Cycling Climbs Of Wales by Simon Warren

Simon Warren's Strava totals must be astronomical, judging by the pace at which he's delivering his regional guides to his publishers. Right on the wheel of his guide to Yorkshire comes Cycling Climbs of Wales, with every bit as much to enjoy – and fear – as the previous volumes.

For those unfamiliar with the format, each climb takes a double-page, with a colour photograph on the left and the ride description, location map and 'Factfile' on the right. Into the factfile go statistics such as length, height gain (in metres, of course) and a handy OS grid reference. Warren also suggests a climb time, based on his own experiences but, as he says, a lot is down to the weather conditions on the day.

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In Warren's case, weather conditions were pretty horrendous for many of his research trips, judging by the photographs. Also, in his introductory chapter, he describes almost abandoning the job after a tempestuous day on Llantysilio mountain. However, in true Welsh fashion, the sun came out and the rest of the week was spent under clear blue skies.

Warren admits Wales has too many hill climbs to do full justice, but he's done his best to root out some hidden gems. In my review of the Yorkshire volume, I got into trouble for referring to someone's favourite local hills as 'obscure' so I won't do that, but Warren says even finding some of these hills is a challenge in itself.

The guide is divided into four regional chapters, namely North, Mid, South East and South West Wales. This works fine for Snowdonia and the Clwyds, in particular, but the Brecon Beacons get a bit scattered between chapters. However, Warren is very fair to the south of Wales, where he finds plenty of obscure – er, I mean 'well-hidden' – climbs. I particularly want to ride The Blorenge, near Abergavenny, not only because it's meant to be tougher than The Tumble but because it rhymes with 'orange'. As usual, it's not only the longest climbs that qualify. Constitution Hill, in Swansea, is barely 300m in length but still earns a respectable 4/10.

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In his introductory chapters, Warren describes the search for a hill climb in Wales that would stand alongside his two giants of England and Scotland: respectively, Great Dun Fell and Bealach na Bà. His choice, and you may disagree, is The Stwlan Dam at Blaenau Ffestiniog. Though he awards it only 8/10, he says, 'If this road were situated just north of Dorking, it would need a permanent police present to control the number of riders heading up it...'

Even with 75 climbs included, there are bound to be some that knowledgeable readers will regret are absent, and others they will argue should not be there. That's all part of the fun and perhaps you would like to add yours below.

Verdict

It's another Festival of Pain from the irrepressible Simon Warren – a practical guide, or simply for browsing/dreaming