Ardennes classics - why do the hills get their own names??

[Mark McM]

So, its time for the Ardennes classics, those epic races, filled with lots of puchy hills, each with its own special name. But what's so special about the hills that they each get their own unique names and legends? Looking at the specs (length, average grade maximum grade) for famous hills like the Cauberg, the Kwarmont, the Mur de Huy, it seems like except for the cobbles, they're not much different from a lot of the hills around where I live and ride in New England. But we don't give the hills their own names. We might just say "the School Street hill" or the "climb past the microwave towers" or something blandly descriptive like that. Maybe we should start naming the hills around here?

[reuben]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

So, its time for the Ardennes classics, those epic races, filled with lots of puchy hills, each with its own special name. But what's so special about the hills that they each get their own unique names and legends? Looking at the specs (length, average grade maximum grade) for famous hills like the Cauberg, the Kwarmont, the Mur de Huy, it seems like except for the cobbles, they're not much different from a lot of the hills around where I live and ride in New England. But we don't give the hills their own names. We might just say "the School Street hill" or the "climb past the microwave towers" or something blandly descriptive like that. Maybe we should start naming the hills around here?

Well, "Hill 26" or "Mur veingt six" doesn't sound very cool.

[rwsaunders]

Some of the hills were sights where major battles took place in WWI and therefore the names. Others names were given by locals like "such and such hill". The Ronde has 18 climbs, all named, all are tough.


https://cyclingmagazine.ca/spotlight...assics-season/

https://www.mummucycling.com/the-best-of-spring/

https://www.velonews.com/news/road/t...r-of-flanders/

[robt57]

So the marketeers cane sell another bike in the namesakes?

[HenryA]

Naming hills and other geographic features is not unusual.

[9tubes]

It seems to me that Cauberg, the Kwarmont, and the Mur de Huy are fine names for your local hills. Maybe you can match length and grade.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by HenryA

Naming hills and other geographic features is not unusual.

That's true. But many feature names are archaic and not in common usage. Do the locals really talk about "the Cauberg" or the "The Kwaremont" in everyday conversation?

My club (NEBC in eastern Mass) has a weekly hill ride, which uses a loop over the biggest and steepest hills in the 'burbs northeast of Boston (most of similar caliber of many in the Ardennes races). If you were to look on a topographic map, you'd see that the hills are all named. But I have never heard any of the locals refer to Zion Hill, Mt. Pisgah, Turkey Hill or Mt Gilboa.

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Mark McM

That's true. But many feature names are archaic and not in common usage. Do the locals really talk about "the Cauberg" or the "The Kwaremont" in everyday conversation?

My club (NEBC in eastern Mass) has a weekly hill ride, which uses a loop over the biggest and steepest hills in the 'burbs northeast of Boston (most of similar caliber of many in the Ardennes races). If you were to look on a topographic map, you'd see that the hills are all named. But I have never heard any of the locals refer to Zion Hill, Mt. Pisgah, Turkey Hill or Mt Gilboa.

When you have a one day race that's been run over the same hills for a century with newspaper writers and then TV commentators having to explain what's happening and where, those hill names start to get ingrained.

So I dunno what to tell you other than your hill names aren't known or used for a reason.

[rustychisel]

You're kidding, right???? I mean, really?

What Henry said. 'Cauberg' and 'Bosberg' mean, respectively 'high hill' or 'steep hill' and 'cow hill'.

I'm pretty sure somewhere in NE USA there's a feature called 'the wall' whether it is in fact a wall or not, and we have a climb here on the Tour Downunder parcours which has been known for over 100 years as 'the corkscrew'.

[HenryA]

It may partly be that mere hills are insignificant to the average populace who drive on paved highways in vehicles powerful enough to make going up hill negligible.

Used to be a long long time ago “we came over Muddy Gap and camped at the base of Hoot Owl Hill, down by Lyndell Branch”. Now the same trip is “we came over on Hwy 55 and got a room at the Marriott”.

[saab2000]

This sounds like a grumpy old man shouting at clouds. We had names and legends on the hills I and Teleguy57 climbed decades ago. Don’t read too much into it. They’re just bumps. But they separate the riders at critical parts of a ride and these are just rides that became more.

We climbed the Camelbacks (two right after each other) and High Cliff because it was a garbage road right up a high cliff. And steep. It no longer exists AFAIK.

They all have their reasons. Most are due to local stuff. No more. Don’t dig deeper than it is. They’re just roads. Mayflower Rd. was hard too in places.

I hope Teleguy57 sees this!

[El Chaba]

European sounding names are a very useful thing for cycling marketing. Now that the equipment end of our sport is dominated by large, soulless corporations, they can take these names and copyright them. When some unsuspecting sap uses the name then they promptly get sued for copyright infringement.

[yinzerniner]

Originally Posted by saab2000

This sounds like a grumpy old man shouting at clouds.

Seriously, if only they kept to good ol ‘murican sports style, speaking ‘murican and none of those fancy European words and names

Y’know, like we do for our great sporting events. No one ever names hills, fields, bridges or ponds. Unless you’re talking about the Masters. Or the Kentucky Derby. Or the Boston Marathon. Or the ....

[bocobiking]

This reminds me of a complaint I have about some of the roads around my county: They have had names like Mineral Road, Ute Highway, and Courtesy Road. Clearly, these roads were named by locals who had a strong sense of place.

But now these road names have become archaic. Now these three have become Highway 52, Highway 66, and Highway 42. The changes indicate that the roads no longer belong to a local people; they are merely anonymous pass-throughs to somewhere else.

There is something that roots a place and a people when local names are given to geographic features. Seeing the names of the European hills as merely quaint curiosities seems to me to be erasing something humanizing and important.

[tctyres]

Sometimes, it's not just the hill, but the climb. If the route goes up one way, it's one climb, and if it goes up the other it's a different named climb. This happens in both the Classics and the TdF.