By kazimladimeji 
British Hill Climb Cycling up Bear Hill, Stroud
Having completed a 50K Wednesday Night Social Ride to Coates (20K more than usual) at a blistering pace, for me, incorporating 600 metres of hill climb cycling, I was looking for a more tempered Sunday ride, which I titled in Strava as my Jolly Nice Loop via Bear Hill, Stroud. Jolly Nice is a nice drive-through en route coffee stop west of Stroud opposite the Frampton Mansell junction on the London road to Cirencester. Bear Hill is a British Hill Climb Category 4 climb of 1.34 km, 131 metres of elevation, averaging 9.7% gradient. It’s a British Hill Climb Category 4 climb that my 93-kilo weight class does not enjoy. Still, this was my fourth effort and I was looking to take advantage of interim fitness improvements by hill climb cycling up Bear Hill, Stroud, in a PB!
I turned left to begin hill climb cycling up Bear Hill, Stroud, from Bath Road, just as we enter Woodchester just past the Old Fleece Pub, a regular stop on our Wednesday social ride. The climb does not offer any introductions,(even though it warrants it), as you are greeted with a 650 metre long 1st half of the climb to the cattle grid rising 75 metres, averaging 11.4% gradient. It’s a relatively even grind but with an energy-sapping steep section 100 metres or so (about 14% I guess) approaching and rounding the switchback. One virtue of this climb is the smooth road surface which simply can’t be taken for granted around. Most of the time the climb takes place within a pleasant tree tunnel and avenue.
The second half of the Bear Hill climb from the cattle grid to the Bear Hotel relents a little rising 60 metres over 650 metres, averaging 9.2% gradient, so still not a cakewalk. Legs are spent by now, so this is just a section for knuckling down. I was pleased to reach the top in a PB and to see the Bear Hotel Pub, a nice coffee-stop, but not on my agenda today as I was saving myself for the Jolly Nice drive-through via Minchinhampton and Cherrington Pond, serving excellent coffee, cakes and sausage rolls.