Grosmont to Egton

Distance 1.14 miles

Max Gradient 20% near the bottom

Where do you find it?

This climb leaves Grosmont in the opposite direction to the Black Brow climb. It makes sense to include this climb on the return of a long circular where you’ve descended Black Brow maybe after climbing Cow Wath Bank out of Goathland. Or it could be approached via Sleights taking the road to the right avoiding Blue Bank, or you could do Blue Bank if you like a real grind. A route involving the descent of Black Brow would be recommended as it really is a corking descent.

Description

Another climb that starts very steeply, twisting right, left, then right again before winding its way gradually up to the village of Egton. The bottom section probably gets as steep as 20% in places and takes something out of the legs. You can afford to attack this a little bit as fortunately a short section of about 4% follows which allows you to prepare yourself for the rest of the climb which probably varies between 6-10%. It is quite long though at over a mile but nowhere near as tough or as long as the Black Brow climb which you can see rearing up at the opposite side of the valley. Nevertheless it shouldn’t be underestimated and you need to be careful not to go too far into the red to avoid arriving in a heap at the top. If it were anywhere else I think this would be a feared climb but in the Egton, Egton Bridge, Grosmont area it is surrounded by a horror show of really tough climbs.

The Descent

An entertaining descent, free of sheep, steep and twisty enough to be a challenge but not too dangerous and with a decent road surface. Knock the speed off before you get to the bottom steep and twisty section. The road is also quite busy and carries quite a lot of traffic so you need to bear this in mind. (as a footnote this is the descent that Ben Swift, among others, came off on during the Tour de Yorkshire, he can’t have read this!)