Roadman, and today is podcast I want to talk to you about the hardest…
Roadman, and today is podcast I want to talk to you about the hardest climbs in the world of cycling. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our longevity? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back Roadman to another Roadman Cycling Podcast. Yesterday I spoke to you about Hugh Carty's amazing victory on one of the hardest climbs in the world, the Angruloo. And during that podcast I made a solemn vow to you, my listeners, that I would dig in, some research and find out the hardest climbs in the world. So I have a list of the hardest climbs, but I decided to narrow it slightly and not go with the hardest climbs in the world. I decided to go with the hardest climbs in Europe. When I went digging, there's just some epic climbs that none of us have heard of and some of them that don't have the same history because races don't go over them. So these are climbs that have history, they're all in Europe, and they're all out of our famous racing or training climbs in Europe. So it's a narrower criteria but there's some crazy ass climbs in Colombia, one that's almost 80 kilometers and then there's a crazy ass climb in Toy 1 that they use for the Toy 1 KOM challenge and I'm sure people are going to message me and say Ecuador has these crazy ones, Mount Baldying, the US is a crazy hard climb but these are European base climbs for the purpose it is. Maybe I'll expand the in a future edition if you guys are getting some value out of this and I will add in some non-euro climbs. Before I jump in and reveal these fabled climbs let me give you a not so gentle nudge to head across to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. The a1 show that we used to do it's just I've been getting a lot of memories on my phone you know like google flicks up this you know this what you're doing four years ago type 10 and I've been getting a lot of them around the A1 show from years ago, 3-4 years ago. It was such a big show for us in A1 coaching before we moved the brand across to Roldman and it seemed like everybody was watching it with hundreds of thousands of years every month on it. But it disappeared because we didn't make the right moves to make it financially sustainable and at the time I'm assuming everybody that watched it thought this is going to be around forever. This is like GCN. But we never made that leap and that's what I'm trying to do with Patreon. There's no sponsors on the podcast, it's entirely you guys. So, you know, if you're gone through COVID at the moment, you've lost your job, you're busted for cash, I've no expectation that you put yourself the financial difficulty, support the podcast. But if you're not, and you can afford the price of a point of beer once a month, please head on over to patreon.com and make a small donation to help the financial sustainability of the podcast. Okay guys, so these aren't in any particular order and I've got one, two, three, four, five. Top five hardest climbs. I could give you a suggestion for a sixth but I'm going to keep it at five. So in no particular order, we have yesterday's Angrilou which we talked about. We had Hugh Cardi winning yesterday. It's a 12.5 kilometer long climb. It averages 10.3% with pitches of up to 24%. We eat some super winners like Roberto Herrassas won on it. We've Jose Maria Jimenez, Chris Horner, and Pistolero Alberto Contador. Hugh Carter recorded the sixth fastest ever time on it yesterday. It's, it's bad in history and the Ancrelou is the Vuelta's answer to Montvontou and Alpe de Wais which got such iconic status in the Tour de France.
Vuelta really searched and they found this absolute wall of a climb…
So the Vuelta really searched and they found this absolute wall of a climb and it's been amazing to watch. I really want to go and try and ride all five of these climbs in a single summer. That would just be a dream. They're phenomenal climbs. The next one I want to try in, it's month of Zunkalon and anyone who's a fan of Proxoid and especially this year, Natalia is going to know this one. It is a beast. Recent winner is on it like Chris Froome. 10.5% average gradient for 11.5 kilometers with pitches of up to 10.3%. But this is where it really gets spicy. The last eight kilometers of this climb. Now it's only 11 kilometer climb and the last eight are 15%. If you haven't written a 15%, it's epically hard. So 15% for 8K, it's borderline banana stuff. Now I want to try on a couple I'm a couple of curveballs because, you know, this has been just straight up. Here's a percentage. It feels like we're in kind of Mr. Marns Matt's class back in the day. Shout out if you're still alive to my old Matt's teacher. My old Matt's teacher, Alfie Marn. A great man. I remember he got me up against the wall, grabbed me by the neck, and he said I was playing for bows at the time, and I fancied myself as a bit of a soccer player, and we got pushing pretty hard trying windy all orange. We actually ended up winning the all orange that year, but I was, I think it was around the quarter, final time and I was missing a lot of class because I was sneaking out early to go football trying and things like that and he pinned me against the wall on the day I hadn't got my mat's homework done and he's like where's your homework it's like I was trying and last night I didn't get it done and he's like I played senior football for God wait in me leaving search here and you know what I always had done me shagging mat's homework and he gave me this is before the Roy King you know dead stare he gave me a stare that said, you miss your homework again. I'm going to punch your head through this wall. You know what? It was a valuable lesson. I never miss my homework again. So shout out to a great man, great math teacher. That was a random segue. We're moving on to climb number three. Rockercobah. This is not a climb, Dass. We've raced up. This is not a climb that a lot of you guys will know, but it is one of the most iconic climbs in cycling. Jirona has become a mecca for world cycling. Jirona has become the place where most professional roiters choose to base themselves. Especially considering you can go to Monaco or Andorra where some of the pros choose to go and it's tax free. Jirona is still a taxable region but yet most of the peloton are based there. It shows you the quality of the roiten around there and Rucker Colba is the test climb. So before the Tour de France, before the Jiro It's 13.8km long, and at an average of 6.5%. That doesn't really do justice to severity of rocker coba because there's some downhill pitches in it. There's max gradients of 15%. It's a dead end climb to an aerial mast and there's views out all across the Catalonian in Jarona region. It's absolutely stunningly beautiful, crazy hard climb. Last time I was over there was, I've ridden this with two buddies in the last 12 months and two buddies at different levels of the spectrum. One of them is just getting into probably his forced racings and next year he's been a sporty guy, made a massive progress over the last few years and he wrote and definitely found a challenge not to end up a long tough day where we had some impromptu gravel ride and in previous to that a couple of months before I routed Buddy and mine Robert John McCarty who was racing for Canyon, DHB, Bloorhomes at the time, a continental level team and he was super strong on it that day.
Had the experience of dropping someone and being dropped on the climb…
And so I had the experience of dropping someone and being dropped on the climb recently but regardless of who you're with, it's about that personal battle on a climb like this. The pros all all know at our times, there's some, you know, apparently, Roger Housh, that was the fastest time I've seen. Dan Martin has some fast ones, Bradley Wiggins posted some fast ones, but it's one of those climbs. You just need to go there and experience it because you just get a feeling when you're there. And that's a perfect segue to the next climb, which is up the way, is because I spoke about you, just get a feeling when you're on rocker call. But the feeling you get when you're on rocker call is you feel like you're in the presence of roads, the pros have written a lot. Like Lance Armstrong famously based himself at your own and used this climb a lot. But when you get to Apto-Wares, you know you're at the mecha of world cycling. So Apto-Wares, the 21 Verage, 21 bends and it is ridiculous. It's just steeped in cycling history, not the hardest climb in the world, but it's absolutely steeped in cycling history. We get about one 1000 recreational riders per day during summer months attempt this you know what what could I call it only a pilgrimage to the summit of Alp du Es It's the record open is 37 minutes and 35 seconds by mark up on Tani I'm strong to second slower in 2004 the first time I went there It was one of my first years of cycling I went over with a couple of buddies and we rode up du Es and I we You race it all the way up and I just intensely remember the cramp that I had the last four or five kilometres. You get a slight break on each switch back, each of the 21 switch backs gives you a slight break and then there's a plaque on the corner tip. And Mortaloy is one of the legends that's won up up the way. So you're turning the corner and it's Armstrong, you turn the next one, it's Grand Thomas, it's Schleck, it's all the legends. But each corner becomes this little mini target where you just to get, I remember the first time just thinking just don't cut off your bike till the next one don't cut off your bike till the next one and I literally done that for the last 10 and made it to the top and it was a funeral for me all the way up ridiculously hard. I've gone back in really good shape the year I was out in France, raised some full-time I think I rode up around 44, 46 minutes which was you know serious going considering it's 30 minutes faster probably than my forced effort there and I've even gone back to Altewez as a spectator on the beer and that's great phone as well. You know, taking a stroll down to Dutch corner and the madness that that involves and camping out tonight before and your nachrot are from Dutch fans singing all night, but then you're going to drink in the middle of the day and you think you're not going to be one of those idiots running beside the Reuters, but sometimes alcohol takes over and you are. But if you're heading out to Apto-Eyes, I want to let you in on a little, very little known secret. Apto-Eyes, as much as it's steeped in cycling history and it's absolute most droid. What a nicer climb in my opinion is the backside of Aptoess. It's called called the Soren. So it starts really close to Aptoess. Just Google it if you're from where you're living in the region or out riding in the region. Call the Soren and it actually climbs higher than Aptoess and then the sends into Aptoess. It doesn't have the infrastructure to support the Tour de France. I think we came down a few years ago. But scenery is some of the nicest in the world and it's probably my favorite climb in the world if I was pushed and I've gone to the head favorite climb in the world it's called the Soren the backside of Aptoes.
List I just wish I could do them all and I think what am I on I'm on…
This list I just wish I could do them all and I think what am I on I'm on number four okay so number five I've only got one left but I have two to choose from so I'm gonna give a pass on Passo Matarolo it's not making my top five but but it is an iconic climb from the Giro, I think it's like, it's about a 12% gradient if I remember, and it's about 12k long, sorry, 10% gradient, but I'm not going to get into Motorola, but if it was a top six it would be Motorola. Just for the list and the iconic nature of it, it's the joint of Provence, the call the Von 2. So month one two, it's been in the sort of France since I think famously, it's the famous death of the English cyclist Simpson on us and it's been a super, you know, revered climb ever since. It is a whopping 21 kilometres long at 7.6% that pitches up to 12% in parts and we've had that iconic moment of Armstrong and Pantani coming over the top of it together and Armstrong gives Pantani the gifts at the top, let's him win the stage because Armstrong's gonna win the overall and that just becomes this super controversial Pantani used as a fuel that I don't need your charity, I don't want your gifts. That climb is absolutely immortalised in Tour de France history. I don't particularly like the climb, it's the bottom of it you come through with forest and after that it's like kind of riding on the moon and it's super windy and it's super long, I don't love it but you have it in there. So that's it. The top five most ride hardest climbs in Europe in no particular order. They were a Montzonk along La Engrelieu, Von II, Roca Coba and Alp de Ways. Folks, this has been another roadman cycling podcast. Now the challenge is set for somebody to ride all five rows iconic climbs as soon as COVID lifts. I'm gonna be the first to take go up my own challenge. Roadman, I'm going to chat to you again tomorrow. Okay, stop what you're doing. It's Anthony again. I want to talk to you for one second about the next step in the roadman journey. I'm laying down a challenge for you. It's called the eight-week challenge. So for eight weeks, I'm challenging you to be the very best version of yourself. Whatever that is. For eight weeks, I want to take you under my wing and I want to personally build for you the customized training plan on our analytics platform. This plan, it's going to be laser focused on your goal and I'm going to navigate around your life, your work, your social commitments so don't worry about what your circumstances are right now. I remember after I took some time out of cycling and I went off and thought I was a really big businessman. I came back and I realized I wanted to get into cycling but I knew after a bit to try it in a loan it actually wasn't making me any fitter. My needs is an entire system it needs a 360 overhaul so for the first time I'm going to share with you this exact system I used to get back in shape. I'm talking stuff like I'm going to give you my morning routines, the cold therapy I used, the cookbooks and recipes I used, and even the motivational audios by listening to get back on track. So right now what I want you to do is pause this audio, go to www.roadmancycling.com forward slash eight week, or check out the link in the bio, click that. So one more time at roadmancycling.com forward slash eight weeks. Chatty all soon.