ROBIN HOOD’S BAY

WHITBY

If you’ve travelled to get here, you might as well tackle the full distance from the harbour in Robin Hood’s Bay. Carefully head down into town, turn around, tighten your shoe straps, and then attack the ferociously hard slopes. Punishingly steep and impossibly narrow out of town on New Road, the gradient hits 25% as it threads and twists its way away from the shore. Where the slope levels, New Road turns into Station Road. Take the left on to Thorpe Lane and follow this into Flyingthorpe. Once you’re through the village, the climbing starts again in earnest. From here to the top the average is a solid 10% with no respite; up first through a wonderfully tight right-hand bend and then straightening up. In front of you the slope heads skyward and the gradient increases step-by-step up on to the Moors. The final push is a proper leg-breaker, easily 20%, forcing you out of the saddle as you drag yourself over the brow.