How Many Of The UK's Toughest Climbs Can You Ride In A Day?
Some of you may be familiar with Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Climbs book and I can safely say, it inspired us. So Sam decided he would take on a challenge and try and cycle as many of these coveted climbs as he could in one day. It's no small challenge and it's sure to test his endurance abilities but how many could he do from sunrise to sunset? He was riding his trusty road bike up each climb with a less than friendly 38/28 climbing gear.
The Peak District made for the perfect place to take on this challenge as it's home to quite a few of the top 100 climbs so it meant ticking them off would be faster and the distance between climbs would be minimal. How many of these climbs do you think you could do in one day?
The Peak District made for the perfect place to take on this challenge as it's home to quite a few of the top 100 climbs so it meant ticking them off would be faster and the distance between climbs would be minimal. How many of these climbs do you think you could do in one day?
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00:27 [GROANING]
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00:33 I don't think 3828 is the right gearing for this.
00:35 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:38 That was insane.
00:38 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:42 It's OK.
00:43 Nice.
00:44 Good morning, everyone.
00:45 And it is very much morning.
00:47 Just gone 4 o'clock, actually, to be precise.
00:50 And today, you join me in the heart
00:51 of Matlock in the south of the Peak District
00:53 because I'm taking on a bit of a crazy challenge today.
00:55 I'm going to try and ride off as many of the top 100 climbs
00:59 in the UK from Simon Warren's Top 100 Climbs book
01:01 as I can from sunrise to sunset.
01:03 Now, at the moment, it is still pre-sunrise,
01:06 so we've got a bit of time.
01:08 We're going to be driving from climb to climb
01:10 to getting as many as we can over the day.
01:12 And yeah, we're going to head over to Ribor Lane, Ribor Road,
01:15 Ribor Climb, and get that one off first,
01:17 which is a pretty brutal one to start the day.
01:19 But yeah, I think I need a bit of caffeine,
01:21 and then I'll be good to go.
01:22 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:26 Right, we're at the bottom now.
01:30 I'm going to roll down to the bottom
01:31 to make sure I get the full segment because that
01:33 is absolutely key.
01:34 And then we'll give it the beans.
01:35 Let's go.
01:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:39 I think the key thing here is going
01:41 to be to make sure I pace myself because I think it could be
01:44 very easy to go too hard too soon.
01:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:49 Number one done.
01:59 Over to Bank, and let's get on with number two.
02:01 Here we go.
02:03 Number two of the day.
02:04 Let's have it.
02:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:08 So that's Bank Road done.
02:13 I actually think that was harder than Ribor.
02:15 I think it's because also I did Ribor,
02:17 and then I had to do Bank pretty much straight away.
02:19 But that's number two done.
02:20 We've got a little bit of a drive
02:21 now out into the country where we've got some longer climbs.
02:24 Let's get on with it.
02:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:29 Bye.
02:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:32 All right.
02:34 So that's three climbs down.
02:36 So we've just done Slack Lane.
02:39 That's taken us about an hour and 15 minutes
02:43 to get three done, so not too bad going.
02:46 We're going to head over to the fourth now.
02:48 But if we're going to get 20-plus climbs in today,
02:51 it's going to be a long, long day.
02:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:56 Climb number four started off easily enough,
02:58 but it wasn't long until I was gurning my way up its 20%
03:02 ramps.
03:03 It was at that point that I realized
03:04 my easiest gear of 38-28 was probably
03:08 going to cause me some issues throughout the day.
03:12 Oh, well, there we go.
03:14 That was-- was it fun?
03:16 It was torture, but that's not bad, is it?
03:21 On to the next one.
03:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:24 I think I'll roll into this one again.
03:26 I think that's the key, rolling into it.
03:28 Let's see how far we can get up on a bit of momentum.
03:31 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:34 Oh, that burns.
03:39 That one was just--
03:42 it was consistent, actually.
03:44 It was consistent.
03:45 It was just consistently steep, consistently painful.
03:49 I've forgotten which number this one is, but on to Montel Head.
03:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:58 OK, Montel Head.
04:00 This is quite a short little kicker.
04:02 I can already see the top from here, so we'll see how we go.
04:06 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:09 Right, so we've just left Montel Head.
04:20 Actually, it wasn't too bad.
04:22 After Montel Head, we had one of the longest transfers
04:24 of the day with a good hour-long drive heading west
04:27 over to Swiss Hill, which would then
04:29 allow us to eventually head back east over the Caton Fiddle.
04:33 It had taken nearly four hours to do the first five climbs,
04:36 so we really needed to press on if we were to hit at least 20
04:40 by the end of the day.
04:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:43 So we've come to Swiss Hill.
04:44 I thought this was going to be an easy one to tick off,
04:47 but I didn't realize it was a cobbled climb.
04:49 This one's going to be intense.
04:50 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:54 [HEAVY BREATHING]
04:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:01 Time now, about 10 o'clock.
05:05 I've been trying to hold off on the caffeine, but needs must.
05:08 So I'm going to do Caton Fiddle now.
05:13 So it's a bit of a long one.
05:14 And hopefully, this will give me the beans.
05:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:19 [HEAVY BREATHING]
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05:24 I've said it this entire video, but the views down here
05:28 are great.
05:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:32 Here we go.
05:33 Here's the end.
05:35 Just need to wait for the segment to end.
05:37 Oh my god, I'm in.
05:38 Come on.
05:40 There it is.
05:41 We've made it.
05:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:46 All right, so that is the Caton Fiddle done and dusted.
05:49 Now on to Pim Chair, so we can start heading right back
05:52 into the Peak District.
05:53 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:57 [HEAVY BREATHING]
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06:22 I don't think 38.28 is the right gearing for this.
06:26 [HEAVY BREATHING]
06:27 That was insane.
06:28 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:33 I felt pretty broken at the top of Pim Chair.
06:35 I think the early start time and the stop start nature
06:38 of the ride was starting to get to me.
06:40 Fortunately, climb number 11, Axe Edge,
06:43 was longer and a more mellow one.
06:45 So it gave me a good chance to spin my legs
06:48 rather than grinding out of the saddle at 50 RPM.
06:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:59 So ladies and gents, welcome to climb number 11 of the day.
07:02 This is Piesloot.
07:05 And it's about a mile long, 10%, so it's pretty stable.
07:10 But yeah, legs are starting to feel it a bit now.
07:13 And I am keen for some lunch.
07:16 I'll tell you what, these climbs are absolutely brilliant.
07:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:24 We're at the bottom of Willets Pass.
07:26 Just had a bit of lunch.
07:27 It's quite busy today.
07:28 You can see there's a fair bit of traffic.
07:31 And then we're going to do Mamnik after that.
07:33 [MUSIC PLAYING]
07:42 No easy way of putting that, but that was really, really tough.
07:45 Mamnik next.
07:47 That'll be climb number 13, I think.
07:50 And I'm led to believe that it is a little bit easier.
07:52 So that's always good.
07:55 But yeah, Willets Pass, I mean, absolutely beautiful.
07:57 But yeah, pretty unrelenting.
07:59 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:12 Definitely wasn't as bad as Willets Pass.
08:14 I could definitely keep a higher cadence on this one.
08:17 But doing them back to back was--
08:19 [ENGINE REVVING]
08:21 See, that's what you need to be in.
08:23 [LAUGHS]
08:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:30 All right, guys.
08:30 I've taken a little break here on the back of the camera car
08:33 just to get a quick breather, let my legs rest,
08:34 because that was a brutal climb.
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10:23 Now, tea break over.
10:25 It's time to get back on the bike, take on some more climbs.
10:28 So here we are at Burbage Moor.
10:34 2.2 miles long, so it's a bit of a long one.
10:37 Averages out at 7%.
10:39 And that is because the beginning is flat-ish,
10:42 and then it really starts to ramp up.
10:44 Now, while I approach the latter part of this climb,
10:47 I do want to take the opportunity to thank
10:49 our clothing sponsor for this video, Santic.
10:52 They have decked me out head to toe,
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11:06 Climb number 15, Udenbank, was another tough one,
11:18 with 20% gradients at the bottom.
11:21 After that, we had a longer drive north to hit Peavoid Lane,
11:25 which has been used numerous times
11:26 for the National Hill Climb Championships.
11:28 (upbeat music)
11:57 Oh, I can't hack it anymore.
11:58 Peavoid Lane truly broke me.
12:07 I ended up having to stop halfway up the climb,
12:09 and it was well into the evening by now.
12:11 At this point, I realized I probably wouldn't make
12:14 the magic 20 climbs, but if we could get to 18,
12:18 I'd be happy.
12:20 Oh, I'm just so tired.
12:22 Oh, that was really tough.
12:25 (upbeat music)
12:27 Giving up on 20 climbs did mean I was more free
12:31 to enjoy the final two, Jackson Bridge and Home Moss.
12:35 They're both well-known hill climb venues,
12:37 so I wanted to finish up with some full-on efforts.
12:40 Where are we?
12:44 - Yeah, I think 20 might be out of the question.
12:47 (upbeat music)
12:50 - Actually wasn't too bad.
13:00 That was just a lot of overreacting,
13:02 but quite frankly, it's absolutely gorgeous at the moment,
13:04 so it was very good.
13:07 - All right, here we go,
13:16 dropping into the final climb of the day, Home Moss.
13:19 Let's see how it goes.
13:22 (upbeat music)
13:25 I've got to say, coming up here,
13:44 legs were dead.
13:45 You just had to grind it out and just make it happen.
13:49 But yeah, pretty stunning.
13:51 Well, there we have it, 18 climbs done.
14:00 It wasn't what I wanted,
14:01 but I think it's still a fairly respectable result.
14:04 If any of you guys were going to take on this challenge,
14:06 I'll be really keen to hear where you'd do it,
14:07 and if you do do it,
14:09 do let me know how many you managed to get in,
14:10 because I'll tell you, it is quite tough.
14:13 It's fair to say, though, even though it was very tough,
14:15 it was actually an incredible day,
14:16 running some of the best climbs in the Peak District.
14:19 Although they were really steep,
14:20 it was just absolutely beautiful,
14:22 and you were constantly rewarded with amazing views.
14:25 I do want to say a massive thank you to Lacker,
14:28 the good people that made this video possible.
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14:44 That's all from me, though.
14:45 I think I need a long shower and a very long sleep.
14:48 But if you enjoyed the video, drop it a like,
14:49 subscribe to the channel for more content,
14:51 and I'll see you again very soon.
14:52 (upbeat music)
14:55 (upbeat music)
14:57 (upbeat music)
15:00 (upbeat music)
15:03 you