Tour of Britain cycling: Torture of Gun Hill can reduce very best riders to tears
IT is 1.2 miles long, 1,224 feet high and once reduced Mark Cavendish to tears.
Gun Hill, which has a gradient of 25 per cent at its lung-busting worst, is fast becoming a defining, infamous chapter of the Tour of Britain.
The gruelling run up from Tittesworth Reservoir beside the Roaches, near Leek, is English cycling's answer to the Tour de France's Col de la Bonette.
It is the high point, literally, of the 150km fifth stage, which begins at Trentham Gardens at 10.30am and finishes in Hanley just before 2pm.
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It is the fifth time the Tour of Britain has visited the Potteries, but with the route slightly adapted for this year.
Bradley Wiggins and Co will turn right out of the Trentham Estate and take back roads to Barlaston, passing the Wedgwood factory as they whiz alongside the Trent and Mersey canal.
A sprint stage (10.54am) will be held in Lichfield Street, Stone, before the riders continuing along the Trent valley to Sandon and the outskirts of Stafford.
A brief main road section leads to Brocton from where there is a "King of the Mountains" climb (11.22am) to Cannock Chase.
The race continues towards Rugeley before dropping down to cross the causeway in the middle of Blithfield reservoir and then heading to Uttoxeter.
A second sprint will take place in front of The Plough pub in Stafford Road (noon) before the peloton head through the town centre and up the B5030 to Rocester.
The third sprint, the day's final chance to add points towards the red and green jerseys, will take place outside JCB's headquarters (12.11pm).
A left to Denstone is followed by a dash into Alton as the race starts to get a little bit more lumpy ... for the next 37 miles.
Riders will go high above the Churnet Valley before plunging down to the river in Oakamoor, going straight into the second "King of the Mountains" category two climb up Star Bank (12.33pm).
Nearly two miles of racing takes the cyclists speeding downhill past Blackbrook Zoological Park and on to the exposed hillsides of the Staffordshire Moorlands.
The gears will be in full use via Onecote to Warslow and up through the blustery might of Morridge, a tough grind without the benefit of King of the Mountain points.
Points are on offer, however, at Gun Hill, which features in the stage for a fourth year in a row (1.15pm).
It is a place that produced a pivotal moment in the career of Cavendish, the 2011 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and 23-time Tour de France stage winner.
It was at the top of the category one ascent a decade ago that Cavendish was being put through the first paces of his two-year stint at the British Cycling Academy.
But coach Rod Ellingworth had to pull the weeping teenager, who describes himself as "podgy" at that time, from a ditch.
In his autobiography, Cavendish pinpoints the efforts to cajole him back on to his bike as the turning point which ultimately set him on the road to glory.
The riders – hopefully with Cavendish still in tow this time – will turn back on themselves after Gun Hill, heading along the A523 towards Rushton Spencer before turning left and climbing up to race along the ridgeline of Biddulph Moor and Lask Edge.
They drop down through Brown Edge to Endon to run into the city centre via Stockton Brook (1.43pm), Milton and Abbey Hulton.
There will still be one final chance for an attack to break clear as the race turns right from the A52 on to Botteslow Street for the 500-metre drag up Potteries Way.
The stage then swings right before a final left-hand turn leads to the climax in Old Hall Street, Hanley.
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