What other roads and climbs would you love to see us ride?

There is a road in Reunion Island, french Island in the Indian Ocean that is the longest climb without any flat or descent in Europe. You start at sea level and end up at 2200m high. That is a challenge ;)

In Switzerland, Aproz-Nendaz, with passages up to 52%...

Mauna Kea ,Hawaii

TRY IT ON A TRIKE!!! - then it’s purely about the power you put down through the gears. You can go as slow as you like and there’s no balancing required. You would be able to stop, put the brakes on, and have a rest WITHOUT getting off and pushing (cheating).

Your video is over 10K likes, so it's best if you guys make Andrew climb on The world's steepest Italian climb ever.

On his way down Ollie met an Italian granny on her old steel framed granny bike with the weeks shopping hanging on the handlebars pedaling up the steepest part.

Bet she was singing “hime hime suki suki daisuki”. Iykwim

Little Old Lady from Pasadena (nobody meaner)

@Blue Chelo No way. A real granny can not manage that kind of electric- electronic stuff. At best she would ride with an empty battery.

@William Sawka Your Granny sounds awesome :-) Go Supergran

E-bike??

I'm pretty confident that if I trained as HARD as I could, I could watch this video again.

Every time I read this comment, I always laugh, even though I read it last month. One of the best comment on this video hahaha.

I may have spit some of my water out reading this comment…..well done😂

🤣

🤣

Great comment

I've done climbs like this before many times. We generally use ropes when climbing like this thought not push bikes!

After trying to ride up it, that would make more sense

I’m impressed by the fact that he is still able to talk while climbing at 20% and more Also fun fact: the fastest average speed on this segment on strava is 7.9 km/h

Please don't use 'fun fact'. It's a dreadful, and unnecessary cliché. It also imbues the wrong perspective/emotion on something e.g. "Fun fact: x number of swimmers get eaten by sharks every year." See what I mean? It's a stupidity, just meant for kindergarten teachers, speaking to *children*.

@Yarasi Bikes if it makes it up there

@Yarasi Bikes That Strava record could be false or created on another mode of transportation . The software cannot differentiate if you are clever at setting it up . I have had Strava records stolen !

@Eric Idk, I still have a couple running segments in my area where the first-place guy has run a 3:32 mile uphill so...

@Yarasi Bikes till they see ur heart rate is 90 and you get banned

Hi GCN team! this video is a dive into my youth! I know Salita Scanuppia very well, I used to go as a child with my father to look for mushrooms and from the top you could enjoy a wonderful view..! Great climb man💪

@Milan Španko Other commenters have written you can ask the region for an official permit

@Lorenzo I would really like to try the climb myself but I also understand why it's officially forbidden. Thanks for your answer :-)

@Sionnach1601 Thanks, I'll think about it :-)

@Milan Španko This climb is officially not open to bike from 2009, yes you risk a fine. they made it illegal to bike cause there's a risk, and even think it happened, that when you're going down you gonna crash in cars coming up

@Milan Španko Last I knew, Italia was still a free country. Now, unless there's been a hundred deaths due to vehicle-bike collisions up there every year, I'd go up it. Authorities are after getting WAYYYY too much authority in the so-called Free World. Take BACK your power

Huge props for this climb. I know I couldn't even walk up this without having a serious medical crisis.

O I know I'd die.

Thanks for doing this. I have felt this exact way on much, MUCH less impressive climbs, being nowhere near gelato as could as you will find there - which, let's be real, that the real heart break. I think it's impressive that you kept going and rode whatever you could. I'd like to see you guys in the U.S. for something like this as well.

Can you imagine them sticking this climb on week 3 of the Giro, 120km into the race? We will see a lot of sprinters quit.

Easy answer, everybody would do it by walking, you can climb faster than riding a bike. In the past anquetil used to do that on muro di Sormanno (the hardest climb on giro di lombardia).

I was thinking of how it would be to see this on the giro...

This is how I feel going up a gentle incline on a bike. Incredible endurance on display in this video.

Did Ollie just lay down a challenge to ALL the other GCN presenters & Andrew Feather? 😉 That would be great film to watch.

Go and test the Strada da Valmara between Switzerland and Italy.

@Felix Hintz I'm pretty sure that would kill him he almost died on the last challenge

@Biking Dad already did... Hank couldn't even WALK up it

I’m so waiting for that film!

Add Hank's dad on an E-bike to this challenge

Its difficult to imagine how hard this is unless you've tried to bike uphill for long periods of time, It gets seriously demoralizing when you hit a corner and see another stretch of road straight up. The worst one in terms of intensity that I've done was in Belgium. The gradient was probably only 10-15 percent, but it persisted for kilometers on end, and worst of all, I had a bike cart with me worth about 25kg of baggage. I had to stop very often.

@Amédéo Hembersin I tried looking up the exact location for you but I don't remember. It was on the way back from Houffalize to Maastricht. So definitely in the Ardennes.

Where was it if i may ask? Somewhere in the Ardennes i guess

I can only speak out my greatest respect for anyone trying this and even getting as far as he did (even though he seems to be pushing the bike a good part of the climb ;-)). I got into a bit of XC biking recently - being a beginner, I consciously chose a 2x12 drive train with a lowest gear of 26 front - 45 rear (29" wheels) - which translates to a 0.57 ratio, or 16,8 gear-inches, or 1.3 meters development. I often enough already struggle at the (short) ~15% gradients in my area while seated (somehow, for me, climbing out of saddle does not work well for me, rear tire starts slipping on the gravel or dirt forest roads/paths/trails , or I am already going to slow to keep a stable balance and usually my legs are already burning at that point) . He said he has a 38 front - 42 rear as his lowest gear (didn't get the wheel size, but I am guessing some 29") - which translates to a 0,9 ratio, or 26,4 gear inches or 2.1 meters development and he considers this as a quite easy gear. Thanks, I feel like a total wuss now. :-D (His gearing is roughly equivalent to my 36 tooth front chainring and the second lowest 40 tooth rear sprocket, so my goal is now to try my ~15% climbs with this gear).

Yeah, for road cycling that's a very easy gear, typical bikes come with 50/34 cranks and 11-28 cassettes. Wheel is prob 700c, so the same as a 29". I'm also surprised by how high a gear he's using, he could've fitted a smaller chainring or ran those 11-50 SRAM cassettes.

I took part in two races in my hometown, and they both went up an infamous steep and narrow piece of road outside town, so naturally everyone was preparing for that. The irony was that a few hundred meters before that there is a piece of road that is almost as steep but also right behind a tight bend and five times as long, so I and many others had to get off the bike while having way less issues with the “infamous” part after it (because you could build up speed which you couldn’t for the first part).

Wow, very impressive effort! I'd love to see the power numbers. I'm not familiar with gearing like that on the road. Even with those gears, the wattage must have been up there. I don't think i could even get moving from a stop at 17%. Just yesterday I was doing an indoor ride on the trainer that had a segment of 18% a few hundred meters long. Now I'm a big guy that's lugging around extra ice cream weight in the middle, so the trainer software adds extra resistance to make it more realistic. Well after running out of gears and putting out a sustained effort of 450+ watts, I can't imagine anything making that feel easy. That said, a long stretch of 10% felt easy after that. I guess it's all relative. Plus Ollie looks like a twig compared to me.

No matter how steep the hill is, it always look like 3%-4% mild hill on camera, EXCEPT this 😬 Now this is the hardest climb I've ever seen!

@Giacomo Mattedi I doubt i could even do it by foot once let along five times, wish i could be there to try though.

Yeah I've had a GoPro with me on a few rides, and afterwards wanted to show someone a climb I thought was insane only to find out, that on camera it just looked like a flat stretch of road.

@Global Cycling Network you need to pack a spirit level with you next time

I live less than 10km from this climb, it is INSANE! I did it 4-5 times by foot and I never seen nobody doing it on a bike 😂

It makes Ollie walk in an low aero position

I have an easy 15% gravel road of 1 km behind my house for training, but this climb is at least 20x harder. I am so happy to see I'm not the only one that has to walk the bike sometimes. This climb even makes Alp du Zwift look wimpy. Great attempt and you definitely had a nice set-up for climbing.

Nice to see some of this on gravel rather than tarmac. There are some great ascents from sea level to the high mountains on Crete you could try - the island deserves more attention from cyclists than it gets.

Probably already mentioned but Campagnolo EKAR does have a 10-44 cassette (not just the - 42 as seen in the video). I use the 10-44 Ekar on one of my bikes. I'm not sure that would have succeeded for Olly to climb the entire way up, but I thought the extra two teeth cassette would have been helpful.

I’d love to see a pro race up this hill. Hurts just to watch 😅Good job!

Love to see Andrew Feather give that a shot. A beast takes on a beast. :)

Lasty can do it too!

I'm sure he wouldn't mind an expenses-paid trip to Italy.

10K likes are in already :)

Congrats you have been Pickled amongst my winner's(sic) 🥒🥒

Put Feather on a cross country mtb and he'll smash it.

So glad you finally did this! This climb is very well known for being pretty much the hardest in the world. Did you get special permission to ride it? I thought it was closed to bikes.

@Sionnach1601 Keep your hair on, I asked because this ride is closed to bikes. There is a an official sign at the bottom forbidding cycling due to the dangers of encountering cars. Unless they had clearence from the local authorities, they would be breaking the law riding up this.

Permission to ride your bike. My God. How much more are people going to willingly give up??? Health and safety is on THE WORST kind of steroids, EPO and opium that would make Lance Armstrong blush

There's about 150 meters long 50% cobblestone road in Estonia, Kadrioru park, called "A. Weizenbergi". Probably not the hardest in the world, but quite the challenge for local MTBs. Coordinates: 59°26'16.7"N 24°47'53.3"E

That was nice, I really enjoyed that one and even though you found it a nightmare I think you enjoyed it too Ollie. Would love to see Andrew trying it out but also other members of the GCN teamq

The steepest part of my go-to MTB trail is about 40% as well and I go 24/40, second gear on my Fat Bike. I wonder, if you could pedal the 45% section with your gearing at all?

Strava shows it passing 52%, probably depending on which line you take through corners. I'd still love to see a GCN Does Science episode where you take a grand tour climb like Alpe d'Huez and ride it once straight up the center line, and once choosing your line, so we can see the measurable effect that spectators blocking the road have on performance. I'm betting riders lose a significant amount of time on a long climb if they are denied the opportunity to clip the inside corner on curves or take the shallower outside line on steep switchbacks.

@Eric Hensel I am a hobbyist at best, so my experience certainly isn't a proxy for what it's like for a racer. I just noticed that when I watch riders going up a climb that isn't blocked by spectators, they do appear to take either shorter or shallower lines through curves and corners rather than going straight up the middle, and I guessed that they were doing so because it was either easier or faster.

" I'm betting riders lose a significant amount of time on a long climb if they are denied the opportunity to clip the inside corner on curves or take the shallower outside line on steep switchbacks." Like a lot of climbers , I've considered this a time or two. I think it might be possible to alleviate the pain, slightly; but ultimately you have to raise x amount of pounds a certain amount of vertical feet, and I suspect the quickest line up, will also be the hardest.

Cool suggestion!

Outstanding effort attempting this climb! Beyond the power and riding skills required for it, the mental strength to keep pushing and keep back on the bike is just amazing! Bravo Ollie! You absolutely legend! Hope you didn’t ruin your cleats on the walking parts…

@Global Cycling Network yes obviously…poor Ollie…that was truly savage!

It's not so much his cleats, more his knees and his back!

We had some fairly steep roads back in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. I got pretty good at going up them by going back forth in zig-zag fashion so as to make the effective slope less. On the turns I could take just a little pressure off my legs, and it helped sustain me so that I could reach top. The thing is you need a road wide enough to use that strategy.

Here in Athens,Greece , i have found 3 parallel roads , which are very steep, they are located in a municipality named Ilioupoli. They have a gradient of approximately 35%, 41%,37% at their steepest point .I want to make a video with a measurement and a climbing attempt one day.

Kennedy (35%) Panagi Tsaldari (41 %) Olymbionikon (37 %)

Olimbionikon

I've only encountered one hill on MTB that I've never quite been able to make it up. Took a picture and it barely looks like an incline. This looks steep even on camera. That's wild.

Go Ollie! Amazing watching those handlebars over your head pushing the bike uphill. What a climb!

Oli, I bow down to you, that climb makes the Zoncolan seem easy! Much respect. Did you get the KOM? Yes, put AF to the test!

Watching Andrew Feather give this thing a go would be awesome… but we have to acknowledge that Ollie is a climbing beast in his own right. Ollie might be the only one able to follow Feather up to be his camera man.

Definitely looking forward to part 2 with Andrew, but bring Blake from GMBN on a mtb too 😀

Did it with a Downhill bike... Hard af but beautiful once u are on the top! I also come from there and the street is usually cosed for bikes due to the descending part which could be really dangerous if it s raining. Nice video and good motivation As always!👊💪

Great vid. Big respect - not for attempting this climb but for getting past the whole ego thing, getting off and pushing - and being honest, positive and happy. I reckon you can do this Ollie - get more tech and go back with Andrew Feather. You already have the geometry and grip sussed with a gravel bike and plenty of rubber BUT you need lower gears imo. Speaking as a HOG (Heavy Old Git) that lives in the South Lakes I face 20%+ on most of my favourite rides - I ride Shimano GRX 2x with 48/31 at the front and 11-40 at the back - or even 11-42. No special gizmos, it works fine and I can winch my 92kg up most stuff.

Can't wait to tell Ollie we need to send him back to try again

You're a beast. It would make an excellent video to find any rider, professional or whatever, who could fully conquer this climb.

Xc Mtb hard tail with a wide range 1x12 and 30t sprocket would’ve definitely been the right tool for the job.

I would love to see Andrew Feather do this climb. More Power GCN 💪🏼🙏🏼

I just got back on a bike last week for the first time in years, and my knees were weak and shaky after cycling up the big hill near my house. I was feeling a bit ashamed at the time because I had just forgotten that hills are hard. But after watching, and seeing somebody else struggling, this I don't feel so bad about myself. I guess misery loves company..

@Christina Moss I needed it too, thanks!

@Jef Lemaire wow. I actually needed this message today. Never know who you'll inspire. Thanks!

If there's ever a time you should not be ashamed of yourself is when you are out on a bike. The world needs more people on bicycles. Be proud and keep riding!

I thought I'd be able to top your climb with one of the climbs in British Columbia, but no, your climb is much harder than the ones I was thinking of. Cameras can't easily capture hill gradients but yours even looks steep; I could almost feel the nausea from exertion and heat as you cycled.

Great video. On July 2020 I biked from Andalo to the start of Zanna Bianca, a trail in the Dolomiti Paganella Bike Park, climbing along a concrete service road straight up a ski slope ("straight up" meaning maximum gradient, no switchbacks). Never again, and it was way shorter than the Scanuppia, and I had a 50t cog.

It's really amazing for me that there is a village like at the half way. How people are able to travel through such a steep road, also I'm wondering how this road was built.

Beer stop Peroni

Road was built with blood, sweat, and tears for sure.

I don't usually (if ever) leave comments on YouTube videos, but I felt I needed to on this one. Ollie absolutely killed it! This climb is insane!!! Good job to the entire GCN team that worked on this video. You guys look like you went through hell to get up this thing. This video made my day!

I did this climb on a mountainbike (32 front - 36 back), and cycled it entirely. I rather once had to get a grip on the railing because of the fact that a 4x4 jeep came downhill towards me, and there simply wasn't enough space to pass eachother without touching. After my unexpected pauze I wanted to go further by pushing myself, using the railing. After pushing I found myself on the wrong side of the road (pushed to hard and entered the inner corner) and fell backwards with my mountainbike above me.. That was the only point I had to start up again. As anyone can see it wasn't easy at all, but I made it! Riding it on a racebike without interuption seems inpossible to me.....unless you have mountainbike sprockets!

It's all about creating a theatrical effect for the viewers. Maybe granny does this daily, but they have to make it look extreme.

@khchoi2012 I agree but 2x is really needed otherwise riding on the road stinks with 30x10 as top speed. Point of a gravel bike is to be able to ride to the mountain as well as up it, 2x with mtb cassette seems obvious. Built grx di2 2x11 monster gravel with my old 29er hardtail. 45/55mm gravel tires, 38/26 chainrings (38 is biggest frame can fit) and 10-42 sram cassette in back gives ~612% range - can go up hill like mtb, but still have decently fast top speed for going back down. Rode some singlet track with it recently and its still fun / feels sketchy with drop bars but its fast (have other mtbs). Surprised nobody sells a real adventure do everything bike that is similar, all these wide tire clearance gravel frames are 1x only. Personally I love 2x for hilly roads, quick change for come up to or going over them.

It's a mountain road after all. Mountain bike is called for.

As a mountain biker I was watching this video and he spoke about the gears and I thought the same thing. I am 30/51 and I am old, fat, and out of shape, but routinely ride 30% grades when biking (not for that long, I am nowhere near this level and am not a keyboard warrior). But with the low gears and wide handlebars it is pretty easy to just go very slow for a long period of time (again I could not go that long maybe a day or two with some camping. sleeping time). Amazing climb, you are awesome. But why not a mountain bike or at least mtn bike gearing?

Impressive performance by you, lots of talking and less cycling by the guy in the video. Couldn't believe he didn't use a mountainbike for something like this.

Reminds me of taking my bike up Snowdon. Felt like it would never end but well worth it for the view/descent.

SUCH A BIG RESPECT!!! I want to ride this climb also! Never give up in your life...it only makes you stronger!!! And... NEVER an E-bike....ALWAYS use your own musclepower!!!

I live there, but, i'm not afraid of the steepness of this road as much as the super hot temperature you can find in summertime on that "wall". You guys are crazy!

We did it when it was a little cooler, but absolutely, we can imagine it gets VERY hot here! 🥴

There are numerous roads like this in the Philippines. There are what started as footpaths leading out of the Taal Volcano caldera to the rim. There are access roads to remote villages in the Cordillera in Northern Luzon that ascend cliffs. Most of these are nominally called roads because, with the massive rains that fall there, they get washed out. A gravel bike is the minimum requirement; MTB is better. And all of that is made more challenging by 35C temps and 85% humidity. If you start at dawn, you might be able to knock the temp down to below 30C but the humidity remains. It is a huge challenge, particularly for a pasty lowland foreigner.

@Kobe dependa in my country (Bulgaria) we have places with 2000m elevation that give your body natural doping by bringing more blood cells to your blood from the air it all depends on whats the hight

You gotta factor in the fact that there's less oxygen at higher altitudes

Great effort Ollie, looks insane! Bring on the Feather 👌💪😎

Can't wait!

A hard part in any steep climb (after stopping) is getting cleated back into the pedals. You often need a few metres of flatter road. It's hard going side-ways on a narrow road like that. I guess you could go down a bit, but no one willing chooses to loose altitude during a climb.

That's always tough!

Great job even attempting it! Way to go Ollie!

They finally did the Scanuppia. As a climbing aficionado myself, who has done Mauna Kea, Alto de Las Animas and Etna (the full climb), I can’t recommend MTB gearing enough for this. I am a 100% for drop bar guy, but a hard tail Mountainbike is just far superior on such a climb. A wide slick tire on the rear will give more traction than these narrower tires. The 30/51 gearing is significantly lower than anything on a Gravel bike. That’s the difference between grinding 60 RPM over threshold all the way and being able to ride 80RPM sub threshold. Also, the suspension and wide handlebars makes the descending significantly more enjoyable. Riding down 30 or 40% on bad asphalt or even gravel is a terrible experience on a stiff fork.

@bunny jin sounds like you want what we call a hybrid. Rigid frame with a geometry between MTB and road bike, with flat bars and gearing that lets casual cyclists deal with most hills

I rode a lot in China. Road surfaces are often poor. With drops its dangerous. I dont know why so few gravel bikes come with straight handlebars. Going down steep hill with drops is difficult. Riding out potholes dangerous.I would never tour China with a road bike. Gravel with wider tires, low gearing, and say 28 wide tyres would work. Seems the market is missing an intermediate need between speed and practicality.

...with a BMX front wheel, surely...?

True. Quite often on a mountain bike with this steepness.

@Paul Wujek 27.5 or 650b wheels to reduce the weight and rollout from a 700c, 30t chainring, 11t-46t cassette (lighter than a 51t), carbon everything. 8 weeks of training of doing climbs 3 times a week. That should do it.

Love getting up in the morning, drinking my coffee, and watching the struggle before heading out for my easy ride!

The struggle is real

@Global Cycling Network would it be worth putting a warning/reminder out on the GCN Show about this?

@Malcombe Sorry to hear that. We are trying our best to prevent these but the scammers keep finding new ways of getting through our blocks. We will never ask for details like this in the comments under a video.

@Arrayed Woodcraft That's life dude, as I said, I don't want anyone else getting thumped. Mine was on Nico Leornards channel and I thought I'd won a watch. The phone message was coming from the USA and I knew he was on holiday there. It all fitted together. Also, his shop don't answer the phone.

@Malcombe sorry that happened. I got exited for a moment as well. But then saw everyone was getting the same reply.

As always Ollie, a fabulous show of strength, such a great effort, would love to see Andrew Feather give it a go

@Global Cycling Network I'm not sure he would, he's strong but so is Ollie x

@Global Cycling Network would he want to try and possibly tarnish his reputation as a climbing king?

So would we! Do you think he'd make it?

Great try, I must admit I had a wonderful time watching your effort. I may have laughed out loud once. Or twice maybe. I want to see Andrew Feather try. I bet he can do it. I would pay to see that. You should start a GoFundMe account so we can all pitch in on his air ticket. Keep the hill climbing content coming!

Really impressive! Congratulations! I would have like to see how you get down of it too! 😊😉

Did I miss it or did Ollie ever give us how long time he was fighting with this in total? 😊

I remember a post on a czech cycling forum and I found it now again to get details, a czech rider, Jiri Fikejz (an ex no. in czech enduro, later took to road cycling). In 2019 he got KOM there, 53 minutes 54 s. He made it mostly on his lightest gear 30x42.

@Jiri Fikejz the man the myth the legend!

@Jiri Fikejz Bravo Jiri! I can't imagine!

@Jiri Fikejz Awesome achievement Jiri!

@Jiri Fikejz A to ještě málokdo ví, že měl za sebou na gumicuku žlutou pandu!

@Jiri Fikejz I have tried climb it using road bike but 34 at front and 11-36 cassette. And 50mm carbon tubular wheels to make it funny. I covered it all but fell over twice, don't know if it counts :D I'm going to try it again with a monster gravel bike and Eagle cassette - just need an opportunity to get to Italy. However, for me there is another (conquered by you :D) climb, for me even harder, not that far away. I mean Esine -> San Glisente climb. I failed to climb it on 40x46. Twice. I must try it again as well... just a bit far from my place, but still. I can't die without climbing this thing.

This is really neat. I think a cool video idea would be to: A: find your peak & sustained power output, and what pedal speed is best for this B: figure out what speed that means you can go on this hill C: make custom gears for your bike to allow you to achieve this speed on this hill And D: go up the hill with the custom gears.

That would be interesting, although at this kind of gradient, traction, upper body strength and balance all come into play too!

I’m planning to give this a try next week. However, I’ve found out the road is officially banned for cyclicts. Is there any local who would tell me, if I risk being fined for entering on a bike ? Thanks ;-)

Ollie, Scanuppia isn't in Sud Tirol, it's in Trentino; the two are conjoined as a region but are completely diffenrent provinces (Sud Tirol is German-speaking, whereas Trentino is Italian). It's like saying Glasgow is in England, the locals won't be impressed. Good effort anyway, I don't think road or gravel gears are enough for these sort of gradients

Insane!! Incredible ride Ollie!! Chapeau!

Would absolutely love to see another attempt on this, especially by Andrew Feather. Hats off, Ollie. This was great to watch.

i'm curious to see if a tadpole trike could beat this hill, with a very fat rear tyre and a 22-50..

Toe clearance also comes handy on steep climbs 😅 man, would be awesome if some fully loaded bike tourer with flipflops, a straw hat and old-school 3x rode past him when he talked about not feeling embarrassed 😁

Hmmmm, this reminds me, of dreams that I haven’t really contemplated consciously. Ive had quit a few where i find myself on some TOO steep hills, mountains or edges. And often high as well

Sounds like a great climb for a giro time trail🤪

I’m glad you’ve discovered the Scanuppia. I’m amazed that so few people know of this utter monster of a climb. I really think the GCN team should do a time trial up it, and also shoot a video with an e-bike too.

Recently i was very close but totally ignored the insanity even though i'm curious by nature. Doing those straight pieces at Passo Fedaia and Passo Pampeago is about what i can and am willing to handle

Certainly need an e-bike to get up!

would be cool to see andrew do it! I would also be very interested in seeing you try to do it again with a granny ring or something. like a 24-42 maybe. Or make fun of andrew with an e-bike but truth be told i don't think even that would be easy here.

I have ridden a few like this… ok lying, walked. I ALSO learned it was easier using shoes for PD mountain (or crank bros clip in ). Nearly broke an ankle in my SPD and tore the yellow foam off them.

Absolutely incredible. Did you encounter any locals riding up this?

Do what bike park riders do - get the uplift! P.S. Has Ollie just invented the "Mullet Gravel Bike" ? Good effort.

I think that the gearing on a MTB Hardtail and the added grip could be beneficial, a 30-51/52 ratio is way easier. Granted it is heavier, but you could really make a frankenbike and change the forks to carbon forks like the orbea alma. Maybe the fellows from GMBN, specifally Neil could help you out.

I try to find the name of the bike stop f*** spam 🤓 thx

@Daniel V hahaha! You are right is though, A cyclist could achieve almost 4 kph at 60 cadences with that gearing, enough to finish the whole 7 km challenge in under two hours. :P

@Renan P. Jenie actually, he needs only the small (22t) and the biggest (50+) gears :):). So, no need to worry about the length of the rear derailleur, shifting in other gears etc :):)

@Jan Tomšič That's true, so such a fixed gear would work too. Anyway, we missed the funniest part in this video : how to ride down such a rond??!

@Mitch F smaller gear ratio. 32:51 is superior to 22:34. However a chain ring like a 22 with a 42 or larger sprocket would do wonders, which is my whole point

GMBN should do a similar steep climb series. I’ve been on some nutty trails and I’m sure there are plenty to go around.

Amazing video, I was literally sweating while wathing it! Makes me wonder though... they pave a road with that gradient... what kind of car is expected to be able to climb up there without frying the clutch!?

who says it was made for a car?

It would be great to see Andrew do the climb and to see Ollie do it at the same time on an E-gravel bike for comparison. Now that would be an entertaining video.

I just watched this and remembered when I was 17yrs old 50 yrs ago I would try to find the steepest gradient to get up in the Pennines UK which was really hard work,and then have the reward of the most exhilarating experience going back down again, ( I’ve now got an ebike to help with the uphill parts!).

Ha! Five years behind you, now cycling the flat terrain of Florida. My equivalent is cycling, on my hybrid, against the wind at 13 mph, then cruising back home at 18mph.

Ok now that is STEEP! I challenge myself as often as possible to no hands up steep hills. (granted they're about 10-20% - and barely a KM long)

That would definitely be a nice challenge to see Andrew Feather attempt that climb

Sad to see Ollie take his bike for a walk. That's the craziest hill I've ever seen. We have some here in Devon and according to Kamoot we got a 43%. Feel your pain.

This is the hardest -climb- walk I've ever done!

Just the idea of climbing 1317m in 7.5kms is INSANE! ( just think a little bit about those to numbers :O )

It's a brutal climb

That is insane. I thought I did OK on hills but damn I'd fail there no doubt.

Looks like an awesome climb. I'd love to try it. However, I like the way you get an Italian to pronounce the road name and then just hashing out a Welsh place name...

I wonder if 'walking' the bike is more efficient at this scale of extreme elavation?... Very impressive achievment, well done. :-)

38/42 gear ratio? Mate, Ollie here has really strong legs! The lowest climbing ratio on my MTB is 0.667. At the at the average gradient of 15% & peak gradient of 30%, I'm already totally ruined! Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines! #KeepBiking

@256shadesofgreyYou can finally get low enough gears to where the gear inches would be too low to keep a bicycle upright. For that, you'd need a trike with super low gear inch gearing.

Uy may pinoy...

Now that would be a challenge for GMBN. Can their 28/52 gearing beat the climb?

I was thinking the same thing, he should get a smaller chainring

Good effort, there was no way you were pedalling up the whole thing. I found my limit was 1-in-4 (25%) back when I had a road bike. I was running 700c with a 42 & 54 up front and a 6 speed rear with 13 to 18 tooth sprockets (shows you how long ago that was). I used to be able to average 30mph in rush hour traffic from Ludgate Circus to Bounds Green in the dark at tea time on a Friday evening in winter. I was no slouch when I was young, but London doesn't have anything like the traffic now that it had in the '80s. Probably couldn't walk up 20 yards of that Italian hill nowadays.

32 or lower in front with 51 in rear might have been more smooth I think.

I would like to see Pogacar, Rolglic and Vingegaard on this climb!

Ollie, you LEGEND! The mind reels. Well done.

Oh, you found my grandpa's way to school! He used to take this road every day until he found out you can just climb up the cliffside - on a proper steel frame MTB 🤣

@Global Cycling Network obviously 🤷‍♂ 🤣

Both ways. In the Snow

"I don't think Feather could make it up" - I'd love to see him try, please make it happen GCN!

We'd love to see it too!

There's one hill in Austin TX I tried to make it up many times in the lowest gear on my fairly high-end Diamondback mountain bike. In the gym, I can leg press 900 lb. My cardio is top notch. But that's not good enough for the Austin TX hill and my fancy bike.

Reminds me of driving up one of those crazy narrow Spanish streets in a left hand drive, the ones that get narrower and steeper the further up you go until you bale … was bricking myself so much reversing back down that when I’d finally parked up I had to go for a walk 😮‍💨😂

Bring Andrew. Also bring Simon and the other kids too. It is not often that suffering becomes comical but this, is one of a kind. We laughed so hard watching this video, it was hysterical.

These "steepest climb" videos are very fun to watch. 👍

I feel this would be possible to ride but with a ridicullusly low gear ratio, giving you 2 or 3 mechanical advantage, so you wouldn't have to push that hard. Also maybe custom chassis, so the saddle is at a better angle.

Well done!! Look forward to Mr Feather’s attempt.

A gear ratio of 25 gear-inches is way too high on a ⁴³% asphalt climb. As a Touring Cyclist I use 18 gear-inches and can easily carry a 30kg payload up an Alpine road. Great effort by Ollie