{"id":43264,"date":"2022-11-01T17:00:36","date_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bikeradar.com\/?p=702629"},"modified":"2022-11-01T17:14:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-01T16:14:13","slug":"six-things-i-learnt-during-my-first-hill-climb-season","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/rss_feed\/six-things-i-learnt-during-my-first-hill-climb-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Six things I learnt during my first hill climb season"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Jack Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 01 November 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The UK hill climbing season is as short, sharp and intense as the climbs themselves.<\/p>\n

Racing runs from late August to the end of October, collapsing across the line at the UK National Hill Climb Championships.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, the timekeeper\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

I completed three races in a weekend on two occasions, which leaves the legs tender and the throat hoarse.<\/p>\n

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Hill climbing takes you to some spectacular locations.<\/span><\/figcaption> Parsnips Photography <\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

In my first season, I pinned a number on 11 times from early September to Sunday\u2019s National Championships, where I finished 98th out of 305 on the Old Shoe in Llangollen, North Wales.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

The women\u2019s race was won in 6:46, which would have secured a top-40 finish in the men\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learnt from two months of racing full gas up some of the UK\u2019s hardest climbs.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0The appeal is pure and simple<\/h2>\n
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The intense, short-lived discomfort hooks hundreds of hill climbers.<\/span><\/figcaption> Jack Luke \/ Our Media<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s an odd way to spend a weekend morning. But it\u2019s an addictive one and why hundreds of hill climbers like myself return week after week.<\/p>\n

The women\u2019s UK National Hill Climb champion, Illi Gardner, summed up the draw of the discipline when I spoke to her after Sunday\u2019s nationals.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI like the simplicity of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is out there just trying to bury themselves for however long the hill is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like how it is pure and guaranteed to be painful.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t put it any more pithily than that, though I will expand a little.<\/p>\n

The feedback from a hill climb race is instantaneous. After crossing the line, you know straight away if you\u2019ve left any strength on the hill.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ridden the climb before, you compare your time to a previous best \u2013 if not, to riders of a similar ability.<\/p>\n

If you train with power<\/a>, you know whether your average watts on the climb are above or below your potential.<\/p>\n

Unless you\u2019re an elite or especially competitive rider, you\u2019re largely racing against yourself.<\/p>\n

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