About the BB

The orignal Bowland Badass route was devised as a local club’s summer challenge ride.  It was first ridden in 2011. In 2012 it was opened up to all comers as an ultra-sportive. Check out the 2012 event report and results pages. The Badass route for 2012 is unchanged for 2013.

View the Bowland Badass route on mapmyride

Map of the 2012 Bowland Badass

Profile of the 2012 Bowland Badass

Total distance: 166.48 miles

Total ascent: 18,534.8 feet

Total descent: -18,538.1 feet

Total ascent distance: 70.53 miles

Total descent distance: 72.52 miles

Total level distance: 23.43 miles

% of ascent: 42.4%

% of descent: 43.6%

% of level: 14.1%

Don’t get into the detail about why the distances don’t quite match up precisely. Our TechnicalExpert tells us it’s something to do with the intricacies of the software. Just concentrate on the headline figure. Yes, that’s right. You’ll spend over 70 miles going uphill…….. Yes, this route is hard, very, very hard. But it’s do-able. We know this because we’ve done it. And you’ll do it too if you get your nutrition/hydration right and don’t go at it like a complete nutter. Just think of it as a long succession of hill climbs all strung together and you’ll have some idea about how to approach it.

These are some, but by no means all, of the hills on the Badass. You can see write ups of all the hills in the Bowland Badass Climbs section………

Starts at (mile)	Length (miles)	Starts at (feet)	Finishes at (feet)	Height gain (feet)	Average % gradient
6.67	2	258	637	379	3.6
24.97	0.54	423	690	267	9.4
27.44	2.18	304	930	626	5.4
34.34	1.89	563	1003	440	4.4
40.74	1.27	329	657	328	4.9
47.52	1.3	376	759	383	5.6
49.23	0.92	643	956	313	6.4
57.17	0.97	585	865	280	5.5
64.35	2.01	400	756	356	3.4
71.77	3.28	608	1388	780	4.5
82.33	4.73	509	1396	887	3.6
89.82	0.67	829	1052	223	6.3
97.15	2.29	414	1166	752	6.2
106.20	2.9	469	1136	667	4.4
110.22	0.49	717	982	265	10.2
115.04	0.91	489	969	480	10.0
120.72	0.68	171	563	392	10.9
127.30	1.55	79	368	289	3.5
134.39	0.74	187	632	445	11.4
138.25	0.82	663	928	265	6.1
142.90	0.74	381	564	183	4.7
143.71	0.48	518	689	171	6.7
145.71	1.01	485	753	268	5.0
149.40	0.22	280	365	85	7.3
151.20	1.3	490	760	270	3.9
154.31	0.39	527	572	45	2.2
159.70	0.23	188	258	70	5.8

A word about average % gradient…..the average figure does not reflect the steepness of certain pitches on these hills!