stop... Coming home the wind that should have been a really nice handy fast tailwind had swung around by 90 degrees into the wrong direction and was a combination of a side wind and later a headwind where my route turns west! Just my luck.... but I dodged all the rain - I could see it all around me, but it didn't rain on me. Drivers were a really strange mixture today from unbelievably helpful (me indicating right at a mini roundabout and the car to my immediate right who had right of way and would have been turning across my path, flashing me out and waiting until I was safely across the mini roundabout (its on a major A road and the surface is nasty!)) to unbelievable idiocy (Saw a Z4 nearly write itself off trying to overtake me with an oncoming car on a country lane - he ended up off the road momentarily before regaining control!
). It has been one of those days...
