Snake Pass is the focal point of the A57. It would be an amazing climb if it wasn't an arterial road and so busy. It's one of the main routes between Manchester and Sheffield and has a relentless amount of cars and particularly motorbikes.
In terms of a hill climb, Snake Pass is a Manchester classic. It's the titanic climb of the area rising to over 500m above sea level.
Lockdown
Airplane
Tej CR
In terms of a hill climb, Snake Pass is a Manchester classic. It's the titanic climb of the area rising to over 500m above sea level.
Lockdown
Airplane
Tej CR
2023 Event
Snake Pass is the same length (in time) as The Struggle so it's ideal prep for the 2023 nat champs. This showed with a sterling field of 91 riders. All of us were treated to summer weather with a slight crosswind but nothing too favourable. The climb is not steep and it's very consistent. There's little acceleration and it's relatively high speed. Bearing this is mind, I opted for a deep rimmed front wheel, I reckon this is faster than a lightweight specific one for this course.
After my incompetence at Jackson Bridge the day before I was here with vengeance. After a lazy Saturday afternoon and a good rest, I woke up feeling good. My warm up was good and I got to the start with plenty of time to ensure my wheels were secured.
The three riders in front of me DNS so I had a nice clear run without the worry of accelerating around someone or getting blocked by cars. My strategy was to hold 380W for the first five minutes, then hold and ramp up from there depending how I felt.
Setting off, this sort of went out of the window when I pulled my foot out of the pedal. I managed to get it in quickly enough and over 12 minutes this wouldn't make much difference. I just kept it steady without surging and after 5 minutes I'd done 383W so was on track. I felt good and raised it to 390W for the next 5 minutes and accelerated through the final left curve before the road slackened off and I got up to speed and sprinted past my mum to the finish line. I was feeling the burn but pulled out 400W for the last 30s.
This was enough for 3rd place. I was just under 30 seconds behind the winners but 2 ahead of 4th. I would have been gutted to come 4th again so was really pleased with the bronze. I felt like I'd paced it well, I'd had no drop off and managed 383W for the 12:30. Good sensations for the national champs. As a plus I also won a t-shirt from Guide.
After my incompetence at Jackson Bridge the day before I was here with vengeance. After a lazy Saturday afternoon and a good rest, I woke up feeling good. My warm up was good and I got to the start with plenty of time to ensure my wheels were secured.
The three riders in front of me DNS so I had a nice clear run without the worry of accelerating around someone or getting blocked by cars. My strategy was to hold 380W for the first five minutes, then hold and ramp up from there depending how I felt.
Setting off, this sort of went out of the window when I pulled my foot out of the pedal. I managed to get it in quickly enough and over 12 minutes this wouldn't make much difference. I just kept it steady without surging and after 5 minutes I'd done 383W so was on track. I felt good and raised it to 390W for the next 5 minutes and accelerated through the final left curve before the road slackened off and I got up to speed and sprinted past my mum to the finish line. I was feeling the burn but pulled out 400W for the last 30s.
This was enough for 3rd place. I was just under 30 seconds behind the winners but 2 ahead of 4th. I would have been gutted to come 4th again so was really pleased with the bronze. I felt like I'd paced it well, I'd had no drop off and managed 383W for the 12:30. Good sensations for the national champs. As a plus I also won a t-shirt from Guide.
How To Ride
Snake Pass is a well engineered road. There's so little change in gradient that you want to pace it consistently. The wind will play a big role as it's very exposed, it can vary the times by minutes. One year I won with over 14 minutes when Tej's CR is 11:36. The speeds are fast, aero counts for this one. Negative split is probably fastest, but consistency is the key, don't set out to hard and burn out. It'll be slower.
My Efforts
Year |
Time |
Power (W) |
Placing |
2019 |
14:03.8 (Raining and Headwind) |
391 (Old PM) |
1st |
2023 |
12:3.0 |
384 (Old PM) |
3rd |
About 1.5km in.
