Could someone with a bit of insider knowledge give a sort of N00bs summary to hill-climbs. When the season is, how to find them
They start in September, but really October is all about hill climbs, and it's over by the first week of November. You've just missed the Reading CC open at Streatley. List of London West hill climb courses (beginning HHC) with OS map references are at http://freespace.virgin.net/mick.fountain/lwdc/courses/menu-c.htm
Next Sunday you can enjoy an exciting 3-for-1 deal with us at Marlow and Wooburn
Those of us with a classical bent think hill climbs should be short and uniformly steep, ideally under half a mile (880 yards), but oop North they have some longer ones which favour generalist road men rather than the mad whippets who tend to win the short ones. Unless anybody knows better, the longest one is the 9.1mile Kendal to Shap L817. The long ones usually have a wide variation in incline, including down hill bits on some of them, and need a geared bike, while the proper short ones are often best tackled on fixed.
A couple of small rule differences compared with normal TTs:
The pusher-off won't push you off, they have to just let you go. Most seem to do this on flat TTs these days, so that won't come as a shock to most people now, but in the olden days you sometimes used to get a proper shove at the start of a TT.
You have to ride the whole way; if you get off and walk, you're out
They start in September, but really October is all about hill climbs, and it's over by the first week of November. You've just missed the Reading CC open at Streatley. List of London West hill climb courses (beginning HHC) with OS map references are at http://freespace.virgin.net/mick.fountain/lwdc/courses/menu-c.htm
Next Sunday you can enjoy an exciting 3-for-1 deal with us at Marlow and Wooburn
Those of us with a classical bent think hill climbs should be short and uniformly steep, ideally under half a mile (880 yards), but oop North they have some longer ones which favour generalist road men rather than the mad whippets who tend to win the short ones. Unless anybody knows better, the longest one is the 9.1mile Kendal to Shap L817. The long ones usually have a wide variation in incline, including down hill bits on some of them, and need a geared bike, while the proper short ones are often best tackled on fixed.
A couple of small rule differences compared with normal TTs: