Warren - Cycling Climbs of Yorkshire

A ROAD CYCLISTS GUIDE

SIMON WARREN

Cycling Climbs of Yorkshire: A Road Cyclists Guide

2016 Quarto Publishing plc.

Text, photographs, design and illustrations Simon Warren 2016

First Published in 2016 by Frances Lincoln,

an imprint of The Quarto Group.

The Old Brewery, 6 Blundell Street,

London N7 9BH, United Kingdom.

www.QuartoKnows.com

This ebook first published 2018

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Digital edition: 978-1-78101-221-5

Softcover edition: 978-0-71123-704-9

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Thanks to my family and friends for their continued support and patience while I persist in riding every hill in Britain. Thanks to all the Strava users and my Twitter followers who have suggested climbs for me to seek out, especially Andrew Poland. And to everyone else who helped bring the book to life.

T hanks to an exceptionally varied and diverse terrain, Yorkshire lays claim to more than its fair share of Britains greatest cycling climbs. As a result, it was very hard to choose just 75! I hope you find each of the following worthy of a place on the list.

To begin with, I should explain my division of the county into the books four chapters, and my slight disregard for the traditional boundaries. As you will see, Ive amalgamated the eastern half of North Yorkshire with East Riding to create my own more convenient definition of East Yorkshire. If Id allocated the climbs according to the strict geopolitical borders, the North Yorkshire chapter would have dwarfed the others, so Ive evened things out a bit.

The book begins in the East, starting in the outskirts of Hull and travelling north into the peaceful rolling hills of the Yorkshire Wolds. This is the true East Yorkshire: its quiet, empty, and although the hills are tough at times, theyre never savage. Its perfect for cycling. Leaving the Wolds, passing through the Howardian Hills where the gradients start to get a little more testing, you cross the A170 to reach the infamous North York Moors. This isolated world, sitting high on a gorse-covered plateau, is heaven for those who like viscously steep climbs, but hell for those who dont. Plot any route through its twisting lanes and no matter which combination of roads you choose, it will have a profile not dissimilar to an upturned saw blade. The Moors hold more 25% slopes per square mile than just about anywhere else in Britain, and at the top of the pile sits the famous Rosedale Chimney. This is a climb all cyclists should attempt at least once; the length and severity of its hideous gradient means youll struggle to stay upright, let alone pick up any speed, but its a must, and well worth the effort.

Chapter two covers the rather more congested South Yorkshire, occupied by the vast majority of Yorkshires population. But its not all urban sprawl; theres a huge array of climbs here to test your legs, and they often lead to one of numerous pockets of beauty that are sandwiched between the ever-expanding cities. One such pocket is The Strines. Sitting just above the Peak District to the west of Sheffield, its an area not dissimilar to the North York Moors, in that every single road either heads up or down on a very tough gradient. Although it covers a relatively small area, its criss-crossed with a multitude of roads so that even if you went every day for a month, you could feasibly ride a different route each time, tackling the climbs in a different order.

Travelling north into West Yorkshire, we come to the mighty Holme Moss and its windswept summit, before the equally exposed climb up to Wessenden Head. Then we have the Huddersfield-Halifax conurbation: its almost entirely urban, with one town leading directly into the next, but the unrelenting undulations theyre built on are home to a myriad of amazing roads, including the fantastic Calderdale cobbles. Belgium may claim to be the home of the cobbled climb, thanks to the famous roads used in the Tour of Flanders, but when it comes down to the bare statistics, the cobbles of Calderdale and those further north around Keighley are more than a match for their famous European cousins. Ive long talked of Britains need for a one-day race that incorporates them. Just imagine it: Thwaites Brow, The Shibden Wall, maybe even the outrageously steep Trooper Lane, all playing host to the worlds best riders. One day, one day it might just happen.

Leaving the West and heading into North Yorkshire, its back into the wild, across the A59 into the beauty of Nidderdale and the Yorkshire Dales. This, in my eyes, is quintessential Yorkshire. Its these roads, traversing the barren moors and lined with jagged stone walls, that typify the great county. Here you can truly escape the pace of modern life, bury yourself in nature, and lose yourself along quiet narrow roads. Hours can pass on any day of the week with no other vehicles in sight, and until sheep learn to drive, this may always be the case. The Dales are also home to some of Englands greatest climbs: Park Rash, Buttertubs Pass, Tan Hill, and Fleet Moss (my favourite) are all epic challenges.

Finally, I have to mention the role Yorkshire has played in popularizing cycling in Britain after hosting the Grand Dpart of the 2014 Tour de France. The images of Buttertubs Pass covered in a multitude of fans may well be remembered as the greatest celebration of sport the nation has ever seen. So what are you waiting for? The climbs of Yorkshire are ready and waiting for you to get out there and Ride Them All.