News: Hill Climb Challenge

How are your climbing legs? Are they ready for the ultimate early-season challenge?

News: Hill Climb Challenge

How are your climbing legs? Are they ready for the ultimate early-season challenge?

The hill climb season may have come and gone with lots of events due to the Covid-19 pandemic but Lancashire-based journalist and lecturer Andrew Greaves has put together a Lancashire special to raise money for two fantastic charities and give riders the chance to become the King or Queen of the Lancashire hills! The event is part of Greaves’ year-long Tour de Greaves challenge in which he will ride more than 3,500km across 2021 to raise funds for SportsAid and The Rayner Foundation – no mean feat for someone who only took up riding in August 2019.

Both charities are close to his heart and have helped launched the sporting careers of some of the country’s top talents including Sir Mo Farrah, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Sir Bradley Wiggins, David Millar and, of course, 2021 Giro d’Italia winner Tao Geoghegan Hart. Greaves, who heads up the UK’s top journalism school News Associates, said: “I’d planned to do the challenge this year but Covid-19 cancelled a lot of the events I was using to get the miles up.

“I’m really excited to get going for next year though and I want to get as many people involved as I can to raise funds for two amazing charities.”

The Levitex Sleep x RJD Associates Tour de Greaves Hill Climb Challenge p/b 100 Climbs and Crosby Coffee kicks off on January 1 and riders will have until February 28 to complete the hills and be in with a chance of becoming the TdG King or Queen of the Mountains (well, hills in this case!). He’s teamed up with 100 Climbs author Simon Warren to put together a gruelling set of ascents and there’s a host of incredible prizes on offer for the King and Queen from a range of sponsors including Levitex, Continental Tyres, Muc-Off, Crosby Coffee and SunGod.

Greaves said: “We’d love to have been able to organise ‘proper’ hill climbs but the current climate and restrictions means it’s almost impossible so this is our attempt to do something a little bit different and give riders the perfect opportunity to test their early-season climbing legs.” There will be individual prizes for each of the climbs and a special edition jersey for the overall King and Queen of the Mountains.

The Climbs
10 climbs have been selected, all of which feature in various editions of Simon Warren’s 100 Climbs series of books. The majority of the climb are in the Pennie Lancashire area, with the exception of The Rake which is a little further afield (but not too far).

The climbs selected are:
Jeffrey Hill | 1,411m in length | Av gradient: 9% | Max gradient: 18% | 100 Climbs rating: 6/10

Newton Fell | 3,375m | Av gradient: 6% | Max gradient: 16% | 100 Climbs rating: 7/10

Trough of Bowland | 2,086m | Av gradient: 6% | Max gradient: 16% | 100 Climbs rating: 4/10

Barley Hill | 654m | Av gradient: 11% | Max gradient: 15% | 100 Climbs rating: 6/10

Crown Point | 2,994m | Av gradient: 5% | Max gradient: 15% | 100 Climbs rating: 5/10

Pendle Hill | 2,556m | Av gradient: 5% | Max gradient: 17% | 100 Climbs rating: 7/10

The Rake | 980m | Av gradient: 12% | Max gradient: 23% | 100 Climbs rating: 8/10

Birdy Brow | 1,882m | Av gradient: 9% | Max gradient: 15% | 100 Climbs rating: 8/10

Whalley Nab | 1,282m | Av gradient: 10% | Max gradient: 25% | 100 Climbs rating: 8/10

Nick of Pendle | 1,322m | Av gradient: 11% | Max gradient: 14% | 100 Climbs rating: 6/10

Climbs can be attempted in any order, as part of a run or as individual hill climbs. Riders have between January 1 and February 28 to log times and the quickest time will be taken as of 11.59pm on February 28. All times must be logged on Strava using the segments as above.

For more information go to www.tourdegreaves.co.uk or follow @TourDeGreaves on Twitter.