THE CYCLING CLIMBS OF EAST ANGLIA

The highest point in East Anglia is just over 140m (see Heydon climb).  Therefore, to find 40 great climbs was going to take a combination of meticulous searching and a little artistic licence.  I began my search in West Suffolk, where I spend many local cycle rides.  This area is rich in hill-climbing worth due to the Newmarket ridge.  This ridge actually extends through Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire and becomes the Chiltern ridge and the Dunstable downs.  In the Suffolk area, these climbs are characterised by a short, tough effort at the base and a long period of false flat at the top (see Primrose Hill).  The Newmarket ridge hills get larger the further west you travel, although the gradient tends to be lesser in Cambridgeshire.  Much of the rest of Cambridgeshire is filled by the fens.  With a high point of only 40m, this area is truly devoid of hills, the best I found being Haddenham Hill.  If you live in this area, your best hope is to find a long straight road and cycle into the wind.

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Norfolk and East Suffolk are both characterised by very gentle undulations.  This makes for excellent cycling but very few hills exceed 30m in height gain, generally this was not difficult enough to make my website.  The best place in Norfolk for hills is the famous coastline with the trio of Bard Hill, Beacon Hill and Sandy Hill.  Also notable is Norwich, with a plethora of steep slopes.  Suffolk’s finest area for climbing is around Hadleigh, east of Ipswich.  The roads here are quiet, twisting and almost constantly up or down.  It was here where I found the toughest climb in East Anglia outside of Essex, Blood Hill.

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Essex is by far the county with the toughest cycling climbs, although it must be said that the roads are not anywhere near as serene or idyllic as deepest Suffolk.  In Essex, there are 3 highpoints of over 100m which rise out of the flatlands; North Hill, South Hill and the Epping Forest ridge.  It is rare that climbs on these ridges are especially steep, but their length and altitude gain make up for this somewhat.

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As a cyclist who has ridden up the Rosedale Chimney, Fleet Moss and the atrociously tough access road to the Llyn Cowlyd reservoir, I am well aware that very few hill climbers are going to travel to East Anglia to attempt these slopes.  However, I hope that my efforts in creating this website will direct cyclists towards local climbs to try on their average Sunday rides.