3/5 Mega legbreaker

last year I mapped out  a new route taking in three hills from the famous book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/100-Greatest-Cycling-Climbs-Cyclists/dp/0711231206

One Mega Hill Climbed, Two To Go!

Today was our chance to revisit these famous climbs. The weather was on our side with sunshine and very light winds although it was rather on the chilly side. The first 15 miles of the ride were gently undulating which gave our muscles plenty of time to warm up before we saw the warning signs for our first (and in my opinion) hardest challenge of York's Hill. With an average gradient of 8% and a 1.1 mile climb , this hill extracted a heavy price for daring to encroach on its slopes. Having not had chance to replace the rear cassette with a larger one, Malcom C was the first to fail and had to get off and walk. Surprisingly, Steve D was next but then he had done the Friday  ride the night before (not a wise idea). I thought Derek was going to make it this year but seeing Steve get off must have effected him as he also had to get off . My calves were burning and I was close to dismounting myself but I could just about see the top of the climb and managed to keep going before summeting , where  I remained slumped and  drooling all over my handle bars for a few minutes. For me, none of the other climbs were as bad as this one! Having got our breath back we headed west towards the next challenge. Much to Malcolm D's disappointment, the route only took us half way up Toy's hill before losing altitude as we passed by Chartwell house (Winston Churchill's home) where we gave the

White Lane Didn't Seem So bad This year!

great man the V for victory salute. After easy cycling through Oxted, the next obstacle was 'Chalk Pit lane'. We could clearly see the steep sided escarpment parallel to the M25 and knew the route had to go almost straight up to the top. This climb had exactly the same dimensions as York's Hill but with the smoother road surface it felt significantly easier. Having reached the top of the escarpment I knew that we were  in for a real treat as for the next 9 miles it was all downhill at a gradient of 4% along the pilgrims way which follows the edge of the escarpment . Although being the masochists that we are we just had to deviate from this path in order to descend and then divert up the super-steep
 but mercifully short 'White lane' Unfortunately a trio of cars decided to use this as a cut through and were clearly frustrated to have to claw their way to the top behind a line of six cyclists. One of them came too close to Derek causing him to wobble and fall off (unharmed), eventually they managed to squeeze past us and were gone leaving just the sound of our heavy panting. Being fully warmed up, I found this climb to be OK and was grateful for all those Stonestile ascents that had prepared me for the necessary level of effort to get 14 stones up an average gradient of 11%. We had a very nice pub stop at a little village called Chipstead . While supping beer there was a sudden loud bang and a puff of what looked like smoke from Malcom D's bike. It turned out that the tubeless tyre had suddenly burst off the rim, thank goodness this hadn't happened when

Tom's 'Slightly' Worn Tyre!

Malcolm was descending! This was strange as all day we had expected that if any tyre failed it would be Tom's as they were so badly worn that the tread was literally peeling off and flapping around (despite this Tom did not even get a puncture). With 10 miles left to go, we regretted stopping for a beer so early as we all felt lethargic and it took us ages to get the legs working efficiently again. This was shame as the last 10 miles went through some wonderful dense woodland with almost no traffic. Emerging from the woods I clocked a pub just 2 miles from the end (the Snail) and made a mental note to make that the stop next year. We all agreed that this ride even out does the hell of Ashdown for scenery so we will most likely be back again to give our eyes (and thighs!) a treat.