It Hurt!

I've probably blipped before that climbing hills is the main "area to development" for my cycling. Today was ideal as there was a local enter-on-the-line hill climb race run by Glossop Kinder Velo and it was only £3!

The Hill was no tiddler. Rather, it was Holme Moss, one of the most famous ascents in the UK. It rises up to 524m, nearly 4km in distance from the Woodhead side and has a maximum gradient of 11.8%. I'll have to check my GPS but guess the average is around 7%.

Rosemary has been poorly, so she wasn't competing, but we still rode out together. I had cut leaving the house a bit fine, but as she was 183 seconds later than planned, we had to peg it! Not ideal when she was feeling crap and the roads round here are never easy at the best of times. The ~20km ride out along Torside was ideal for me though and I arrived with a few mins to spare, with sweat dripping in my eyes.

I had a quick gel, my fav Torq rhubarb and custard and a wee bit of water before the off! 1min.....30sec.....10 and so on! I was off. The first bit was quite flat so I was quickly up to race cadence. Round the 1st corner, shit! It was a downhill. Wrong gear, so rather than changing I just pedalled too fast.

The next section ramped up to over 10% and I was struggling. At around 4 mins my minute man caught me a ~60kg wee chap from High Peak Cycles. I wasn't worried as i am an 85kg big chap who's not suited to hills. I reached Rosemary who is the best supporter ever, as she cheers so loudly. I couldn't even manage an acknowledgement though as I was in a world of pain.

There's a few flatt(ish) sections which I wanted to push on, but had to back off a little for micro-recoveries. By this stage, I had phlegmmed up, the result of mild exercise induced asthma. Not enough to make me stop, much as I wanted to. The big radio mast on the top of the hill was getting closer, a final push and I was over the finishing line.

I draped myself over the bars, gasping for breath, feeling rather sick and dizzy. Snot draped one cheek! Other riders were congregating in the lay-bye but I was unable to be sociable. With rasping breathing, I set off back down the hill, meeting Rosemary after about 1km. She wanted to go back up to the top as that's where times would be announced. I was clear that it wasn't an option. I knew my time was around 17 min 30 sec anyway and wanted to get my jacket on and head off home.

Did I enjoy it? Hell yeah....in a horrible sort of way. It's great to push that hard even when I know I can't get close to the mountain goats.