UK’s Hardest 100km – Cycling Sensational & Steep Snowdonia National Park, Wales – 3000m Elevation!

In today’s video fellow Backpedal community member, Nick Brownbill and I undertake a recce of just half of Nick’s proposed 230km +6000m route for his proposed Backpedal event, the Giro de Wales. 115km and +3000m of climbing taking in 7 big climbs, including Stwlan Damn, Cwm Eigiau, The Colwyd and Penmashno, as described by Strava (incorrectly) as The Climb from Hell – it’s not even close to 2 of the others!

In the Snowdonia, National Park, unrelenting steep is the order of the day….where I was taught a valuable lesson, there does exist in the UK tougher climbing than even the Lake District! Plus it’s every bit as beautiful.

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Well welcome on and all to bite racing without mercy and without any shadow of a doubt my toughest ever day in a saddle and one of the most beautiful my companion for the day is my zwift wtrl teammate an all-round gentleman from the wirral mr nick brownbill scientist

Supreme and also bringing an analytical precision to our route it’s a recce of the northern loop which will comprise half of nick’s full zero dewell’s back pedal group event now mathematically speaking the loop has spikes long and steep ones steep disgustingly steep and two perpendicular steep unrelenting perpendicular i do not

Exaggerate but all of them rewarding supplying vistas flavored jaw dropping i’m at a secret okay it’s not a secret location in the world with rhiannon and nick this is a sight to see this gets nick and his dad for 200 kilometer ride 25 minutes later and flapjack ready flapjet ready are you

Going to consume all of that in the one ride well i’ll bring it and i’ll share it if you’d like some that will fit just about in the rear pocket there it’s quite convenient thank you ever so much you’ve made me feel super super welcome and look at this

The watts are going to be high on the whale hills tomorrow and then another masterpiece what do we got here cinnamon rolls cinnamon rolls handmade the climbing hasn’t even yet begun but to the soon to be climbers the spoils so nick what a slice of welsh heaven have you bought me two sir

We’re currently in fest in york uh little village outside blind of festooneyog uh newest unesco world heritage site in the uk and we’re about to climb up to stallone dam turns out we’re in northern wales cross his boss we got to get this thing over the fence there stalin here we come ready

Mix clips completely well that’s a clip in this only equal what i typically do in a crit a good 15 minutes to clip in consistency because the grade is so consistent if you can find a comfortable cadence basically nine percent all the way all right wow what about the surface ah

Me and top cat had a conversation about this on the discord because this used to be a really bad section and they’ve redone it perfection isn’t it certainly is set against the now retired slave minds and is to my mind one of the finest lions in the uk steep but

Consistent and therefore accessible clocking in at 2.8 kilometers with 269 metres of climbing at 9.7 average gradient and a view over the snowdonia plane to take your mind off the lactic acid a good place for an everest meetings after our little skirmish with the gate to provide an early test for our

Teamworking skills teamwork makes the dream work and literally the longest most excruciating clip-in ever witnessed to the world of cycling it was time to wind up the diesel engine and see where the pace was at around this corner we’re coming up to ed lavarx favors fully

He took that left which doesn’t go to the top nick was the consummate gentleman holding himself back in order to help me capture the vistas and you’ll see him on another climb of the perpendicular variety shooting off into the distance in order to and i kid you not get in his intervals

I found a nice pace in a 270 to 300 watt range of course i’d love that to be more like 290 to 310 but i was feeling jaded after a packed summer and i reckon then it would take me quite a big drop in volume and a load of recovery plus some

Structure training with intensity in order to get me back up to those elevated heights the switchbacks are truly exceptional providing exquisite views of the early morning low-lying autumn sun as of so much history the dam is highly controversial and caused the displacement of local villages and families and despite it looking very handsome

Against the backdrop of slate green brown and yellow this does detract from some of its elegance how much brother uh you can see the wall there we just go around to the right we’ve done basically all the elevation just this tiny crest here if you like the video please do give it

A thumbs up and subscribe to the channel plenty more to come yeah just around here my time 13 minutes 30 seconds at decent gas with average power 278 so stolen under the belt what a glorious climb nick unbelievable yeah lived up to the building sorry okay there’s a nasty looking climb there that

We’re going to do later on the left the lower concern is already high for the next two but look at this beautiful what’s a town called say that again that was a coyote bet what’s the coin if you’re scouts it’s called betsy cohen but uh okay well speakers everywhere

We’ll cringe well betsy cohen here is the next flap jack nick is coming through for his big effort of the day due to a ration of battery power i decided not to film the ascent of queen mega and it was time for nick’s intervals the climb measures in at ten

Percent but one point two kilometers of that with the hairpins averages fourteen percent that test the fortitude good morning time it was two minutes 39 seconds diluted by one minute 35 seconds fully stopped at two different gates taking it super easy on the final shallow one third average power 250

Normalized 266 the first 300 meters of ascending on this climb was sheer hell I am a broken broken man nick did his intervals just about it was so depressing to watch your shoe off into the distance i had to get off to open the gate but to be honest i was so pleased to get off the bike again so how was your stand there oh

Just as painful yeah i am just painful but a hell of a lot quicker i’ve got 36 28 as my smallest gear so i’ve got no choice i want to keep the pedals turning it has to be fast for the aficionados of big gear riding there you have it

Worth it so what’s the next one we got the kolid the famous kolid some people say it’s the hardest climb in great britain is it harder than the one we’ve just gone up certainly is there’s a tear you can’t see it there is a tear running down on this cheek so nick

The kolid the kolid the level of concern is at a peak right now yeah this might be the most concerned i’ve ever been on a bike no no he’s a strong lad i however have to bring in the heavy artillery the guava energy bar so this is the gate

That was as much of a relief as an inconvenience in all honesty oh nick you’re a gentleman you know i i thought i was doing dreadfully up here but i’m actually quite proud of making it up of this yeah because this is proper disgusting yeah

I should have feel more of it i mean just look at it look at it please i don’t know how you do intervals like this because it’s an interval session in its own right just getting up the steep bits and it starts so prettily is that a word pretty

Yeah but it rips your face off cunningly to reposition the cameras nick has decided to stop us just in front of what is going to be a nasty adversary nick describe the profile the cold lid is straight up and then it straight up some more and then it’s straight up

The last disgusting climb was only five kilometers ago literally the mind is not yet in the game but we’re gonna do it yeah we’ll do it we’ll get there for those who enjoyed the antiques of man vs food and i refer of course only to those with adam in them you’ll be

More than aware of the scoville scale for measuring chili meat i will adopt my own version of the scoville scale to enable the succinct comparison as to how difficult and arduous the different climbs are 19.7 my unit of measurement in my very own scale will be a cold

Now an easy climb like box hill with consistent gradient might just be a quarter or twenty-five percent whereas when i discover an absolute monster longer and more terrible and even the collide it will be maybe one and a quarter times a cold width or 1.25 times a colon

Currently the colear is my carolina reaper chile 2.2 million scovilles to save your head in google and i doubt some of you know worse much worse so as a minimum let’s say the kolid is my trinidad scorpion two million snowboards and yet ignorance can be bliss Sensible folk go straight on because that does level off but we turn right for the big hill this monster amongst monsters takes you about 413 meters of vertical in just three kilometers the average gradient is an i want my mummy percent that’s an average gradient

On the back of crew me guy alongside the instantly steep gradients of the collide your heart rate soars like a phoenix rising out of the ashes luckily i wasn’t looking much at my computer intent only on measuring out my power in order to survive the climb we’ve done

We’ve got 2.3 kilometers to go so we’ve done 700 meters um in about 200 meters around this corner we get some light relief of 10 or so the chirpy announcement from nick that we’d only done 700 meters rained down like a hammer blow don’t panic too much

About it but i think this is the sharpest hairpin on the climb the first hairpin rears at you out of the canopy of trees and with my heart rate into the 180s it was time for emergency power nice wide outside line can of coke can do it phil

I really had started to think that i wouldn’t be able to complete the time this first diaper segment is so inappropriate nick’s encouragement we’re down below sensational so if you can make it to there we can get some micro rest i’m not saying it’s easy not at all but if you can

Heart rate dropping down to a mere 176 to 177 following minimizing the power to continue in a straight line oh no well saved phil i definitely thought i was gonna fall off or have to stop and that would have been the end of the climb for me but

Miracles do happen and somewhere a divine spirit intervened plus a big dose of power on the pedals well done i felt burned out as we hit the flat bit here and definitely thought that i was finished time to pull the rip cord but your encouragement okay ultra low power

On this shallow gradient the micro recovery worked its magic heart rate down to nearly 174 if you stop turning the pedals i’ll go but until then i’m behind you and the climb gave me a second miracle because i was able to live and surge again and resolve to treat the rest of

It as my very own interval session it never fails to amaze me how quickly the resolve can flood back if you get an opportunity to just feather the power a little bit while keeping the pedals rotating we’ve done 1.2 k we’ve got 1.8k to go full disclosure we’re about to come to

A steeper section again but we’ll take all the rest we can get before then when you’re in the red and in a very dark place it’s probably best not to learn that we’re less than halfway we’ve just 1.2 kilometers under the belt and two kilometers to go

Here i’m in a slightly better place as i luxuriate in there well just a bit more the micro recovery section while simultaneously musing on the fact that the second hard segment is the same as the first in terms of difficulty i mean how can that be possible how can it be really how

Time to launch again but with a heart rate in much better shape from a base of 1.67 question was was that sufficient recovery to get the job done nice wide lines here this hairpin replete with man with freely running dog saw the unwelcome return of 19 to 25 percent gradients and

The high 170. well done phil getting into the rhythm of my interval session here lunging on the steepest bits and micro recovering in the mid-teens heart rate 179 to 180 not good defcon 1. a massive lunge for the sunlight and what a calculate must be near the top i

Mean both sunlight and views we must be near the top we must write surely i demand it with heart rate cresting 180 i make an increasingly desperate lunge here save our souls indeed send copious amounts of fast digesting carbohydrates to a crisis unfolding on the colon 1.2 kilometers to go

100 meters of elevation to go okay 1.2 kilometers to go this cannot be this simply cannot be but in more welcome news only 100 meters of ascending to go and i rationalize this as basically one and a quarter times swain’s lane i’ve done that a lot before a great deal right

Another massive lunge heart rate 180 to 182 mayday mayday mayday this is bite racing without mercy requesting a five percent gradient please it was a very expensive burst of power as you can see from my dejected profile desperately trying to kickstart the diesel engine you’re doing so well phil

Less than a kilometer to go now less than 100 meters of climbing Another lunge into yet more 18 to 22 radians and with a heart rate at 182 words and thoughts were literally starting to filming but was there hope surely there couldn’t be hope as slow as you need slow as you need indeed this climb in its own right deserves the

Full whammy of a thumbs up a subscription if you haven’t and also hit the bell to let you know of new videos so please do This must be the last lunch surely surely as god is my witness surely i reacquainted myself with my tempo here the runway was just about in sight but i was coming in with one engine on fire and in danger of falling short therefore time to wallop open the thrust

Levers and claw back some altitude with a near that’s near final lunge to freedom from this exquisite purgatory and now time to burn the last of the matches and the box to boom train the tank get fully into the deepest velvet red known to the devil rain down the

Power and say to your grandchildren you conquered this hill and yes she run for your lives by racing without mercy and his conago elevated heart rate contorted pain face is amongst you i’ve stormed your house your field and you fell that was the hardest climb i’ve ever done

It was all i could do to turn the pedals on a mic recovery thank you for the encouragement i’d have quit after the really steep bit yeah oh it’s all in it’s a little burst in a 450 550 watts to get the steep yeah hairpins absolutely murder me but it feels good

Time well strava 2843 but that’s because nick and i sat at the start of the segment sorting out the cameras and filming the opening my actual time as you’ll see in training peaks was a proper emotional 21 minutes and 39 seconds nick’s flapjacks to the rescue one

Mint magnum here to thought it middle of october ice cream is on the date nick thank you for laying on the weather here in snowdonia trying my best here’s to an amazing ride an amazing day yeah great day emergency coke is incoming thank you very much that’s a brilliant okay

The segment pen mashnow the climb from hell is not the climb from hell as touted on the strava segment the climb to queen penmashnow isn’t easy comprising 293 meters of elevation over 4.3 kilometers 6.3 average gradient with a few steep ramps but it’s not even the little brother to the colleague let

Alone the evil twin maybe it’s half a kohli the mint ice cream magnum a full fat coke and also the sight of the little red bunny rabbit tea shop had lifted my energy levels so i settled in to sustain a zone three pace 230 to 260 watts with

A few surges on the stevens on a day like today the climb from hell is in fact a pleasure to climb and a valley on my left or my right as you look back at me looks like a land of milk and honey flagging towards the end we dispatched

This climb in 17 minutes every two seconds having once again managed to faff around with the cameras having started the segment 18 minutes 54 was a strava time my average power was a ready to snooze in the car 235 watts 254 normalized we’re about 100 kilometers and 2 700

Meters of ascending into this and nick asks do you mind if we just pull over here into this viewing point so we can take a selfie do i mind i am begging to stop i don’t know what it is with people who live in steep parts of

The uk in their bonus climbs but nick this looks like a disgusting little bonus claim what’s it called it’s called come teagle come tiggle it sounds almost innocent doesn’t it it isn’t try to enjoy it he tells me enjoyment is all relative full disclosure i really didn’t want to

Climb but it’s one of nick’s favorite places he runs up here with rihanna therefore it was only right and proper that i should capture some of his effort okay i’m not going to complete a crime no no if you want 10 percent average i can’t do it okay here

As nick unleashed full fury on the pedals and blew past me like i was going backwards my mind most likely gave up long before the body snogonia definitely won if this zero de wales line took us five hours of moving time i reckon the full 230 kilometers six thousand meters

Of elevation for the zero de wales ala brownbill will be more like a 12-hour marathon man versus wales wales won not surprising why how was it hard you were going well you were going well thank you it’s seriously hard the final well i didn’t see the final kilometer

But i was clinging on just to film nick i mean my word yeah final columns are average 10 so it was um i mean it was tough and yeah android hell yes me thank you ever so much for this weekend you and rihanna made me feel super welcome last night

The pastor came in somewhat handy as did the cinnamon rolls to power us through that did i not realize just how don’t forget to ride in well thank you privilege i’ve done it but thank you i appreciate it yeah no problem at all absolutely pleasure riding with you

Anytime you’re only riding wales again always welcome ours always the wheels back on can you do the same for my legs yeah i wish