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cycling climbs of scotland - a road cyclist's guide (second edition). simon warren. vertebrate publishing paperback 142pp illus. £16.95

at the moment, even cycling on a flat road is something of an uphill struggle. those who opted to remain indoors and zwift their way to fitness, must be regularly patting themselves on the back in congratulation for their acute perspicacity in having the great good sense to remain indoors, warm, dry and presumably sweaty. though xcweather confidently displays the daily temperatures in numbers that are reputed to be above zero degrees, the additional column that displays just what the temperature actually feels like, has scarcely been seen without the preceding minus sign for several weeks. add to that a persistent cold easterly wind, and you have the very ingredients that define the aforementioned 'uphill struggle'.

but of course, author and uphill obsessive, simon warren, writes purely of physical gradients, leaving the theoretical or metaphorical far behind. but on the off chance that you're suffering a quick burst of deja vu, and thinking that surely this book is not brand new and hot off the presses, let me appraise you of this potential dichotomy. cycling climbs of scotland by the selfsame author, was originally published in may of 2017, though under the frances lincoln imprint. this time round, mr warren's allegiance has been moved to adventure publisher, vertebrate whose publication of markus stitz' gravel rides around loch lomond and the trossachs was recently reviewed in these very black and yellow pixels.

i still possess a pristine copy of the original cycling climbs, but i have to admit that it is in an obscure and currently unreachable part of the croft, so i'd be fibbing if i said i could alert you to the differences between the original 2017 version and the current edition under review (i am a great fan of ascendancy, but more in a theoretical manner than actually attempting to ride up serious hills myself). but differences there are, the book having been updated by mr warren in advance of its current publication date. it should be no particular surprise to anyone that, even in scotland, things have changed a bit in the past nine years.

the original, clearly laid out format, however, remains pretty much the same. alongside the author's keenly observed photography, are descriptions of the location of each climb, timings for the ascent, a brief factfile including map reference, length, altitude gain allied to the average and maximum gradients. those are augmented by the author's grading system, ranging from two out of ten to a rather alarming eleven out of ten (bealach na ba with a maximum gradient of 20%).

"the holy grail. anything you have read or been told about this amazing road is true"

allegedly, this winter will eventually come to an end, morphing into the foothills of spring, meaning there's only a few weeks left to plan your assault on the hills of scotland, which would incur ridicule and folly were you to do so without a copy of this book by your side. legend has it that following a winter such as the one we currently experience, summer will be glorious. if you actually believe that (but even if you don't), purchase a copy of this book and start the necessary preparations.

we can talk about the possible folly at a later date.

wednesday 18 february 2026

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