Time Trial / Time Trialling / TT

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.
out

Some roadies seem to pull themselves out for the crowd pleasers. Malcolm Elliot hold the record on Monsal Head although I think Russel Downing is keen to take this crown on his third attempt.

I think the oop North thing has as much to with the northerly attitude to cycling. Take the Monty Python "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch and add bicycles and you get the idea. Mind you lots of time trundling around the Peaks, Moors, Dales and Lakes is bound to turn you a bit funny.

Interesting about the longest HC because I know that the longest continuous gradient is Cragg Vale out of Mytholmroyd and clocks in at a bit of 8 miles so the Kendal to Shap must include some downhill in it. And if you're going to go that way, the Cat and Fiddle is a near 10 mile climb to the summit although I've not heard of it being used as a HC.