ROCKINGHAM HILL

ROCKINGHAM, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

I’ve a distinct memory of riding this hill either at the start or the finish of an early season time trial in the early nineties, although my mate Nick says it wasn’t on the course. Still, I must have climbed it at some point in an exhausted, cold, and/or wet state, because, scarred for life, I never returned. Until, that is, when I arrived to record it for this book, to see what I’d been afraid of for all those years. It’s not a long climb – this is Northamptonshire after all – but it is steep enough to test any rider. You begin as you enter the village from the flat road and then gradually start to rise between the beautifully quaint thatched cottages. It’s a stunning little village, but don’t dwell – you have a hill to climb. Kinking left, the slope backs off before hitting its maximum of over 10% past one of the entrances to Rockingham Park. Once over this 200-metre stretch, it gets easier and easier to finish at the roundabout on the edge of Corby.