cobbled climb near my house

[Parrulo]

as promised to veedeebee i am here to deliver

finally got the time to go to the cobbled climb near my house i talked about a couple weeks ago and took some pics. i had my phone so the quality isn't exactly HD also day light was running out( when got down the climb it was almost completely night) so meh its the best i could get

i also didn't have my mountain bike, i broke the back wheel last week and i am waiting for a new one to arrive( should arrive this week) so had to use a friends bike

anyway on to business

this is the bike i used:

i stole it from my best friends house(he didn't noticed it as he is in Sweden for 6 months)

this is the start of the climb and its first "ramp"

 

[Parrulo]

then there are a few hundreded meters of this kind of cobbles:

but the gradient isn't anything out of this world.

the toughest part is after this( cobbles are a little worse then that as those are from the first part of the climb)

on the left turn at the end of that road this is what you see:

and on the left turn right in front this is what follows:

 

[Parrulo]

then the climb levels a bit for a few hundred meters before you reach a section of very good cobbles but its a very steep part:

then there are 2 more steep sections(one on good cobbles and another on bad ones but it was getting dark seriously fast so i didn't take any pics

this is the top

ya a chapel so i would call this climb the portuguese kapelmuur

i did take a pic of the last section to the top before i started going downhill

anyway veedeebee what do you think about this climb? would it be a good climb for the ronde? what do guys think overall?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Design a Portuguese cobbled classic plzkthx!

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

nice, looks like some nasty cobbles in amongst it.

 

[robertocarlos]

Why a mountain bike?

 

[Altitude]

This is in the professional road racing forum because.....

 

[The Hitch]

Good job man. Would be nice to see a race go over this.

 

[craig1985]

That look's pretty bad-ass.

 

[Parrulo]

Why a mountain bike?

because i don't want to damage my road bike on that road? i could barely feel my harms after going down on that road and that bike has a suspension, and i am too lazy to go downhill on foot to avoid damage my road bike.

This is in the professional road racing forum because.....

because i wanted to show it to veedeebee and this way other forum members could see it. besides its the off-season so its not like i am taking the space of some race threads with this one.

if you want we can change this to cobbled climbs near our houses and post some pics for the fun. would that be good enough for you?

 

[Parrulo]

That look's pretty bad-ass.

i demande a MTF here in the volta and going over monte do faro, and the "os pretos" climb before this one

 

[Michielveedeebee]

that indeed is one hell of a cobbled climb Ronde worthy I say!
Guess I'll have to stop making fun of your Portugese cobbles

it looks brutal btw, how long is that?

 

[hrotha]

Why a mountain bike?

People on MTBs are Untermenschen?

 

[Zam_Olyas]

descending will be fun lol

 

[LaFlorecita]

descending will be fun lol

Especially if you're Andy Schleck.

 

[Parrulo]

that indeed is one hell of a cobbled climb Ronde worthy I say!
Guess I'll have to stop making fun of your Portugese cobbles

it looks brutal btw, how long is that?

it took me about 15 minutes from bottom to top going full gas and being 100% fresh the last time(before this one) i did it on my mountain bike, so i could say people in better shape should be able to shave 5 minutes of my time tops. so its should be about 2 k or so

i must say that the cobbles on those steeper parts are really terrible and even on that mountain bike and going slowly you bounce around as hell

descending will be fun lol

i had to stop half way down because it felt like my arms were burning, and i love rough roads and barely grip the handle bars. . . .

 

[Parrulo]

People on MTBs are Untermenschen?

ya didn't really got the MTB hate

also since this has been moved away from the road section i will go to another cobbled climb near my place and take some pics as well. its just a couple hundred meters long but its incredibly nasty.

should i also show the "os pretos" climb i mentioned to include on the volta stage of my dreams finishing this cobbled climb?

 

[craig1985]

Do you find that you descend better on a road bike as a result of going down hill on such rough roads?

 

[Parrulo]

Do you find that you descend better on a road bike as a result of going down hill on such rough roads?

i dunno, i certainly never ever get scared on tarmac descends, while when going downhill on rough roads( literally in the middle of nowhere most of the times with no cell coverage and big rocks some kicker jumps and ravines on one side of the road) makes me think what may happen, tho i must say most times i only think about that after passing the dangerous moment.

i guess the answer probably is yes. . . many times i find myself more worried about the friends that are trying to keep up then with myself, just a couple weeks ago while going down some rough dirt(with loose rocks) road a friend of mine shouted before a corner and by instinct i looked back to see if he was fine which almost made me completely lose the corner and had me pulling some really hard bike gymnastics to avoid falling down a hill or losing my back wheel on the dirt+small lose rocks mix that there is on the side of the road.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

ya didn't really got the MTB hate

also since this has been moved away from the road section i will go to another cobbled climb near my place and take some pics as well. its just a couple hundred meters long but its incredibly nasty.

should i also show the "os pretos" climb i mentioned to include on the volta stage of my dreams finishing this cobbled climb?

Put the whole stage in the Race Design Thread...

 

[Parrulo]

Put the whole stage in the Race Design Thread...

i don't know about creating the whole stage but i can certainly "design" the last 40 or so k.

do you happen to have a profile from monte do faro?

you could make a very good stage in the viana region by for example departure from viana up to valença and monte do faro(which i think has been done in the volta before and was a first category climb) then down to paredes de coura and going back to monção using the old national road( was used 2 years ago in the volta and i think it made 2 second category climbs on the extremo) and then when reaching monção turn right to the anhões then riba de mouro and badim(all this is climbing so it would prolly be a few at least second category climbs) before going down to mefure(just a few k's) to do the pretos climb(which is more of a long hill but is mad steep in some parts) and then down the porqueira road(love that downhill) and finishing on the assunção climb which starts like 2k after the end of the descend.


man that would make one epic long hard stage for the volta

about 40 k or 50k raced on my hometown alone maybe the stage would be too long but you can design several stages from variations of this route. would make one great hilly classic tho

 

[Parrulo]

Do you find that you descend better on a road bike as a result of going down hill on such rough roads?

btw craig are you a good descender?

 

[Quixote]

Some of the pics remind me of segments of PR.
Could you get your hands on a cyclocross to see how it handles the cobbles?

 

[Parrulo]

Some of the pics remind me of segments of PR.
Could you get your hands on a cyclocross to see how it handles the cobbles?

not atm but i am thinking of buying a cheaper road bike this christmas so i can take it to some rougher roads. . . . so maybe then if you don't mind the wait

the area where i live used to be all cobbles when i was a kid, km's and km's of cobblestones, a "shame" the government changed pretty much everything to tarmac a few years ago

 

[gregod]

This is in the professional road racing forum because.....

you care where it gets posted because.....