This hill I do have to get into a smaller front ring, and get out of the saddle...I first tackled it on the very short 6 mile inaugral journey I did on my bike - I was so excited I had done 6 miles (!) - well you have to start somewhere don't you. This hill was a nightmare then but has now become part of my Sunday route of 17 miles...and now I am finding it, well relatively short and easy!
Unfortunately on the way down I do have enough fear still to apply brakes - now normally I would build up courage with reference to my speed on going down hills. I think my maximum so far is 33mph, unfortunately at the bottom of this hill is a cattle grid and I have found that riding over them, in the wet, does cause wheels to slip slightly. So one of my challenges, perhaps during a dry summer will be to complete this hill without applying brakes?
