CLRC

CLRC September Hill Climb 

Date: Saturday 26th September 2015

Time: 10am start

Where: Whalley Nab

Distance: 0.7 miles

Gradient: 25% (avg 10%)

Some might say saving the best til last

Some might say are you nuts?

Some might say is that possible?

CLRC are proud to announce the last & most challenging of our hill climb series at the Whalley Nab. It’s a tough one & not for the faint hearted so think wisely but if you’re the same kind of cyclist, bordering on sadist, as the CLRC guys are & you find yourself answering yes to all three of the questions posed above then come along & give it a go.

We started off at Winter Hill, a climb most of us were clamouring to truly test ourselves on. Then came Shaley Brow, a classic climb where most cyclists shy away from & now for our last climb of the year we’re giving you Whalley Nab, our first venture into the Greatest Cycling Climbs list. It’s described as “the very definition of a Killer Climb” in the Simon Warren books.

https://www.strava.com/segments/7493827

The segment “OFFICIAL 100 Greatest Climbs. No 175 Whalley Nab” gives you an idea of the CLRC hill climb. We’ll start as close to the junction as we’ll deem as safe on the day & finish at the dead end junction on the left.

Something to think about, right?

August Hill Climb

Sorry for the delay in results but here they are. This time it was an all Club turnout. A great evening "enjoyed" by all. Septembers HC will be posted very soon so keep an eye out for that one. As always we welcome non members and encourage riders of all abilities to come and join us!

CLRC Hill Climb – August

The details for CLRC’s second unofficial hill climb event are as follows:

2015 CLRC Fred Whitton Challenge

For those who may be relatively new to cycling, or perhaps do not know what the Fred Whitton Challenge is then here is a bit of background. The Fred Whitton Challenge is one of the most popular sportives in the UK and is also famed as being particularly difficult.

Ben, Graham & Gary take on the Fred!

 Riders rank it alongside European events such as the Marmotte in terms of difficulty. The Fred Whitton Challenge consists of a 112 mile sportive around the Lake District taking in climbs of Kirkstone, Honister, Newlands, Whinlatter, Hardknott & Wrynose passes amongst others.

Back in June, following some mumblings in the club, Graham Yardley posted the idea of getting a bunch of us together to give this a try, in the end after many contemplated the idea we ended up with Graham, Gary Wright and Ben Svarups turning up in a layby just outside Ambleside on what can only be described as one of the most beautiful warm weather days we have seen this year, perfect conditions to attempt this well respected challenge.

So after packing all of our supplies for the day the three of us set off. It was a bit of a chilly start for the first few miles as the sun had not yet risen high enough to penetrate any warmth however this was soon changed as just 5.5 miles in the first climb on the day was above us, Kirkstone. At 1250ft this was the first real test and we all powered up to the summit in a tight group. On the way down we all quickly realised that the ride is not just going to be about climbing, all of the descents were equally difficult in their own way, very steep and often tricky to keep a firm grip on the brakes.

The second climb at Honister was a real sign of things to come, with 25%+ gradients to contend with, reaching the summit was a real sigh of relief, Ben commented that all he could think of on the way up is if this is hard then I wonder what Hardknott is going to be like! Gary quickly agreed! The next few climbs were equal in terms of elevation gain and beauty of the landscape however thankfully not as steep as Honister and the three of us took them all within our stride. 

After 70 hard miles we stopped at a café to take stock of what we had achieved so far and discussed what was yet to come. Just two more major climbs stood in our way before hitting Hardknott and finally Wrynose. A little distraction to this came in the form of a very kind gesture from the café owner giving us each a chunky piece of cake absolutely free! Feeling re-energised we climbed back on our bikes and carried on up the road.

Just a handful of miles before hitting Hardknott Graham suffered possibly the worst type of mechanical issue (bearing in mind that we were about to climb one of the hardest, if not the hardest roads in the UK) – a snapped rear gear cable! At first we all must have thought ‘he’s never going to get up there stuck in the highest gear’ not even Graham, arguably one of the greatest climbers in our community could manage that. The three of us could not believe it, and at first attempt we realised we were about 1cm short of cable to be able to re-secure the derailleur in one of the smaller gears however after some fiddling and botch up work we managed to get Graham locked in to his 30 tooth sprocket!

For the final time we all climbed back on to our trusty bikes and steadily road through the valley, in to and out of Eskdale and towards Hardknott. There was a silent sense of nervousness as we approached, finally hitting the warning signs that said ‘30% gradient, narrow route, severe bends, road suitable for cars and light vehicles only’. At the foot of the climb we could see the summit right above us, cars in the distance with their fronts pointing unusually downwards at they came down the extreme bends towards us, but we were not put off and headed straight in to it. Many describe Hardknott is the daddy of them all, we imagined for the last five miles how difficult it’s going to be, yet it’s 10 times harder than that. Heart rate is at 100% within the first half a minute and continues at this rate all the way up except for a moment where the climb relents for a short period in the middle before an even more difficult finish. Graham was first to the top, followed by Gary and Ben – our meeting at the top was one of relief and congratulations to each other, finally we really believed we were going to conquer this epic ride.

We could see Wrynose in the distance, the final climb of the day and to be completely honest surprisingly easy except for the sharp kick up right at the end – the descent on the other hand was the hardest of the day, very steep and the road surface was bumpy and uneven. From the top we had approx. 12 miles of descending and flat riding to complete our journey back to Ambleside then on to the layby where we had set off from hours earlier. In the customary CLRC way, not wanting to leave anything left in the tanks the three of us used the last few miles to really turn the heat up and pushed on hard back to the start point which eventually ended up with a 200 metre sprint!

CLRC Hill Climb Foxholes / Winter Hill Report

I think it’s fair to say CLRC had a resounding start to our hill climb series, with the weather playing kindly and having the perfect blend of both club and non-club riders turning up on the night.

The Foxholes / Winter Hill climb only offered a mile from start to finish but for what it didn’t offer in length in made up in steepness, with the average gradient being 11%. It certainly gave the riders something to think about !! Everyone pushed hard to give it their all and for whatever appetite was in the eyes at the start it was nothing but pain by the time they’d reached the top.

On the night Ste Feeney of Team Chronomaster / Leisure Lakes took 1st place producing a sublime performance that would have easily won any locally organised hill climb event, taking a massive 55 secs out of the 2nd placed rider. The majority took PBs away which they were happy with even though afterwards plenty of the talk was of what could have been if tactics were slightly different. We even had an appearance from Spiderman but it seems his climbing abilities were being saved for the big screen.

A special mention has to go out to Ellen Isherwood & Steve Salmon. Loads of magnificently captured pictures were taken and published on the night. Flicking through the albums it’s easy to see why these two photographers are so well respected within the region.  The true essence of the pain we cyclists choose to endure were shown on the faces time and time again. The true sadists we are. Thank you for that !!

In essence it was a simple plan. The objective was to get together a bunch of cyclists who love to ride uphill on a local climb and have some fun. Mission well and truly accomplished. But why stop there? Because of commitments elsewhere not everyone can ride on a given time & date so with some simple organisation the hill climb event is open to ride for a full 7 days. With the advent of Strava and its 21st century technology CLRC decided to use its versatility and give anyone & everyone the opportunity to take part. Already we’ve seen its use. Clive Davis for example, before flying out to Stuttgart, posted a time even before the event itself…with the segment still open why not give it a go?

All in all it ended up being exactly what CLRC intended it to be – a fun, friendly hill climb event organised by cyclists and enjoyed by cyclists. Result.

Thank you to our push off guy Dan Connor, the multi-tasking stewards Ellen Isherwood and Steve Salmon and to all the riders who have taken part. It’s been a fantastic journey to get to this point and we hope to see you all again soon.

CLRC

CLRC Hill Climb - Foxholes Road / Winter Hill - Wednesday 29th July 2015 7pm

Legs primed to burst……?

PSI pumped up to the max…..?

Ready to leave everything on the road…..?

Yes? Good, this is your opportunity to take part in the inaugural CLRC hill climb event.  Cyclists of all climbing abilities are welcome to join us on the night. We’re meeting up at the bottom of Foxholes Road, Horwich at 7pm, with first man off around 7.15. The route we’re using sends you through the foxholes estate (best behaviour for the locals please!) onto to marklands, then right onto Georges lane, then 100 yards to the left turn onto Winter Hill. The finishing line will greet you in the form of a cattle grid.

So, leave the drinks bottles at the bottom & offload all the non-essential weight. Help yourself by getting yourself to the top as fast as you can…those minor seconds could be the difference of three places on the scoreboard !!

Instead of being clocked on the night with a stopwatch, we’ll be using strava to record our times, therefore it’s essential that you upload your ride to the strava website. We will not be recording times on the night. A segment will be created after the nights event entitled ‘CLRC Hill Climb – Foxholes / Winter Hill July 2015’.

Now we know it’s not always possible to turn up on the night due to circumstances so we’d like to encourage people to still be involved. We’re going to post up an initial results board onto the CLRC website but what we’ll do is leave the segment open for 7 days. This will give riders who are unable to attend to record their times and still be involved with the hill climb. 

It’s simple really….turn up, ride hard and ride fast. Good luck everybody & hope to see you on the night.

Note: anybody who does ride the course but not on the 29th and want to see how you fair on the scoreboard please get in touch either through the CLRC Facebook group or email [email protected]

****IMPORTANT MEMBER ANNOUNCEMENT****

We are pleased and very excited to be announcing our very first sponsor Bounce Cycles!

Bounce are based in Preston in the docklands area.

Hill Climb Action!

Here is our Central Lancs man Graham in action last thursday on the Horwich CC Belmont hill climb. Lets not forget Ben who was also out giving it his all. 

Graham Yardley CLRC 11.37

Ben Svarvps CLRC 13.15.2

Fantastic times from both riders who were out representing the club.

Hill Climb

The Second event in Horwich CC's hill climb series is this Wednesday the 17th of June.

A few of our members will be riding so why not join us?

This one starts quite steady while eventually getting steeper towards the latter part of the climb. Last years time and current record time stands at 5:42 that is going to take some beating!

See you there.

Chaingang Starts Now!

Every Tuesday from now until the end of September our chaingang will be stomping through West Lancashire. Meeting at 6pm from the Hartwood pub on the A6 in Chorley & setting off at 6.15pm. The route heads out towards Tarleton before looping back through Croston. Rider numbers are around 6-8 typically so expect to be doing some work but that being said its a great introduction to riding in a chaingang and our members are always available to help.

Waddington Ride Report

Today's ride up to Waddington ended up with Ben, Gary & Tom. We also picked up a member of the Ribble Valley club for a considerable leg of the journey just before ascending Waddington Fell. The main climbs at Waddington and Longridge Fell were won by Tom with Gary no more than a couple of feet behind. By the time we got back to Mellor on the way home with several of the smaller hills ahead of us we all started to comment that our legs were gone! We all made it home in the end though so I think considering the time of year and conditions we can safely say we all did very well. If anyone is missing the snow there's still quite a bit on the ground towards the top of Waddington!

Whats that in the road? I can't see!

Todays ride took us over the Nick o Pendle, with various degrees of suffering. A few of the inform lads smashed it up the notorious climb with what looked like ease, then the rest coughing and spluttering tried there best to hang on. If the climb up was hard then the decent was even harder, the fog that stuck around all morning had thickened and going down the other side you could barely see 20ft in front of you! Of course this posed no problem to the CLRC gang and by the time we reached the bottom the sun was out again. A fine days riding in good conditions for the time of year. Next week we head to Winter Hill, a more local ride but still packing in 4000ft of climbing over 50 miles, will these hills ever end?…..we doubt it!

Earby Moor Sunday Club Ride

This Sunday was the return of our winter rides, slower more relaxed winter riding in colder conditions…yeah right!

A cold start to the morning meant a few extra layers but once the boys got going it was business as usual. Plenty of hard climbing to be had all day, over 6000ft of ascent with some climbs reaching a 20% gradient! Not a problem for the Central Lancs gang as they stormed up Earby Moor using the last of their summer fitness and some using whatever they had left in the tank from sitting around in the arm chair all summer. The return journey provided a little headwind but this just strengthened  our resolve and once we had reached the top of Bog Height road it was agreed that a refreshment stop was needed before the last few miles before home. This came in the form of a pint of ale. So there we sat in what was bound to be the last warm, dry and sunny day for a long time, supping a well earn pint.