A day off is a lovely time to do some chores and then set off on the bike to thrash it around on some hills – not necessarily in that order.

The session was to ride out to a local climb and do a few reps before heading home on a nice flat route. All was going to plan until I walked out of the front door and into a freezing gale blowing around the house. Five minutes and a few layers later I set off into the deep freeze on my way to the famous Harvesting Lane that climbs up the back of Butser Hill.

Up down up down up down up down up down…

Heading north, the sun did eventually show its face and in no time I had arrived at the foot of the climb. The road ramps up quite sharply where I start by the farm, eases off to the corner and then steepens up again to the top of the hill. I find this steeper climb good for seated reps as it does ease off about a third of the way up so you can stop seeing stars before the second grind to the top.

The surface was quite muddy so dodgy in descent and a fallen bushy shrub made an interesting obstacle to avoid along with a few stray hens and a cockerel. This was quite a short session at the start of the week but after a long 6.5 hr ride at the weekend, with colleague and fellow Wiggle rider Peter Kitching, the legs were really crying on the last couple of climbs.

A nice way to start a busy week!

Two tips:
1. Get a good warm up before hitting any hills hard.
2. Take an extra layer to put on for the ride home – dhb race jacket is a very light-weight wind blocker!