Hills

One thing you develop very quickly as a cyclist is an opinion on hills.

One almost universal truth is that riding a bike down a hill is generally more fun and less tiring than riding up it (without getting too deep into the pure physical effort that it takes top level downhill mountain bikers to control their machines, and the utter concentration it requires). In fact there are cyclists who almost categorically refuse to ride up hills and avoid it by buying long-travel downhill bikes, taking advantage of uplifts at trail centres and only ever exclusively riding down. The majority of us veer between a secret enjoyment of the climb at times, a grudging respect for it, a sense of achievement at the top, and an almost puritan feeling of having to earn your gravity fuelled rollercoaster runs. Somehow it’s cheating to get all that fun without paying for it somewhere.

Still, very few people would claim the climb as the bit of the ride they’re talking about in the pub later. There’s none of the “did you see where it almost went wrong” or “…and then I only just held it together and it was ace” about trudging uphill, although it is an opportunity to actually see the view, or perhaps to chat with your riding companions away from the inevitable slight competition that kicks in as the trail points back towards sea-level.

However that doesn’t stop a small minority riding for the simple achievement of the climb, without, I assume, much of an adrenaline payoff. For example, a bunch of Los Angeles bikers turned out to climb the steepest hill in the city, sometimes over and over again. Only a block long, Fargo Street is apparently around 33% and steep enough to leave one woman toppling over into a bush. The LA Times picture raises a number of questions. For example why are two of the riders in full team kit and leg warmers, while others have rocked up in vests and trainers? (I only hope they were amongst those climbing the hill more than once and therefore taking it “seriously”). More to the point, how steep is the hill actually? Is it a case of car-obsessed Los Angeleans (?) not appreciating what a bike can do? I rushed to a popular mapping service (recently having introduced cycle directions to parts of America) to find out.

Initially it looked fairly flat (as maps tend to).

But placing myself virtually there I will concede it’s pretty damn steep.

Unfortunately the cycle directions for LA are not yet enabled so I can’t find out how long it should take to ride up it, but it does make Doug Kubler’s 30 runs pretty impressive. Interestingly the leading women was called Rosalie Kneebone, and I imagine that’ll be exactly what she ends up having operated on if she keeps on insisting on only riding up hills.

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