{"id":144,"date":"2020-01-23T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/?p=144"},"modified":"2020-01-23T16:26:34","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T16:26:34","slug":"brunton-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Brunton Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>Wheelygood Rating: Medium<\/li><li>Length: 2.05 miles<\/li><li>Avg. gradient: 6%<\/li><li>Category:    3<\/li><li>Strava Segment: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strava.com\/segments\/16183741\">https:\/\/www.strava.com\/segments\/16183741<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" height=\"405\" width=\"960\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.strava.com\/segments\/16183741\/embed\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you do to burn off those calories from an excellent in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theriversidekitchen.co.uk\/\">Riverside Kitchen<\/a> at Chollerford?  Ride straight up Brunton Bank, that&#8217;s what!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not one of the most popular climbs in the area, for which there are a couple of reasons.  The first is that, unlike many around here, it&#8217;s quite a decent sized climb at a couple of miles long and the second is the traffic.  It&#8217;s not the volume, because it&#8217;s not <em>that<\/em> busy a road, it&#8217;s that combination of a slightly twisty road and the relative speed differential between them (60mph) and you (6mph).  On your own, it&#8217;s OK as there&#8217;s pretty much always room for people to sort themselves out, but I wouldn&#8217;t take a group of more than a couple of people up there at any one time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a fabulous descent, though!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what do you get?  Well, you get a climb of two unequal parts: a lower section in the trees which has three main ramps and then an more open upper section that has a draggy bit and then a final ramp-and-a-half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the bottom, then, the road arcs sweetly from a small descent straight into the first ramp and you&#8217;ll feel the road start to tug well before the crossroads.  Find yourself a nice, comfortable, gear and settle in.  Speaking of the crossroads, when you&#8217;re on a bike, it&#8217;s as though the traffic suddenly believes it can take more liberties, so don&#8217;t be surprised if you get some \u2026 opportunistic \u2026 behaviour around there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This first pull is a nice warm-up for the remainder of the climb.  It&#8217;s not too taxing, doesn&#8217;t last all that long and there&#8217;s a short section upon which to recover before the road winds upwards once more.  Catch your breath as best you can and turn the corner\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2026to come face to face with the steepest section of the climb.  It doesn&#8217;t hit you straight away &#8211; in fact it winds up reasonably steadily, but the final pitch before the right hander gets up to 17% and you&#8217;ll know all about it before reaching the top.  I don&#8217;t know if the usual physical laws are suspended around here, but I&#8217;ve ridden 17% sections before and this one just feels <em>harder<\/em> than most and I don&#8217;t know why.  At least it doesn&#8217;t last <em>too<\/em> long and, again, you get a decent chunk of recovery before getting back into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The third and final bit ramp is the one which will cause you the most mental anguish: it&#8217;s about 20% longer than you&#8217;re expecting with a little kick in the gradient just to help things along a bit further.  If you can find a nice rhythm at the start of this part and you&#8217;re OK just to let the cadence drop a bit, then you&#8217;ll be OK.  Try to push it and it becomes Hell On Wheels by the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that, ladies and gents, is the bulk of the climbing done, but you&#8217;re not finished just yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The road drags on for about a third of a mile, or so before disappearing around a small s-bend and ramping up for the final time.  It&#8217;s nowhere near as bad as the previous ramps, but it&#8217;s enough given the amount of climbing you&#8217;ve already completed.  At least you&#8217;ll normally have the wind behind you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, and don&#8217;t think the crest you can see is the top, either &#8211; there&#8217;s another mini-ramp beyond it which <em>does<\/em> mark the actual top of the climb &#8211; so you may want to keep that in mind when you&#8217;re deciding on the effort level you&#8217;re going for on this last section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, at last, you&#8217;ve made it!  Great effort &#8211; and I bet you don&#8217;t feel so guilty about those calories now\u2026  \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If there are any other road climbs you&#8217;d like me to take on, the more ridiculous the better, then please pop them in the comments, or send me a message on my FaceBook page <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wheelygoodcycling\/\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wheelygoodcycling\/<\/a> or email me on <a href=\"mailto:wheelygoodmail@gmail.com\">wheelygoodmail@gmail.com<\/a> and let me know\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube\"><div class=\"lyte-wrapper\" title=\"Brunton Bank\" style=\"width:640px;max-width:100%;margin:5px auto;\"><div class=\"lyMe hidef\" id=\"WYL_SeouYhuiYCg\" itemprop=\"video\" itemscope itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/VideoObject\"><div><meta itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" content=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/SeouYhuiYCg\/maxresdefault.jpg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"embedURL\" content=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SeouYhuiYCg\" \/><meta itemprop=\"duration\" content=\"PT14M22S\" \/><meta itemprop=\"uploadDate\" content=\"2020-01-15T15:27:18.000Z\" \/><\/div><div id=\"lyte_SeouYhuiYCg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/SeouYhuiYCg\/maxresdefault.jpg\" class=\"pL\"><div class=\"tC\"><div class=\"tT\" itemprop=\"name\">Brunton Bank<\/div><\/div><div class=\"play\"><\/div><div class=\"ctrl\"><div class=\"Lctrl\"><\/div><div class=\"Rctrl\"><\/div><\/div><\/div><noscript><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/SeouYhuiYCg\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/SeouYhuiYCg\/0.jpg?resize=640%2C340&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brunton Bank\" width=\"640\" height=\"340\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><br \/>Watch this video on YouTube<\/a><\/noscript><meta itemprop=\"description\" content=\"A decent haul up out of the Tyne Valley, but beware the cars - more information here: https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/ Strava Segment: https:\/\/www.strava.com\/segments\/16183741 Wheelygood Rating: Medium Length: 2.05 miles Avg. gradient: 6% Category: 3\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"lL\" style=\"max-width:100%;width:640px;margin:5px auto;\"><\/div><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure><div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/?p=144\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground:  !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fancy a pull out of Chollerford along Hadrian&#8217;s Wall?  Here&#8217;s your chance &#8211; come with me to see more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,18,9],"tags":[2,10,6,5],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wheelygood.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Brunton-Bank.png?fit=759%2C299&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelygood.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}