Hill no 42 – 77 Hartside

Ah – Hartside was actually quite a “fun” climb – well, insofar as these things can be fun!

The gradient was never too tough, more of a constant drag than a real leg hurter, the climb itself was long and varied – from a village, through fairly non-descript fields, through woodland and up onto barren hill side with a cafe to aim for at the top.

2 things “made” this hill though – 1 was chasing other bikes up the hill – there were a number of MTBers heading up and having those in front gave you a target and made you push a little harder than you would otherwise do.

I quite like the camraderie of the road too - saying hello and words of encouragement to each other as you plough on up - I'm not one of those people who subscribe to the "them" and "you" school of thought about MTBers and Road Cyclists - I'm not good enough at handling a bike to ride off road!

The other was the old fashioned gypsy caravan we saw coming up the hill – at about 8 minutes on the video, you can see it and all the associated traffic coming down.

There must be some sort of convention going on as Malmesbury was absolutely packed with gypsy caravans – some new ones, but mostly the amazing old fashioned ornate painted ones.

Really interesting to see – I wonder what is going on?

The hill was good though - I took the liberty of racing down it and it was a "pedaller" - you couldn't coast it if you wanted to max out your speed, but unlike a lot of the hills I've been doing - you didn't feel unsafe descending!

Garmin Data here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90464175
Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKJBKjEmGBk&feature=related
Flickr photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100hillsforgeorge/sets/72157627072214716/