Some of you may be familiar with Simon Warren's 100 Greatest Climbs book and I can safely say, it inspired us. So Sam decided he would take on a challenge and try and cycle as many of these coveted climbs as he could in one day. It's no small challenge and it's sure to test his endurance abilities but how many could he do from sunrise to sunset? He was riding his trusty road bike up each climb with a less than friendly 38/28 climbing gear.
The Peak District made for the perfect place to take on this challenge as it's home to quite a few of the top 100 climbs so it meant ticking them off would be faster and the distance between climbs would be minimal. How many of these climbs do you think you could do in one day?
The Peak District made for the perfect place to take on this challenge as it's home to quite a few of the top 100 climbs so it meant ticking them off would be faster and the distance between climbs would be minimal. How many of these climbs do you think you could do in one day?
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SportsTranscript
00:00Oh
00:30I
00:32Don't think 38 28 is the right gearing for this
00:37That was insane
00:44Good morning everyone, and it is very much morning
00:47Just gone four o'clock actually to be precise
00:49And today you join me in the heart of Matlock at the south of the Peak District because I'm taking on a bit of a crazy challenge today
00:55I am going to try and ride off as many of the top 100 climbs in the UK from Simon Warren's top 100 climbs book
01:01As I can from sunrise to sunset now at the moment. It is still pre sunrise
01:06So we've got a bit of time
01:08We're going to be driving from climb to climb to getting as many as we can over the day and
01:12Yeah, we're gonna head over to riba lane riba road riba climb and get that one off first
01:17Which is a pretty brutal one to start the day, but yeah, I think I need a bit of caffeine and then I'll be good to go
01:25Oh
01:28Right we're at the bottom now
01:30I'm gonna roll down to the bottom so make sure I get the full segment because that is absolutely key and then we'll give it the beans
01:35Let's go
01:39I think the key thing here is gonna be to make sure I pace myself because
01:43I think it could be very easy to go too hard too soon
01:55Oh
01:57Number one done over to bank and let's get on with number two. Here we go
02:03Number two of the day. Let's have it
02:05So that's bank road done. I actually think that was harder than riba
02:15I think it's because also I did riba and then I have to do bank pretty much straight away
02:18But it's number two done. We've got a little bit of a drive now out into the country where we've got some longer climbs
02:24Let's go on with it
02:26All right, so that's three climbs down so we've just done slack lane
02:38That's taken us about an hour and 15 minutes
02:42To get three done so not too bad going
02:46We're gonna head over to the fourth now, but if we're gonna get 20 plus climbs in today's it's gonna be a long long day
02:56Climb number four started off easily enough, but it wasn't long until I was gurning my way up its 20% ramps
03:02It was at that point that I realized my easiest gear of 38 28 was probably going to cause me some issues throughout the day
03:11Oh, well, there we go. That was how was was it fun? It was torture, but
03:18That's not bad is it
03:20On to the next one I
03:22I
03:24Think I'll roll into this one again. I think that's the key rolling into it
03:28See how far we can get up on a bit of momentum
03:39That one is yes
03:41It was consistent actually
03:43It was consistent. It was just consistently steep
03:47consistently painful and
03:49I've forgotten which number this one is but um onto monsel head
03:58Okay, monsel head
04:00This is quite a short little kicker. I can already see the top from here. So
04:05We'll see how we go
04:07Right, so we've just left monsel head
04:20Actually wasn't too bad after monsel head
04:22We had one of the longest transfers of the day with a good hour-long drive heading west over to Swiss Hill
04:28Which would then allow us to eventually head back east over the cat and fiddle it had taken nearly four hours to do the first five climb
04:36So we really needed to press on if we were to hit at least 20 by the end of the day
04:43So we've come to Swiss Hill I thought this was gonna be an easy one to tip off
04:46But I didn't realize it was a cobbled climb
04:49This one's gonna be intense
04:51Time now about 10 o'clock. I've been trying to hold off on the caffeine, but needs must so
05:11Gonna do cat and fiddle now, so it's a bit of a long one and hopefully this will give me the beans
05:21Oh
05:24I've said it this entire video, but
05:27The views around here are great
05:32Here we go, here's the end
05:35Just need to wait for the segments handle my Garmin
05:40There it is we've made it
05:46All right, so that is the cat and fiddle done and dusted now on to Pym chair
05:50So we can start heading right back into the peak district
06:20I
06:22Don't think 38 28 is the right gearing for this
06:27I was insane
06:32I felt pretty broken at the top of Pym chair
06:35I think the early start time and the stop start nature of the ride was starting to get to me
06:40Fortunately climb number 11 axe edge was longer and a more mellow one
06:45So it gave me a good chance to spin my legs rather than grinding out of the saddle at 50 rpm
06:59So ladies and gents welcome to climb number 11 of the day
07:01This is peaslose
07:04And it's about a mile long
07:06At 10%
07:08So it's pretty stable
07:10But yeah legs are starting to feel it a bit now
07:13And I am keen for some lunch
07:16I'll tell you what
07:17These climbs are absolutely brilliant
07:24We're at the bottom of Willits Pass
07:26Just had a bit of lunch
07:27It's quite busy today and you can see there's a fair bit of traffic
07:30And then we're going to do Mamnik after that
07:42No easy way of putting that but that was really really tough
07:45Mamnik next
07:47That'll be climb number 13 I think
07:49And I'm led to believe that it is a little bit easier
07:52So that's always good
07:54But yeah when it's passed I mean absolutely beautiful
07:57But yeah pretty unrelenting
08:00Definitely wasn't as bad as when it's passed
08:13I could definitely keep a higher cadence on this one
08:17But doing them back to back was
08:21See that's what you need to be in
08:30All right guys I've taken a little break here on the back of the camera car
08:32Just to get a quick breather
08:34Let my legs rest because that was a brutal climb
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10:23Now tea break over
10:25It's time to get back on the bike and take on some more climbs
10:32So here we are at Burbage Mall
10:342.2 miles long so it's a bit of a long one
10:36Averages out at 7%
10:39And that is because the beginning is flattish
10:42And then it really starts to ramp up
10:44Now while I approach the latter part of this climb
10:47I do want to take the opportunity to thank our clothing sponsor for this video
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11:15Climb number 15, Judenbank was another tough one with 20% gradients at the bottom
11:21After that we had a longer drive north to hit P-Royd Lane
11:24Which has been used numerous times for the National Hill Climb Championships
11:32Oh I can't hack it anymore
11:58P-Royd Lane truly broke me
12:06I ended up having to stop halfway up the climb
12:09And it was well into the evening by now
12:11At this point I realised I probably wouldn't make the magic 20 climbs
12:16But if we could get to 18 I'd be happy
12:19Oh I'm just so tired
12:22That was really tough
12:28Giving up on 20 climbs did mean I was more free to enjoy the final two
12:33Jackson Bridge and Home Moss
12:35They're both well-known hill climb venues
12:37So I wanted to finish up with some full-on efforts
12:39Where are we?
12:44Yeah I think 20 might be out of the question
12:58Actually wasn't too bad
13:00That was just a lot of overreacting
13:02Quite frankly it's absolutely gorgeous at the moment
13:04So it was very good
13:09All right here we go dropping into the final climb of the day
13:18Home Moss
13:21Let's see how it goes
13:39I've got to say coming up here
13:44Legs were dead
13:45You just had to grind it out and just make it happen
13:48But yeah pretty stunning
13:58Well there we have it 18 climbs done
14:00It wasn't what I wanted
14:01But I think it's still a fairly respectable result
14:03If any of you guys were going to take on this challenge
14:05I'll be really keen to hear where you'd do it
14:07And if you do do it
14:08Do let me know how many you managed to get in
14:10Because I'll tell you it is quite tough
14:12It's fair to say though even though it was very tough
14:15It was actually an incredible day running some of the best climbs in the peak district
14:18Although they were really steep
14:20It was just absolutely beautiful
14:21And you were constantly rewarded with amazing views
14:24I do want to say a massive thank you to LAKER
14:28The good people that made this video possible
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14:43That's all from me though
14:44I think I need a long shower and a very long sleep
14:47But if you enjoyed the video drop it a like
14:49Subscribe to the channel for more content
14:50And I'll see you again very soon