Church Stretton
The day after the AGM six handcyclists, Marc, Andy, Geoff,
Andrew, Mick and Ben, met up at Church Stretton for one of our hilly challenge
rides. We were joined by Louise on her upright two-wheeler. This was a
test for Mick and Ben, two riders who were relatively new to handcycling and
unaccustomed to attempting to scale hills of this magnitude.
Soon after leaving the car park and with little chance to warm up, the road started to climb up Burway Hill with a traffic sign stating that the gradient was 20% (the OS map suggests that it is 25%). As well as having to conquer this, the first of three major inclines of the day, there was the immediate challenge of a slippery cattle grid placed strategically just as the track started to climb.
Soon after leaving the car park and with little chance to warm up, the road started to climb up Burway Hill with a traffic sign stating that the gradient was 20% (the OS map suggests that it is 25%). As well as having to conquer this, the first of three major inclines of the day, there was the immediate challenge of a slippery cattle grid placed strategically just as the track started to climb.
|
|
Mick soon found that he was a little over geared on his new
Top-End and soon started to slow on this the main climb of the day. However,
with a little assistance he eventually reached the top, a challenging 3.5 km
with 300m of ascent and the views were
a great reward.
|
|
In a strengthening
wind we continued along the top of the Long Mynd and then approached the
scary 25% descent down the Portway, a not well maintained single track road.
Everyone made full use of their brakes here as we were sharing this with other
traffic. Soon there was a bit of a respite with a couple of kilometres of
gentle downhill before the short sharp hill past Linley. On the climb along the side of Black Rhadley
Hill, Andrew had a bit of a problem, snapping his chain – now getting to be a
bit of a habit on these outings. It was
soon repaired and we were on our way again.
|
|
Once we reached The
Bog (who makes up these names?), it became clear that if we continued
with the planned route we would be completing the ride in darkness and so we
opted for a short-cut to keep the ride within a reasonable timescale. This
still meant getting back over the top of the Long Mynd so there was no way of
avoiding more steep climbs.
|
|
Two long drags, each of about 6km, with corresponding great
fast descents followed. Ben had a puncture between these climbs and Andy and
Geoff stayed to assist while the remainder of the group set off slowly to make
their way up the final hill.
Soon this first group were flying down the descent into All Stretton and then along the flat, back to Church Stretton where they chatted to a couple on upright bikes who said they had tried but failed to cycle all the way up Burway Hill.
The second group arrived back within a few minutes. There were some tired arms and fears of the aches to come over the next few days but it is a good boost to have coped with pretty demanding roads knowing that a bit more training will make it easier next time.
Ride details – 37.8 km – 1020 m of ascent – total time 5 hours 20 minutes – ride time 3hours 17 minutes.
Soon this first group were flying down the descent into All Stretton and then along the flat, back to Church Stretton where they chatted to a couple on upright bikes who said they had tried but failed to cycle all the way up Burway Hill.
The second group arrived back within a few minutes. There were some tired arms and fears of the aches to come over the next few days but it is a good boost to have coped with pretty demanding roads knowing that a bit more training will make it easier next time.
Ride details – 37.8 km – 1020 m of ascent – total time 5 hours 20 minutes – ride time 3hours 17 minutes.
