By kazimladimeji 
I do enjoy the challenge of climbing hills on a bicycle, and the sense of achievement that you get from reaching the top, apart from ClayPits Lane that is. With an average gradient of 20.3% stretched out over 600 metres and 124 metres of elevation the stats speak for themselves. It’s a brutal climb with no redeeming features which you spend entirely in the red zone right at the edge of giving up. It’s no surprise that only 38 Strava recording riders have completed it this year and I am proud to be part of this masochistic cohort. It’s reflected in Strava by two appropriately named segments, ‘This is the Pits’ and ‘The Ridiculous Clay Pits Lane’. To access this well-hidden climb you exit Stroud on the London Road, turn left up Thrupp Lane and take the second left and the first right is the foot of Claypits Lane.
I have completed this climb 3 times but fallen off the bike twice at the same point at the ridiculously steep section which starts just after you arch left and switchback right up the hill after the opening very steep 150 metre ascent at about 10 to 15%.
Beware this point, because the combination of being slightly off-balance from the turn, your legs being completely spent from section 1 of the climb, a sudden upturn in gradient to over 20% and a pot-holey broken road, means you have to be at the peak of your focus, control, and determination to get through this bit, especially when you know that what follows this is a slightly easier 19% ish gradient for another 200 metres. (I can feel my heart beating quicker just writing this). Last night, I just didn’t have the willpower and so came off, unlike my fully mounted July attempt when I mentally primed myself for this section, and unlike my first partially dismounted attempt when this section surprised me completely. So, it’s currently Claypits Lane 2 Me 1.
Just after I came off, Rob who had been tracking/closing came past me as I pushed the bike about 30 metres to the remount point where the road edges left. While Rob gapped me, I couldn’t be sure the gap would have been any bigger had I been riding. This begged the question which Tony who was coming up behind titled his strava entry with, ‘Is it quicker to walk some of it?’ This is a question I will endeavor to answer inconclusively and pseudo-scientifically at the end when I compare this Strava time with previous efforts. After I remounted on the bend as the road arcs right before straightening again, it’s just push and grind, twisting left and right at about 15 to 20% for a couple of hundred metres or so, before it begins to ease towards the end of the segment.
Despite the trouble and strife on the way up, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had done a PR, shaving 13 seconds off while carrying an additional 1-2 kilo bag and contents, having stopped to dismount and walk and remount the ridiculously slow/steep short section, unlike the previous slower time. So, is it quicker to walk this steep section of ClayPits Lane? I honestly don’t know, but given these times, it’s a valid hypothesis.