I thought Lamps Moss would be a nice little climb - only ranking a 7/10 in Simon's scale. It started in a pretty little village and you hit a warning sign after about 2 yards(!) saying that it was 20%. Simon says this is an exaggeration, so I thought - no bother.
20% wasn't true. No, it was only 18% maximum. But the wind was whistling around like nobody's business, there were the usual road hazards (ie a cattle grid, which in blowy, steep conditions is "interesting"!). The weather at the bottom was pretty good - although I had arm and leg warmers and shoe covers on, I soon got to be pretty hot!
Em's shot from the car shows that the steepness of the hills carried on past the initial slope - quite amazing how the initial beautiful tranquility of the village ends so quickly and goes into windswept moors pretty quickly.
Having bragged about this only being a 7, the wind blowing into my face and the length of the climb made it seem a little harder and it required a lot of dragging myself up the hill. I rationed my gears out and then I hit a flat bit which was a lot more "comfortable", but then at the end, it ramped up cruelly one more final time.
Again, I was a bit flat out, in my lowest gear, dragging myself up past the snow poles and thankful that I was getting a little more shelter from the wind.
Needed to give myself a good talking to at the end as the last bit was agony with burning legs and fatigue setting in. But finally I dragged myself up and over and treated myself to a good view of, well, cloud really!
Youtube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrZa_qxBnBE
Garmin data here:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/90464033
Flickr here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/100hillsforgeorge/sets/72157627246195515/
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