Vigo Hill

This hill is so steep that, even in a car, it is scary going down. In fact most drivers seem to take it quite slowly. I have only included figures here for Vigo Hill itself. Before you reach the beginning of the Vigo Hill bit, you have already climbed a comparatively easy 270 feet in 1.3 miles along Taylors Lane.

The sign at the bottom states 1:6, which is just under 17%, but the section just before you go under the bridge is at least 19% by all my calculations. If you believe the accuracy of the contour lines on the ordnance survey 1:25000 map, then it measures 25%! Whatever the true figure is, this hill ‘looks’ really steep, compared with, say, Lockyer’s Hill which doesn’t look that steep and yet is 25%. And I found riding up Vigo very very tough, much more so than Lockyer’s.

I climbed it on this ride, and I felt sick with the exertion, but that may have been due to other circumstances. I can’t wait to try it again to see how I do next time.