Old Horseshoe Pass ride

Road cycling: HK-Cymau-Minera-World's End-Old Horseshoe Pass-Treuddyn-HK
Distance: 50k
Another road climbing circuit, as I am now squeezing as much as I can into the last few days before I tackle the Alpine cols. I was keen to do a few climbs on tired legs, as this is what I'll be doing in France, so went out the day after the Druid fell race and just tried - again - to maximise the climbing mileage on my local hills. None of these climbs are particularly suitable as Alpine training, of course, as they are generally far too short and steep, but I don't have much option! The Cymau road is a good start with two surprisingly fierce kicks. Gentler climbing from Ffrith through to the steep Brymbo road continued the theme, before I tackled Minera-World's End (the opposite way to my previous trip). This is hard to start, 15% and an awful road surface, before easing off into an Alpine style climb over the moorland. Lovely evening sunshine. At World's End, I played good samaritan to a Scouser with a snapped MTB chain, before climbing over to Pentredwr and tackling the notorious Old Horseshoe Pass. This is 1.6k with an average gradient of 13.2% and a max of 19%. It goes straight up in reasonable comfort, before kicking brutally in the middle and staying steep until the Ponderosa. Not as bad as I'd expected but still a bit of a lung buster after yesterday's fell race. Back home via Treuddyn and any other small climb I could find.