Hills in Northern Virginia

[silves1171]

Is there any place where to ride hills in Northern Virginia (around Tysons or Arlington)... In occasions I go to Military Road/Custis Rd and there are some rolling hills there. But I was wondering if there is any other place to practice going up hill...

[sharkey]

The term "hills" mean different things to different cyclists. My intention here is not to be difficult, but how much elevation are you looking for?

There aren't too many climbs more than 100 or 200 feet in or around the beltway. And if you are new in town, local rides are notoriously uninspiring due to the traffic.

If you're looking for some elevation (up to about 2,00 feet), you'll have to go west. Skyline is a good choice. You can do a search online for a queue sheet for "SkyMass" -- it's Skyline drive and Massanutten Mountains. If you're looking for something more local, you can try leaving from Ashburn and doing a loop that includes Taylortown Road, Stumptown, and some big rollers in Loudon county.

Let me know if this is the kind of thing you're looking for.

[slyjackson]

You can also check out some of the rides my club does. I find some of the routes have enough hills to satisfy anyone craving. Just about all of these routes are on the Maryland side though Click here for the site

The elevation will be noted on the MapMyRide link. Most of the longer hills 300-500 ft or will be on the longer routes (45+ miles) but pretty much all of these routes have a few hills on the route. most are 3- 6 degree incline. some may be more.

Just to name a few hills that will get your heart rate up are
listed below. All are your friend ,,,,lol

Rose Hill
Bumpy Oak Hill
Marshall Hall Hill
Chapmans Landing Hill
BarryHill Rd Hill

Hope this helps

[cpark]

Is there any place where to ride hills in Northern Virginia (around Tysons or Arlington)... In occasions I go to Military Road/Custis Rd and there are some rolling hills there. But I was wondering if there is any other place to practice going up hill...

There are some nice rolling hills if you head out to western part of Loudoun, Prince William and Fauqier County.

[ChrisJ83]

www.winchesterwheelmen.org have a few good rides out in Loudon listed. Including Sky-Mass.

[bas]

Is there any place where to ride hills in Northern Virginia (around Tysons or Arlington)... In occasions I go to Military Road/Custis Rd and there are some rolling hills there. But I was wondering if there is any other place to practice going up hill...

south arlington (north of rt 7/ both sides of i395) has a bunch if you are interested.

About 200 ft.. great for repeats.. I think the 1 is at least 10% for most of the climb.
.3 miles.

I can do some mapping if you are interested.

[Jwiffle]

Skyline Drive is your friend! All up and down, no flat areas to speak of.

As others have mentioned, Sky-Mass is a good climbing ride. A few others out this way include Fetzer's Gap and Sleepy Creek. Fetzer's is on the Winchester Wheelmen site. If you're interested, I could type in a cue list for Sleepy Creek.

[Tommy Walker]

I am planning a Skyline Drive ride for next year; I've been readiing a few blogs and ordered a book, now I gotta train for hills

[bas]

I am planning a Skyline Drive ride for next year; I've been readiing a few blogs and ordered a book, now I gotta train for hills

the whole thing?

i did the north end about 6 times last year

but skyline dr isnt really NoVa

[Jwiffle]

I am planning a Skyline Drive ride for next year; I've been readiing a few blogs and ordered a book, now I gotta train for hills

If you're not trying to set any records, Skyline Drive isn't overly difficult. Even if you don't have a lot of good climbs locally to train on, what little you do have will probably be enough. Though some of the climbs are extended (heading south from Front Royal starts you with a 4+ mile climb!), the pitch is very rarely over 6%. I did the whole thing out and back (south one day, north the next) with a couple others this summer, and we just took our time and had fun. We stopped numerous times for the views, stopped to eat meals, etc, took about 10 hours each day.

[KWL]

I am planning a Skyline Drive ride for next year; I've been readiing a few blogs and ordered a book, now I gotta train for hills

A nice tour is to ride out the W&OD, stay overnight at Bear's Den, pick up Skyline Drive at Front Royal, camp at Big Meadows, at the end of Skyline Drive go bombing down US250 to Staunton, pick up Amtrak's Cardinal (uncrated bikes allowed on board) and return to town. Being wimps, we stretched it out to 5 days, staying in motels at Front Royal and Waynesboro. Still had a great time.

And yes, this really isn't what the OP was asking for.

[Tommy Walker]

Thanks all; I am planning on staying at Big Meadow lodge; thinking of having my wife drop me at Front Royal, ride to Big Meadow, spend the night and then finish the drive and have her pick me up in Waynesboro.

Leaving from the WO&D sounds very adventerous, but gotta find the hotels,

[pschultz]

Check out the hill on Hunter Station Rd on the east side of Reston, just off the W&OD trail. It's about a 1 minute climb, and is about as steep as it gets in this area. In addition to doing repeats on it, a lot of people do the following short loop in a counterclockwise direction. In addition to the aforementioned hill, it also has a decent hill up Twin Branches in Reston.
-- from W&OD go on Hunter Station Rd
-- RIGHT on Lawyers
-- RIGHT on Twin Branches
-- RIGHT on South Lakes
-- RIGHT on Sunrise Valley
-- RIGHT on W&OD

[silves1171]

Thanks everyone for all the replies! I'll try to go out to Skyline in the Spring, on the meantime I'll just stick to the elliptical machine and going out in occasions on my mountain bike...

[nathanacurtis]

pschultz, did you know that there's an AWESOME hill just beyond the circuit you describe. Once on Lawyers Road, proceed about a half mile further and State Route 671/Stuart Mill Rd. From there, you immediately turn into a .3m downhill that goes down over 110ft. Great for repeats, and if my math is correct, a 6% grade.