Six things I learnt during my first hill climb season

By Jack Evans

Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am

The UK hill climbing season is as short, sharp and intense as the climbs themselves.

Racing runs from late August to the end of October, collapsing across the line at the UK National Hill Climb Championships.

Fittingly, the timekeeper’s stopwatch bleeps for the final time on the eve of Halloween. Some of the pain faces displayed on Sunday would need little embellishment for Trick or Treating.

Packed into this two-month period, dozens of events take place every weekend, so a committed (or foolish) climber could race four times a weekend.

I completed three races in a weekend on two occasions, which leaves the legs tender and the throat hoarse.

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Hill climbing takes you to some spectacular locations.
Parsnips Photography

In my first season, I pinned a number on 11 times from early September to Sunday’s National Championships, where I finished 98th out of 305 on the Old Shoe in Llangollen, North Wales.

I averaged 410 watts at 5.5W/kg for 7:14 on the 1.6km course with an average gradient of 12.5 per cent.

For context, the elite men produced more than 7W/kg for five and a half minutes.

The women’s race was won in 6:46, which would have secured a top-40 finish in the men’s race.

Here’s what I’ve learnt from two months of racing full gas up some of the UK’s hardest climbs.

1. The appeal is pure and simple

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The intense, short-lived discomfort hooks hundreds of hill climbers.
Jack Luke / Our Media

You sprint uphill until your legs and lungs burn. Slumped over your handlebars across the finish line, the taste of blood permeates through your throat.

That’s an odd way to spend a weekend morning. But it’s an addictive one and why hundreds of hill climbers like myself return week after week.

The women’s UK National Hill Climb champion, Illi Gardner, summed up the draw of the discipline when I spoke to her after Sunday’s nationals.

She said: “I like the simplicity of it.

“Everybody is out there just trying to bury themselves for however long the hill is.

“I like how it is pure and guaranteed to be painful.”

I can’t put it any more pithily than that, though I will expand a little.

The feedback from a hill climb race is instantaneous. After crossing the line, you know straight away if you’ve left any strength on the hill.

If you’ve ridden the climb before, you compare your time to a previous best – if not, to riders of a similar ability.

If you train with power, you know whether your average watts on the climb are above or below your potential.

Unless you’re an elite or especially competitive rider, you’re largely racing against yourself.

As a result, my most satisfying races were not my highest placings but when I paced it well or produced a power personal best.