Have you climbed any of these segments

katozdad

Spotted this on Strava. It may have been discussed before... I dunno. Has anyone else rode any of the Segments listed, would love to hear your stories and whether you consider the choices deserving.

The Buttertubs pass is a couple of hours drive away from where I live and may be worth a punt just to get my name featured on a popular ride if nothing else.

http://blog.strava.com/preview-strava-classic-cycling-segments-6340/

TheBigYin

I've ridden over the Buttertubs both in the direction the segment is, and the other way from Hardraw... I've also done the Hardknott (and it's friend just down the road the Wrynose)

In both cases this was well before the advent of Strava, GPS Tracking (at least non-military applications) and so forth - I think I was maybe 18-19 at the time - a good 30 years ago anyway - and - in both cases I was on a Dawes Galaxy, fully loaded with panniers front/rear and basically just ground my way up in a 24t granny gear and 34t rear sprocket.

I do remember having to remove stand hanging over the front wheel of the bike on the Hardknott to get up some of the steeper bits, because it was so steep, if I pedalled in the saddle the front wheel just lifted off the ground!

The Buttertubs on a sunny summers day is a wonderful place to be, though it can, especially at weekends, be infested with nutters on motorbikes and sportscars, living out their Stigg / Foggy fantasies...

Harknott - meh - it's almost Singletrack road, and from spring to the end of september you will have problems with vehicles not giving you riding room, or just pushing you to the side of the road (not good when the side of the road can be 18" of grass then a 30 yard drop to a river!) - personally, unless you can get on something like the Fred Whitton with hundreds of other cyclists and "Take Back the Road" it'd not be on my bucket list.

The Bealach na Ba however IS most definitely on my "bucket list" (along with Alpe d'Huez, M. Ventoux and Stelvio) - I've only driven over it, but to be honest, it's the most stunning piece of tarmac (and probably entire location) in the UK - it's pretty much the nearest you'll get in the UK to an Alpine Pass - indeed, most of the photo's taken of it look just like they could be in the alps, apart from the more "scottish" looking vegetation.