Distance: 1957 metres, Ascent: 205 metres, Route map
This is another route of almost exactly one mile. It’s a tough mile though and has one stretch not far from the start where you go round a hairpin bend left so steep that you need to swing round wide to the right to keep your front wheel on the tarmac.
The route starts at the junction of Pudsey Road with the A646 Burnley Road near the Waggon and Horses pub and ends when they peel your enfeebled body from the roadside of the Long Causeway some 180 metres higher up. In between it’s just gruelling.
Set off under the railway arch and you’re immediately faced with a fork in the road. The right prong of the fork goes uphill so that’s the one for you. It’s steep but not so steep that you need to leave your saddle just yet. After about 100 metres it looks like there’s an option to go straight on but the road swings sharply round to the right and becomes Shore New Road. And now it gets steep. It heads steeply up to a hairpin left which is so steep that you’ll need to swing out to the right a little. Steep, steep, steep. If you were looking for a single word to describe this route then steep would do the job. It’s not a consistent stepth though. The steepest sections come in intervals: steeper, not so steep, steeper, not so steep. It happens so often it’s like using one of those god awful machines in a gym. Shame really, because the effort of climbing this hill could easily distract you from the beauty of your surroundings.
Shaw New Road somehow becomes Pudding Lane, Gall Lane and finally Mount Lane but there’s no navigation needed just keep pedalling up the steepest bit of tarmac you can find until you hit the B1234 Kebs Road at the top. Then you can stop.
The Calderdale 50 