Timed section up towards King Alfred’s Tower
“Leave some power in your legs and test yourself against the clock as you battle up towards King Alfred’s Tower”
Riders will get a further opportunity to show off their pedal power on a timed section up towards King Alfred’s Tower, situated at the top of Kingsettle hill on the fringes of Stourhead Estate. Built in 1772; Legend has it, that the siting of this first class folly celebrates the place where King Alfred the Great unfurled his Saxon flag and claimed victory over the Danes in AD878.
Located well into the second half of your ride, this climb will prove to be a challenge and deserved of your respect after a fair few hours in the saddle.
Rather fittingly Bontrager have chosen to support this additional challenge. Working out of his California garage in the early 80s, Keith Bontrager developed a reputation for crafting some of the finest handmade bicycle frames and components around. Keith’s mantra was simple: strong first, light second. Bontrager make bicycle components, accessories and apparel, valuing performance and usability. The Bontrager logo remains your assurance that every Bontrager component, regardless of price or weight, is designed and tested to meet Keith’s stringent standards for fatigue and impact strength and firmly grounded in a no-nonsense design philosophy.
That would be the big hill around the 70 mile mark then?!…. SHUT UP LEGS!
King Alfred was a canny character, who had his people take up residence in a little tower with a view of all the surrounding Lionheart countryside – riders get a tantalising flavour of the little hillock challenges from a few angles – if you look around as you ride this section of the route – you’ll see it somewhere all the time, and then you’re at it – slowly rising to start with, but the timed section is the last painful rise – with the glory of the pipers in 2012 what can possibly be waiting for you at the top this year. There’s a top quality feed station soon after if you fancy a chat with others about the pain and speed!
The pipers have morphed into something entirely different – more french, you’ll find them at the Mere feed station, aka ‘Yapp Brothers HQ’.
This thing is short but horrible. 26% or something stupid in parts. I can’t wait.