Bath Hillcat

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Have you been to bath before?

This is gonna be painful for a whole bunch of people. Its tough walking around parts, cobbles all over the place too.

Most of the hills don't take in the cobbles as only really occur on Stall Street and the Royal Crescent.

I used to live in Alton Place, so I cycled up Widcombe hill from time to time to get to Uni. I did it on my MTB and was probably pushing something like 24 GI? I've got 55 GI for polo, but I think that it would kill me trying to get up it.

That said, I'm fitter now and Bathwick and/or Fox Hill would be a lot easier than Widcombe. I've never tried Lansdown.

Anyway, I'm hopefully going to this from London and then going down to Portsmouth for a wedding on the Sunday. If anyone wants to car pool either leg (i.e. give me a lift in exchange for money), that would be helluva awesome, as train tickets from Bath to London are ludicrous.

Also, if people are around that Friday night I should be partying with mates, so let me know if you want to meet up.

...I've got 55 GI for polo, but I think that it would kill me trying to get up it...

Is it really going to be that hard? I was going to bring a bike with 71 GI, should I be bringing my polo bike? It's going to be fun going back down!

I think that I'll have 55"/63" with me (i.e. 44x19 and 44x21). I guess I might have a spare cog (17T) too, but I very much doubt I'll be using.

Ultimately it all depends on the route; if they did a long route up Wellsway, round through Foxhill and then ontowards Coombe Down, then that might be doable on 71". I should caveat that by pointing out that (from what I remember of riding Bath hills, and this was 7 years ago) it will only be doable in the same way that an Ironman is doable if you have enough time.

If you're around on Friday and you want to have a blast at some of the hills, let me know.

I've been told that the hills are going to be Bathwick and North Road (i.e. up to the Uni and back, basically), so not the hardest in Bath. Still don't think I'll want more than 63" and I'll probably run 55".

would it be faster to run up?