Hill no 69 - 18 White Downs

The second of my hills with Dave was White Downs - As you can see from the photo below, I was very pleased that the start of the hill was very clearly marked. Well done Surrey County Council!

I'm pretty sure that I have done White Downs before - Simon talks about it being obligatory on local cyclosportive routes and I have done a few down here and whenever I cycle down in the "Surrey Hills", I'm sure that it picks up this hill on the routes I take.

As you can see from the photos, we had a lovely day for it and the Surrey countryside was looking particularly special. A little country lane with dappled sunlight - and some horribly steep bits! It doesn't seem to start too horribly and the sound of birdsong was only interrupted by my panting and Dave's crashing gears!

The start of the hill is pretty forgiving, you go up, level out, go up, go down, get some speed up and then round a left hander, over a bridge and then you hit the warning sign saying its giong to get steep. And it does.

Most of the hill is "wasted" at the start here, but then a series of sharp turns seen the gradient increase, sees Dave cycle off in front of me and gets the pulse racing.

Still in lovely woodland, you are faced with steep embankment slopes either side and you can tell from the camera work that I was out of the saddle and lolling around all over the place. Another cyclist appeared in front of me and I started to "chase" him down as the road narrowed even further and managed to get past. But then Dave went past me like a rocket adn I was too out of breath to even say anything! Glad to reach the top and for the rest of our ride around the Surrey Hills and back to London not to be recorded for posterity!

Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbKfLhz0u0M&feature=g-upl&context=G2d570eeAUAAAAAAABAA
Garmin Data here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/95101573
Flickr here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/100hillsforgeorge/sets/72157628721890433/