Hill no 36 –85 Wrynose Pass

Wrynose – the “Queen of climbs”. Or as I like to call it – a "very very hard" climb. I knew that things were going to be tricky when I realised that the wind was blowing right into my face and therefore the 25% gradient was going to be even tricker than the road signs suggested.

The first climb of the day always seems a little harder than the others, I probably should warm up my legs more and stretch out a little, but when you are trying to cover the distance that we are and the number of climbs that we are trying to do – it is one of those things that goes by the wayside (along with yoga, stretching and tinkering with my gears).

Wrynose starts by a little stone farm, with a rather friendly cow in the stable behind you. That’s about all the cutesy niceness the climb gives you though.

I was wrapped up – shoe coves, rain jacke, leg and arm warmers. Windy and wet – basically the worst conditions for climbing very steep hills! We had had a rough night too, although the dog is behaving impeccably which was very good of him.

Some climbs I am able to enjoy, some climbs I feel as though I have raced up them, some climbs my legs feel good and I feel like hills are no problem. Wrynose was not one of those climbs.

I remember a lot of leg pain, a lot of standing up on the pedals with the pedals going round slowly and just enough force going down to keep me going. I remember a car that I pulled over to overtake who then stopped to chat with someone in the middle of the road, destroying what little momentum I had until I shouted at them to keep moving. Which they did. Thankfully as I'm not sure that I could do a track stand on the middle of that hill!

I was obviously going so slowly that they thought they had the ability to swap civilities long before I approached them!

Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQWXAWRs7S0
Garmin data here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90464267
Flickr photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100hillsforgeorge/sets/72157627049940914/

I remember getting to the top and feeling tired! Not ideal for first hill of the day!