Bastard Hills ride postponed: snow!

We, the organisers of the Bastard Hills of North Bristol ride, along with the Bristol Cycling Campaign, are sad to announce that the planned tour of many of North Bristol's steepest hills, from Montpelier to Clifton by way of Kingsdown, Cotham and Cliftonwood has had to be postponed from January 10 to a future date to be determined. Snow.

Lots of snow. Here is Cotham Vale, one of the shorter climbs. It has no tracks on it other than sledge, ski and snowboard.

It is possible to cycle round the city, you just need to go on the main roads and worry about the water freezing back to ice at night, water which can be just as lethal in the morning.

Our route wasn't just going to be on the main roads though, it was going to the steepest hills in the area, the obscure ones, and zig-zag up and down them, using quiet connecting routes wherever possible, routes like this one, which is nothing but compressed snow:

Get out there and enjoy an excellent winter, be it sledging or some mountain bike fun. If you are cycling around town, look out for ice, especially as you approach junctions or hills. Many of the classic favoured-by-bicycle routes haven't been gritted, and are pretty hazardous.

We will be rescheduling the ride to spring or summer. This lets everyone who overindulged over Christmas a chance to get slightly more in shape, which they can do by training: ride up as many of these hills as you can.

Keep an eye on the bristolbybike.blogspot.com web site; we will put up news about this ride and other cycling activities in the city. The future date will be published in a future edition of the Bristol Cycling Campaign magazine, as well as other channels.

We apologise to everyone for having to cancel this at short notice, but it doesn't look like it will be less icy on Sunday. If it had been a crisp winter morning without the ice it would have been a lovely day out -our route planning rides were in these conditions, and it was wonderful. Exploring Cliftonwood by bicycle on a sunny Boxing Day is a good use of a bank holiday. Now that we have some routes there, we will be getting everyone else up them, so that you can share the suffering too.

Adam and Steve

Ninetree Hill

This is Ninetree Hill, or Nine-Tree Hill, depending on your spelling. Steep, sustained. And today, covered in ice.

In these conditions, walking holding on to the bike is the only tactic that makes sense. We really hope that it is not so icy on January 10, as this will be one of the uphills: all the way from the bottom to the top.

It's not as long as you think, only about 20-25 metres of uphill. It can be ridden non-stop by most people. What is nice about it as an uphill is the complete lack of passing cars, especially on the final section. With only a bike exit at the top, nobody is going to overtake you then pull straight in.

Check it out on a weekday morning: it's busy with pedestrians as well a cyclists, especially schoolkids walking up to Cotham School.

For our ride: up to the top then, after a bit of flat, down Dove Street to Dighton Street. Leading to another uphill. A worse one