Stella Lane

• Wheelygood Rating: Easy
• Length: 0.37 miles
• Avg. gradient: 7%
• Strava segment: https://www.strava.com/segments/3170119

I don’t know of any other climb quite like this one – it’s an experience, if nothing else!

Starting by the pub at the bottom, you immediately begin to rise, somewhat ironically, past the Stella Catholic Church and, then, the St Mary & St Thomas Aquinas Catholic school – make sure you mind your language!

The recently resurfaced road gets progressively steeper until you looks like you’re about to reach a dead end with a gate across the road. Fear not! There’s a gap to the left of the gate for pedestrians and cyclists to use, just don’t do what I did in the video, which is attempt to ride it on a bike with full mudguards. There are some briars which will rip the guard off. Ha ha. Fortunately, in my case, the guards were designed to deal with this and it was but the work of a moment to stuff the plastic fittings back together and be on my way again. I may have ignored my own comment about the language at about this time.

Moving on, which I did, it’s a narrow bridleway all the way up from here. It’s not steep, nor particularly technically difficult – just keep away from anything which looks like broken glass … because it will be broken glass.

Having circumvented the assorted hazards, you’ll come across another gatey thing. You can get round the right hand side of this one, even with mudguards. There’s normally a bit of mud around here, so please take a bit of care if, like me, you’re riding on slick tyres.

And you’re done – top job! Not a real toughie by any stretch of the imagination, but one of those ones where the additional interest makes it more than worthwhile.

If there are any other road climbs you’d like me to take on, the more ridiculous the better, then please send me a message on my FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/wheelygoodcycling/ or email me on wheelygoodmail@gmail.com and let me know…

Stella Lane