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Toughest Climb in Ireland?

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  • Registered Users Posts: 405 ✭✭ofthelord


    Plastik wrote: »
    Green Lane isn't one you'd go out of your way to ride on a regular basis. It's a pig. There's na'er a harder ramp in Wicklow or Dublin.
    I can still clearly remember the first time I went up Green Lane a few years ago. Was out for a spin and took the random left off of Red Lane and didn't know what I was facing into. I'd usually be fairly comfortable on hills, but after a few minutes and with no idea as to how long the hill was going to last I was seriously tempted to stop and turn around!
    Just took a look on Strava and it is just under 2 years since I've last gone up it, will have to try it again later this week to see if I still find it so bad.


  • Registered Users Posts: 646 ✭✭✭Tony04


    https://www.strava.com/segments/2595885

    Going to throw this in as the hardest short climb ive done on the road bike. In the middle of nowhere in tipperary but if you live near enough its worth the shot.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,952 ✭✭✭✭retalivity


    A nice little thunderbastard in NW Donegal I did for the first time earlier in the summer. Its up to a windmill farm, so you need to either be lucky and the gate is open or jump it, hence so few attempts. 1.3km at a steady 12%. That segment is tarred, you can actually go the whole way to the top on loose chips and it appears to be steeper again - no segment for that though

    https://www.strava.com/segments/21742204


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭mcgratheoin


    Hit Scrothea up for the first time yesterday - listed on the spreadsheet as in the top 10 even though it's only 1.5km.

    I'd definitely have it a bit higher - the 14% average doesn't tell the whole story I reckon - there are definitely long >20% sections in it. The segment linked to on strava has about 300m at 4/5% at the bottom but when you turn left up the hill it's a whole other world of pain and I think it's closer to 15% average for the middle kilometre! Usually after I ride a climb I can think about where you might potentially go a bit harder/recover etc.. but this was just pure survival. Standing up on a damp road led to wheelspin while sitting down was in wheelie territory.

    https://www.strava.com/segments/6699727

    Rode Tickincor up to Powers the Pot (which incidentally is in Waterford, not Tipperary as marked on the spreadsheet :mad:) afterwards and even though it's in the Top 20 it just felt like one where I could sit and spin if needed and could go faster if the legs felt better.


  • Registered Users Posts: 953 ✭✭✭Tim76


    The Wall, Cratloe, Co. Clare - just outside Limerick City.

    1km in length, 137m elevation, averages at 13.1% with sections at over 20%

    Poor road as well that never really drys out properly, meaning that unless you are tackling it in the middle of a drought the back wheel keeps losing grip just to add to the mental and physical torture. The council should put a defibrillator three-quarters of the way up as that's where the heart usually starts to pop!


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,902 ✭✭✭woody1


    retalivity wrote: »
    A nice little thunderbastard in NW Donegal I did for the first time earlier in the summer. Its up to a windmill farm, so you need to either be lucky and the gate is open or jump it, hence so few attempts. 1.3km at a steady 12%. That segment is tarred, you can actually go the whole way to the top on loose chips and it appears to be steeper again - no segment for that though

    https://www.strava.com/segments/21742204

    was up there for a week just 2 weeks ago and i saw the windfarm on the way in and figured the road up had to be a killer, but i didnt cycle out that road at all in the end,
    theres some nasty little climbs around that whole area, dont think theres a flat stretch of road in it


  • Registered Users Posts: 50 ✭✭Quickpip


    mad turnip wrote: »
    Looks like no on in this thread has cycled up some of the roads in rostrevor.
    https://www.strava.com/segments/6227788?filter=overall

    Longer version:
    https://www.strava.com/segments/1710289?filter=overall

    More rostrevor:
    https://www.strava.com/segments/1165931?filter=overall

    Spotted this monster as I was looking for the above: (this is completly off road)
    https://www.strava.com/segments/1307019

    Thats the tarmac road
    in Rostrevor(including the road through the car park) which is about 220m for about 1.8km of climbing @ 12% avg gradient.
    https://www.strava.com/segments/15426859
    There are a few others around South Down including Yellow Road/Coyles Hill
    https://www.strava.com/segments/9207389
    201m for 4.9km @ 4%
    https://www.strava.com/segments/15427663
    277m for 6.2km @ 4%


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,741 ✭✭✭brownian


    Thought I'd posted this already...up the back of Camp village in Kerry is the road to Caherconree. Only short, but hits 25%, and it's a real road - you go over the other side and down onto the S coast of the Dingle peninsula. Worth a spin if you're in the area.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,836 ✭✭✭De Bhál


    brownian wrote: »
    Thought I'd posted this already...up the back of Camp village in Kerry is the road to Caherconree. Only short, but hits 25%, and it's a real road - you go over the other side and down onto the S coast of the Dingle peninsula. Worth a spin if you're in the area.

    I cycled up that 4 years ago. It's short so I tried to speed to the base of it and power up it. Didn't work, had to get off. It's the hardest ramp I've climbed on a bike and I got up mt leinster to the mast without having to stop.
    Overall mt Leinster is worse for the unforgiving length.


  • Registered Users Posts: 788 ✭✭✭mistermatthew


    Is there any value in resurrecting the spreadsheet from earlier which ranked the climbs? We could copy it across to a new sheet and start populating again? We could add a couple of people as mods to supervise it and people can submit again. Not sure if the original creator would mind?


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  • Registered Users Posts: 2,162 ✭✭✭xxyyzz


    I came across this hill in Macroom recently. Sleaveen rd. I think it's called. It's a proper hole-opener

    https://www.strava.com/segments/2347447


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭mcgratheoin


    De Bhál wrote: »
    Overall mt Leinster is worse for the unforgiving length.

    Did Mt. Leinster from Borris to the mast today in homage to the suffering of the big men at the tour.

    :eek::eek::eek:

    There isn't a chance in hell that anything else in Ireland gets close to that for toughness, it's just relentless. You think it's going to be steadily up to the base from Borris but there's even a little ramp in there that hits 11% before you get to the real climbing.
    https://www.strava.com/segments/7310960

    Once you hit the bottom it's 3.5km at 7% average and then 2.5km at 13%. I was struggling to keep my Garmin from autopausing at times. You don't really have the same 50-100m ramps at 20% that you do on some of the other climbs but it just never dips under 10% for a realitve breather and the top half seems to stay at 12 to 15% for an interminably long time.

    Took me just over an hour to do the 12.8km from Borris to the top and I'm actually pretty pleased with that.

    https://www.strava.com/activities/4092329970/


  • Registered Users Posts: 8,370 ✭✭✭lawrencesummers


    De Bhál wrote: »
    I cycled up that 4 years ago. It's short so I tried to speed to the base of it and power up it. Didn't work, had to get off. It's the hardest ramp I've climbed on a bike and I got up mt leinster to the mast without having to stop.
    Overall mt Leinster is worse for the unforgiving length.

    A few friends of mine visited from Europe a few years back to do a cycling holiday, they followed the WAW from Kinsale to Dingle.

    I mapped their last days cycling from Dingle over Conner Pass and across that route onwards to castlemaine and Killarney for the night, I had never travelled that route and wasn’t aware of the hill. It pissed rain all day, no view from the Connor pass and a rare headwind into castlemaine. They didn’t talk to me for a while!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,317 ✭✭✭Daroxtar


    Did Mt. Leinster from Borris to the mast today in homage to the suffering of the big men at the tour.

    :eek::eek::eek:

    There isn't a chance in hell that anything else in Ireland gets close to that for toughness, it's just relentless. You think it's going to be steadily up to the base from Borris but there's even a little ramp in there that hits 11% before you get to the real climbing.
    https://www.strava.com/segments/7310960

    Once you hit the bottom it's 3.5km at 7% average and then 2.5km at 13%. I was struggling to keep my Garmin from autopausing at times. You don't really have the same 50-100m ramps at 20% that you do on some of the other climbs but it just never dips under 10% for a realitve breather and the top half seems to stay at 12 to 15% for an interminably long time.

    Took me just over an hour to do the 12.8km from Borris to the top and I'm actually pretty pleased with that.

    https://www.strava.com/activities/4092329970/

    Truskmore says hello. https://veloviewer.com/segments/1735489
    4km @ 10% but with constant ramps hitting close to 20% and one brutal segment of nearly 17% for 200m near the top, aptly named "ohforfuksake"
    Veloviewer ranks it as tougher than Mt Leinster. I haven't done Mount Leinster so I can't compare but apart from genuine monsters like the Angliru or the top of Jitu Escarandi, there's nothing else I've done that's close to it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭mcgratheoin


    Daroxtar wrote: »
    Truskmore says hello. https://veloviewer.com/segments/1735489
    4km @ 10% but with constant ramps hitting close to 20% and one brutal segment of nearly 17% for 200m near the top, aptly named "ohforfuksake"
    Veloviewer ranks it as tougher than Mt Leinster. I haven't done Mount Leinster so I can't compare but apart from genuine monsters like the Angliru or the top of Jitu Escarandi, there's nothing else I've done that's close to it.

    Am I sadistic for putting it on the list? What I personally found really tough was the consistency of Mt. Leinster, I'll have to try to get to the other end of the country at some point!


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,317 ✭✭✭Daroxtar


    Am I sadistic for putting it on the list? What I personally found really tough was the consistency of Mt. Leinster, I'll have to try to get to the other end of the country at some point!

    A friend of mine who has done both reckons Mt Leinster is steeper but he could get his rhythm going whereas Truskmore was just multiple ramps that kept knocking him out of his stride plus it's a kilometer longer. There's also a good pull from the main road up to the start of the climb for a warm up.
    Funnily enough, there's a short hill not far from my home place that absolutely destroyed me for that same reason. It's 1km @10% but all ramps and every time I looked at the Garmin it was 15%. One of the toughest 5 minutes I've ever done


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,902 ✭✭✭woody1


    Daroxtar wrote: »
    A friend of mine who has done both reckons Mt Leinster is steeper but he could get his rhythm going whereas Truskmore was just multiple ramps that kept knocking him out of his stride plus it's a kilometer longer. There's also a good pull from the main road up to the start of the climb for a warm up.
    Funnily enough, there's a short hill not far from my home place that absolutely destroyed me for that same reason. It's 1km @10% but all ramps and every time I looked at the Garmin it was 15%. One of the toughest 5 minutes I've ever done

    does truskmore have a proper road surface on it ,sorry looking at it on streetview now, i can see it does, it even looks steep on that, gate says private, ever any bother with it


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭mcgratheoin


    woody1 wrote: »
    does truskmore have a proper road surface on it ,sorry looking at it on streetview now, i can see it does, it even looks steep on that, gate says private, ever any bother with it

    There's rarely an issue going up "private" roads that lead to TV masts etc.. Not the same as heading up through a farm for example.

    Anyone know the story with Scalp Mt in Donegal - it's marked in the spreadsheet as private.


  • Registered Users Posts: 683 ✭✭✭JazzyJ


    Did Truskmore a few weeks back. One of the hardest climbs I've done on-road. On paper it doesn't seem that difficult but the steep intermittent ramps just killed me (especially since I'm on the bigger side of average :))

    It does have a proper surface - a bit cut up in places, and a few cattle grids, but its grand. You'd be fine going up the road - I doubt there'd be any issue once you stuck to that and didn't worry any sheep!

    The horseshoe valley has superb views - well worth a visit.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,902 ✭✭✭woody1


    JazzyJ wrote: »
    Did Truskmore a few weeks back. One of the hardest climbs I've done on-road. On paper it doesn't seem that difficult but the steep intermittent ramps just killed me (especially since I'm on the bigger side of average :))

    It does have a proper surface - a bit cut up in places, and a few cattle grids, but its grand. You'd be fine going up the road - I doubt there'd be any issue once you stuck to that and didn't worry any sheep!

    The horseshoe valley has superb views - well worth a visit.

    ran a 10k there years ago, seriously tough run , then in the middle of it a farmer decided to take a couple of hundred sheep out onto the road, during the effin race..
    anyway . il probably park the car down on the main road somewhere and cycle up around the valley before or after the climb


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  • Registered Users Posts: 6,867 ✭✭✭G1032


    Daroxtar wrote: »
    Truskmore says hello. https://veloviewer.com/segments/1735489
    4km @ 10% but with constant ramps hitting close to 20% and one brutal segment of nearly 17% for 200m near the top, aptly named "ohforfuksake"
    Veloviewer ranks it as tougher than Mt Leinster. I haven't done Mount Leinster so I can't compare but apart from genuine monsters like the Angliru or the top of Jitu Escarandi, there's nothing else I've done that's close to it.

    Have you ever been up Minaun? I don't see you on the leaderboard :)


  • Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 6,813 Mod ✭✭✭✭eeeee


    This thread is a really useful 'Places to Avoid' list :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,317 ✭✭✭Daroxtar


    G1032 wrote: »
    Have you ever been up Minaun? I don't see you on the leaderboard :)

    Look closer, I'm a long way down. I might have had a belly full of porter and pizza that morning :D
    Minnaun is a brute too but once you get past that utterly ridiculous first km the rest is fine.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,817 ✭✭✭marvin80


    woody1 wrote: »
    ran a 10k there years ago, seriously tough run , then in the middle of it a farmer decided to take a couple of hundred sheep out onto the road, during the effin race..
    anyway . il probably park the car down on the main road somewhere and cycle up around the valley before or after the climb

    Henrys bar and restaurant is a handy spot to park up and then cycle to Gleniff Horseshoe/Truskmore. It's just under 10km, nice and flat to get the legs warmed up!
    Some steep ramps in Gleniff Horseshoe before you get to the gate to Truskmore itself.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,867 ✭✭✭G1032


    Daroxtar wrote: »
    Look closer, I'm a long way down. I might have had a belly full of porter and pizza that morning :D
    Minnaun is a brute too but once you get past that utterly ridiculous first km the rest is fine.

    LOL. Gonna have to try Truskmore so. Sounds absolutely horrendous.
    Think Minaun averages 15% for first 1.7km. Will have to look up the segment again.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,834 ✭✭✭TomTomTim


    Truskmore is the toughest I've tried. I was forced off the bike on two occasions due to the pure brutality of it all. It doesn't help that the toughest gradient is in the last stretch of proper climbing. I real need to try and do it again without coming off the bike.

    “The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone else. You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offense, isn't it? A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill--he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offense, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it.”- ― Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov




  • Registered Users Posts: 2,160 ✭✭✭JMcL


    Anyone know the story with Scalp Mt in Donegal - it's marked in the spreadsheet as private.

    Going up from the Burnfoot side I assume. I do know the access road to the masts was built privately, and while I've heard of lads going up in 4x4s alright, never by bike - which isn't to say it hasn't happened. At the opposite end of the country at the minute so can't check. Not entirely sure it's paved however and I imagine it's a beast of a climb. Not so familiar with that side, but well acquainted with the other side of the mountain, and it's tough enough to walk up (albeit that's the slightly steeper side)


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,817 ✭✭✭marvin80


    TomTomTim wrote: »
    Truskmore is the toughest I've tried. I was forced off the bike on two occasions due to the pure brutality of it all. It doesn't help that the toughest gradient is in the last stretch of proper climbing. I real need to try and do it again without coming off the bike.

    I naively gave it a go when I wasn't very fit, got up about 1km in bits and turned back.
    Next time I successfully got up it was after a few summer of months of solid cycling - it's a brute but great views up there on a nice day!


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,461 ✭✭✭mcgratheoin


    JMcL wrote: »
    Going up from the Burnfoot side I assume. I do know the access road to the masts was built privately, and while I've heard of lads going up in 4x4s alright, never by bike - which isn't to say it hasn't happened. At the opposite end of the country at the minute so can't check. Not entirely sure it's paved however and I imagine it's a beast of a climb. Not so familiar with that side, but well acquainted with the other side of the mountain, and it's tough enough to walk up (albeit that's the slightly steeper side)

    It was used for the national hill climb championships at one stage. I only ask because it's the only one of the private roads on the spreadsheet that has a big "PRIVATE" written alongside it.

    Unlikely I'll be up that neck of the woods anyway


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  • Registered Users Posts: 1,231 ✭✭✭Galego


    It was used for the national hill climb championships at one stage. I only ask because it's the only one of the private roads on the spreadsheet that has a big "PRIVATE" written alongside it.

    Unlikely I'll be up that neck of the woods anyway

    That private road is different to others which I cycled. It crosses someone's farm, who I was told owns the land.

    Anyway, I went there I asked the farmer/owner whether he'd let me cycle up and he said no (for insurance purposes he said) but let me drive up to the top on my car! Odd! In fairness to him, it was super windy that day and it would have been pretty tricky descend.

    The private road is all concrete and pretty steep. It is not constant, does have some rests and even a small descend. Some of the ramps looked well over 15%, specially on the corners. I'd also say grip on the wet must be pretty hard on that smooth concrete.


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