HELL OF A RIDE

Charlie Allenby gets in deep at the Hell of the Ashdown, Kent's cruel February opener to the sportive season

- Charlie Allenby

Scottish former pro cyclist-turned-commentator Brian Smith is standing on the start line at the Hell of the Ashdown sportive, trying to gee up the group of 30 riders I find myself among in the start pen.

Glancing down at the sticker of climbs and their profiles I've attached to my top-tube, I can see he might have a point. The first major ascent of the day - Toys Hill - is just 2.3km in, and its 7.3% average gradient for just shy of 3km will have to be tackled with cold legs. Not for the last time, I wonder what I've signed up for.

Last-minute entry

Less than 24 hours earlier, my weekend plans were looking completely different. I had 80km left of riding to do of the 150km per week target I'd set myself at the start of the year. A gentle loop from my home in north London to the lanes of Essex was on the cards for Sunday.

Sitting down to breakfast on Saturday, my phone lit up with a text from Cycling Plus deputy editor John Whitney. "Very short notice but was hoping you'd be up for riding the Hell of the Ashdown sportive in Kent tomorrow? I was supposed to do it but I'm sick. Please let me know ASAP." I head to the website and am confronted with a photo of Satan and a list of 10 climbs and cols, half of which are classed as 'hors categorie' (a similar difficulty to the ascents of the Alps and Pyrenees) and none below category two.

Originally started by Catford CC as a reliability ride in the 1920s, the Hell of the Ashdown (or HOTA to old hands) transformed into a fully fledged event open to 1,500 entrants. Its USP is that it's the first in the UK sportive season. The Devil's trident was passed to neighbouring club Westerham CC in 2022, but its ethos remains the same - a fun, if hard, day on the bike to test how well you're shaping up ahead of the spring.