BREDWARDINE HILL

BREDWARDINE, HEREFORDSHIRE

This long climb has a killer start, so get ready to grind. Leave the B4352 in Bredwardine, just after the Red Lion Hotel and the 25% gradient sign; straight away, you’re climbing. Up ahead, the road gets steeper and steeper and steeper, until you’re stranded on the promised arc of 25% tarmac searching for an extra sprocket to preserve your forward motion. Passing the saltbox on your right, and snaking left and right across the road, you line up for the final savage stretch to the brow ahead, where the severity of the slope finally recedes. From here on, the climbing isn’t so tough, but the damage to the legs has already been done. Next you enter a distinctive horseshoe-shaped bend that curves round a collection of hillside houses and you’ve almost reached the end of the climbing. Bending left, the remainder to the summit is very gentle and fizzles out just as you reach the final 90-degree left-hand bend.