The 10 hardest bike climbs in New York

#1
Whiteface Mountain
USA, NY
#2
Whiteface Mountain (Franklin Falls)
USA, NY
#3
Glade Hill Road
USA, NY
#4
Devils Kitchen
USA, NY
#5
Mount Meenagah Road
USA, NY
#6
Meads Mountain Road East
USA, NY
#7
Sugarloaf Road
USA, NY
#8
Sam's Point Road
USA, NY
#9
Sugarloaf - Red Hill
USA, NY
#10
Moore Hill Rd
USA, NY

Climb List: New York's 10 most difficult Bike Climbs
(sort by distance, difficulty, elevation and more)

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Statistics: View Tutorial

Total Climbs: 10
Top 100 World: 0
Avg. FIETS (Top 5): 5.4

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Showing All 10 Climbs

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FIETS
1 - 25
26 - 50
51 - 75
76 - 100
over 100
Climb Info

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Northeast Fall Colors
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24 ROUTES
37 POIs
ROUTE STATS (TOTAL)
98
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DISTANCE
35,116
ft
ELEV. GAIN

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FULL SUMMARY

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, road sign for New York, the Empire State, bike parked in front of bronze bull statue, bike parked in front of waterway with PJAMM Cycling logo draped over it, bike parked in front of various city blocks, including one with Empire State building in background

We travelled to the northeast US in August 2015 and June 2020

to document the top climbs in this corner of the country.

WHITEFACE MOUNTAIN

#1 NEW YORK/#42 US

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, sign for Whiteface , In Memoriam plaque, bike parked next to sign for Whiteface Mountain Veterans Memorial Highway

Whiteface Mountain.

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, road signs for New York, Empire State, Whiteface Mountain, aerial view looking down over water

New York is home to only one of the Top US 100 Bike Climbs, but that one climb is extraordinary.  As of 2015 Whiteface Mountain was the smoothest roadway for an entire climb we had ever encountered.  Additionally, the views along the way, including Lake Placid, are extremely scenic.  The castle at the end is the cherry on top of this fantastic road bike climb.

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, mile markers showing elevation along roadside

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, lush greenery surrounding both sides of smooth, newly paved, two-lane roadway

Cycling New York State - summit tunnel 

Summit Tunnel

Photo: Green Racing Project

BEAR MOUNTAIN

THE MOST POPULAR BIKE CLIMB IN NEW YORK

Cycling New York State - Bear Mountain Bridge as seen from above during fall

Bear Mountain Bridge, as seen from Perkins Memorial Drive mountain summit.  

Ride 4.5 miles, 1,230’ at 5.2%.

The centerpiece of the wildly popular Gran Fondo New York, from what we can see on Strava and the traffic to our website over the past five years, Bear Mountain -- while not the most challenging -- is certainly the most popular road bike climb in New York.

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM cycling logo in corner, bike parked against tree overlooking greenery and against wooden bench, sign for Bear Mountain State Park, aerial views of bridge crossing river and waterway surrounded in greenery

NEW YORK’S STEEPEST MILE

GLADE HILL ROAD (CATSKILLS)

Cycling New York State - Glade Hill, bike parked against Stone Gazebo in green field

Cycling Glade Hill -- a brutal bike climb!

Ride 1.9 miles gaining 1,261’ at 12.4% averager grade.

This is the steepest mile in New York State at 13.5%.

Cycling New York State - Glade Hill, photo collage of views along ride, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, bike parked at various locations within lush greenery, red barns, country roads

OH MY!!!!! 12.3% average grade -- this is a B R U T E!!!  This is the third ranked hill climb in New York and has the steepest grade of any ascent over one mile in length (NYCC Steep Hill web page).  Glade Hill Road is one of the five New York top climbs in the Catskill Mountains, the primary climbing zone in New York State.  

Cycling New York State - photo collage, PJAMM Cycling logo in corner, bike parked in front of various old country buildings and barns, one-lane country roads

Climb begins in, and runs through, a very rural farming and ranching section of the Catskills.

We have researched and documented for this page the 30 hardest and most difficult bike climbs ever included in the Tour de France. 

The all-time hardest bike climbs of the Tour de France can be viewed on this page via the map (zoom in to view climbs in particular areas), by Climb Cards (photo and stats) or by a detailed list of the climbs that can be arranged in metric or imperial units by difficulty, distance (longest climbs in the area), altitude gained, highest elevation (highest summit), average grade (sort the grades by varying distances), lowest start point, etc. Click on "Climb Page" to jump to the detail page for that particular bike climb. We feel this page provides a good summary of the top, hardest and best bicycling climbs of the Tour de France.

The 10 hardest bike climbs ever to appear in the Tour de France are %TOP10 

Also visit our 2023 Tour de France Home Page for all the stages, climbs, details of the 2023 Tour de France as well as all the historical data for the Grand Tour.