PEA ROYD LANE

STOCKSBRIDGE, SHEFFIELD

This unforgiving stretch of tarmac will take you from industrial valley to peaceful moorland in around seven lung-busting, leg-burning minutes. Leaving the B6088 and rising from the heart of Stocksbridge, the venue for the 2009 and 2014 National Hill Climb Championships is a varied and very tough test. Rough to begin with, as you head up past the foreboding factories, the road shallows slightly before turning right on to Pea Royd Lane. Here you hit the first sector of 20% – try not to over do it here as there is much more to come. Round the next left, crossing the bridge over the A616, the gradient shallows allowing you a slight breather, but then it rises again with a vengeance. Here you take the 25% left-hander to hit the final stretch, twisting left then right over a fake brow. You still have a substantial distance until the road finally peaks, but it’ll soon come, framed in a V by high stone walls either side.