← All eventsStruggle Dales
'Hardest sportive in Yorkshire' from Harrogate. Ultra route up to ~250km over ten iconic Yorkshire climbs; Classic ~165km / ~2,875m; Taster ~120km. Deliberately climb-stacked and brutal. Next edition ~late May 2027 (approximate).
Billed the hardest sportive in Yorkshire, and it earns the title. There's no single big col here. The route chains the Dales' steepest climbs one after another, from Harrogate out into the hills and back.
Pick your poison. The Classic packs 9,430ft of climbing into 108 miles. The Ultra pushes to 250km over ten named climbs, a genuine all-day endurance test. Late May, on open, chip-timed roads.
What makes it brutal is the sheer accumulation. The climbs never let up, and leg-breakers like Trapping Hill come early to tempt you into a mistake. Get the gearing right, ration the effort, survive the back half.
Is Struggle Dales for you?
- Climbers who pace themselves. The route stacks repeated steep ascents, so it rewards riders who ration the effort instead of attacking the first hard one.
- Riders who've sorted their gearing. Sub-compact plus an 11-34 cassette turns walls like Trapping Hill from a walk into a ride.
- Durable all-day riders, especially on the Ultra. Holding tempo over 10-plus hours matters far more than any top-end punch.
- Anyone chasing a real climbing challenge without an Alpine trip. This is Yorkshire Dales brutality on your doorstep.
Training plan for Struggle Dales
A training plan for Struggle Dales isn't a generic base build. Beina reads the event's exact demands, looks at your specific profile and the time you actually have, and maps a highly adapted plan to the start line.
- Relentless steep climbing that never lets the legs settle
- Cumulative fatigue from stacked ascents, which rewards early restraint over heroics
- Very low gears required, sub-compact plus an 11-34 cassette for the steepest ramps
- A long day out: 6 to 11 hours on the Classic, 10 to 16-plus on the Ultra
- 2x20min sweet spot and steep threshold climb repeats to build sustained climbing power
- Steep-ramp reps, 6 to 8 of 60 to 90 seconds on a 15 to 25 percent gradient, for the Yorkshire walls
- Low-cadence torque intervals on a climb, building force for sustained steep pitches
- A weekly long hilly ride building to 6 or 7 hours (Classic) or 8 to 10 (Ultra), with fuelling rehearsed
- Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have
- Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond
- Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo
- One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet
