Hills

a.. OCD Cycloclimbing is a club for cyclists who enjoy
visiting high places by bicycle. (UK)
b.. It is run separately from the Ordre des Cols Durs
(OCD) in France
c..
d.. ocd.org.ukindex.htmlOpen ↗

Hope this helps Iain

"Iain Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in
message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Been doing lots of thinking today about hills, and
particularly cycling up them (aka "sado-masochism" in some
cases). A few months back I saw a

letter

Quoted message said:

in one of the mags, from someone asking for contributions
to a list of Britain's "cols", as there's lists of
Europe's cols but none for us. Does anyone know anything
of this, and if anything's come of it? I've tried
searching on Google but "britain cycling cols" is a bit
too vague to

search

Quoted message said:

on.

And for my second question - I've tried to find out what
the UCI's rules are on grading climbs, from lowly 4th to
mighty Hors, and discovered there's no set rules. I know
none of our "cols" get anywhere near the altitudes of the
Alps/Pyrenees, and very few get the distance, but some of
the longer ones get towards the average gradients. How do
Britain's cols rank in terms of these categories?

And how the hell do they RACE up those gradients?! (you
don't need to answer that one!)

On 12/4/04 12:20 am, in article
[email hidden], "Mart"

Quoted message said:

a.. OCD Cycloclimbing is a club for cyclists who enjoy
visiting high places by bicycle. (UK)
a.. It is run separately from the Ordre des Cols Durs
(OCD) in France
a..
a.. ocd.org.ukindex.htmlOpen ↗

It's not a guide to all the UK (unless Scotland was
flattened overnight and I didn't notice).

The little bump on my way home from any kind of decent ride
is a mere 100m. The 50 miler I did on Thursday was a bit
hilly with a high point of 270m and a low point of 44m (and
included the local bump both ways.) This is just the local
'ride from the house' stuff. Doesn't take much looking for.

One of these days I might try a really hilly ride..

..d

"David Martin" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

a.. OCD Cycloclimbing is a club for cyclists who enjoy
visiting high

places

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

by bicycle. (UK)
a.. It is run separately from the Ordre des Cols Durs
(OCD) in France
a..
a.. ocd.org.ukindex.htmlOpen ↗

It's not a guide to all the UK (unless Scotland was
flattened overnight

and

Quoted message said:

I didn't notice).

I found this a while ago which may be of use....

tinyurl.comyuzxoOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

The little bump on my way home from any kind of decent
ride is a mere

100m.

Quoted message said:

The 50 miler I did on Thursday was a bit hilly with a high
point of 270m

and

Quoted message said:

a low point of 44m (and included the local bump both
ways.) This is just

the

Quoted message said:

local 'ride from the house' stuff. Doesn't take much
looking for.

One of these days I might try a really hilly ride..

I've done the Bealach na Ba - or to be more precise, it
did me. Having said that, if you manage it, and keep
going, the finest seafood to be had in Britain (IMO) can
be bought in the Applecross Hotel - most of it "hand-
picked" from the bay.

E

"Iain Jones" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Been doing lots of thinking today about hills, and
particularly cycling up them (aka "sado-masochism" in some
cases). A few months back I saw a

letter

Quoted message said:

in one of the mags, from someone asking for contributions
to a list of Britain's "cols", as there's lists of
Europe's cols but none for us. Does anyone know anything
of this, and if anything's come of it? I've tried
searching on Google but "britain cycling cols" is a bit
too vague to

search

Quoted message said:

on.

Well, remember the 'col' is just the French word for a
mountain pass, so a search on 'Britain' and 'mountain
passes' might be more fruitful than 'cols'.

Quoted message said:

And for my second question - I've tried to find out what
the UCI's rules are on grading climbs, from lowly 4th to
mighty Hors, and discovered there's no set rules. I know
none of our "cols" get anywhere near the altitudes of the
Alps/Pyrenees, and very few get the distance, but some of
the longer ones get towards the average gradients. How do
Britain's cols rank in terms of these categories?

Have a look at draco.acs.uci.edu5.3.htmlOpen ↗
for rating information. For profiles of European cols, you
could look at www.cyclingcols.com, and other links from
there. Unfortunately it doesn't have anything about
Britain's mountain passes. There was a site that did, url
posted by someone on here a while back, but I've lost it
(and would like to see it again if anyone knows it).

Rich

"Richard Goodman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

There was a site that did, url posted by someone on here
a while back, but I've lost it (and would

like

Quoted message said:

to see it again if anyone knows it).

Ah, silly me. It was www.salite.ch, which is actually is
linked from cyclingcols.com. 112 'hill' profiles listed for
England alone! That should be enough to keep you busy.

Rich

This is the most comprehensive website for european climbs I've found so
far:
ciclismo.sitiasp.itmotore.aspxOpen ↗

Only some 6300 or so to go.....

Iain Jones said:

Been doing lots of thinking today about hills, and
particularly cycling up them (aka "sado-masochism" in some
cases). A few months back I saw a letter in one of the
mags, from someone asking for contributions to a list of
Britain's "cols", as there's lists of Europe's cols but
none for us. Does anyone know anything of this, and if
anything's come of it? I've tried searching on Google but
"britain cycling cols" is a bit too vague to search on.

And for my second question - I've tried to find out what
the UCI's rules are on grading climbs, from lowly 4th to
mighty Hors, and discovered there's no set rules. I know
none of our "cols" get anywhere near the altitudes of the
Alps/Pyrenees, and very few get the distance, but some of
the longer ones get towards the average gradients. How do
Britain's cols rank in terms of these categories?

And how the hell do they RACE up those gradients?! (you
don't need to answer that one!)

Thanks for all the info and the links, they're the kind of
things I was after. The ones which showed the gradient
profiles intrigued me though, eg. looking at the Hardknott
Pass from Cockley Beck (not tried anything that steep yet,
will be a while before I do), there's no mention of the
infamous 33% gradient, the steepest it shows is ~15%.

On 12/4/04 8:18 pm, in article
[email hidden], "Iain Jones"

Quoted message said:

Thanks for all the info and the links, they're the kind of
things I was after. The ones which showed the gradient
profiles intrigued me though, eg. looking at the Hardknott
Pass from Cockley Beck (not tried anything that steep yet,
will be a while before I do), there's no mention of the
infamous 33% gradient, the steepest it shows is ~15%.

That is because it provides 500m averages rather than point
averages. It's even steeper if you cut the corners on the
hairpins (I have heard rumours of tandems doing endo's)

..d

David Martin <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

On 12/4/04 8:18 pm, in article
[email hidden], "Iain

Jones said:

Thanks for all the info and the links, they're the kind
of things I was after. The ones which showed the gradient
profiles intrigued me though, eg. looking at the
Hardknott Pass from Cockley Beck (not tried anything that
steep yet, will be a while before I do), there's no
mention of the infamous 33% gradient, the steepest it
shows is ~15%.

That is because it provides 500m averages rather than
point averages. It's even steeper if you cut the
corners on the hairpins (I have heard rumours of
tandems doing endo's)

..d

Weren't there some pictures a couple of years back of a
lorry that got stuck on the hairpins, someone told the
driver he could get to Wasdale via the Hardknott?