How it works

We don’t want to overcomplicate things and weigh you down with stats. That’s not what we’re here for. But when we’re chatting about cycling, one of our very favourite things to debate is what we feel are the toughest rides we’ve ever done.

So with this website, we hope to capture the main criteria that make climbs challenging as far as we’re concerned. And our scoring system falls into four categories:

• Average gradient
• Maximum gradient
• Distance
• Relentlessness

Average gradient = vertical height gained / total distance travelled

Maximum gradient = the gradient at the specific segment of a climb where the vertical height gain (measured over one metre of horizontal distance) rises most sharply

Distance = how much ground you cover between the start and the finish of each climb

Relentlessness = Either mild, moderate or extreme. Basically, how full-on the climb is. If you’re able to shake off your legs and ease back mid-climb, you’re probably on a mild climb. However if you’re standing out of the saddle without a moment’s respite from start to finish, you’re dealing with a climb that is more than likely to be extreme on the relentlessness scale!

Then after taking each of these into careful consideration, we’ve come up with a Peaky Score for our climbs, which is our overall score out of 5. It takes quite a lot for a climb to score 5/5 in our books, but there are a select few that have deservedly earned that crown. All that remains to be seen now is whether or not you’ve got what it takes to tackle them for yourself!