Hill Climb Diaries

I have done a few of the bigger hill climbs such as The Catford, Bec and Monsal Hill Climbs previously, and had harboured an ambition of getting on the start line for the National Hill Climb at least once. I would have liked to do it last year, but it was up in Northumberland, and I didn’t really fancy driving all that way.

When it was announced that it was going to be in Matlock, that seemed like worth putting a bit of effort in as it was about as local as it’s going to get for us round here.

I’d been injured for 2 months early doors this year but had got sorted, got some pretty decent training in and, to set the tone, included at least one heavy duty climbing session with nigh every big punchy hill I could find to include in a 2 to 2 and a half hour ride every week. Most weeks it was getting to somewhere between 700 and 800 metres of ascent.

I was joined most weeks by Ian Parker as he was doing a big sportive in Yorkshire this year whose company was great as was his supply of Jelly Babies.

I had spoken to Richard Latimer about the National as he’d done it previously, is pretty handy on the hills and he informed me that male riders had to get at least 3 open events in to get some data to have any chance of getting a ride. You would think that that chaps of my vintage (nearly 63) wouldn’t be interested in this sort of thing, but you would be very wrong as I found out.

Hill Climb No1 – Saturday 20th September, AM

I had an early start up to Stocksbridge which is a way north of Sheffield to take part in the Pea Royd Hill Climb in the morning. This one is quite hard with an initial rise of 20% pretty much straight away for 200 yards, a little level and then another 400 yards not much less than 20%. This would have been hard on a dry day, but it was the first of 2 very wet weekends, and the road was pretty damp.

I warmed up ok with a few efforts, went back to my car to drop my stuff off and started having a chat with another rider and then noticed that I had just  6 minutes to get 200 yards up a 14% incline to get to the start. I made it with 90 seconds to spare and started up the first 20% in total disarray. To say it was hard was an understatement as I tried to grind up the second 20% raise. Unsurprisingly I was dead last which was a first for me. However, it wasn’t much of a surprise as my breakfast en-route had been a sausage cob and coffee from Greggs on the M1. FYI, It’s nice, but not the food of champions.

Hill Climb No2 – Saturday 20th September, PM

I had a chance to redeem myself in the second event I was doing at Mill Lee in the afternoon. This is a mere 14% and only about 400 yards so I was informed that I could blast up it. This may be the case in dry conditions, but the rain was torrential and there were rivers running down the road. I pinged a picture of said conditions to some fellow club members and was told to “Get on with it you Old Duffer”, which was very supportive. Like most people, for me it was a very short warm up and I went a bit better beating a few people this time. These open events were full of people trying to get into the National HC, so the standard is a fair bit higher in all the age categories. I had now got 2 Open events done.

Hill Climb No3 – Saturday 4th October, PM

For my 3^rd event, I’d entered the Otley 2 stage event on Saturday 4^th October. I travelled up the Friday before and it was the second weekend that there were humongous, awful storm conditions, and I did wonder why I was doing the event with all the wind and rain.

AM – I went to Pateley bridge for the first part which is up Guise Hill, an 18% incline for around 600 yards before it levels to 7% for another 200 yards. When I arrived at sign on, it was at the organisers van at the top of the incline and there were 3 of us wondering if the event would happen due to the near gale force winds and rain. It did, but out of the 21 that signed on, only 13 took part. Due to the wind the last 200 yards were omitted, so it was 600 yards up an 18% incline.

When it’s this wet, you wonder about wheel spin and thus drop a bit of air in your tyres to try and get more grip. I had done this and was going second last watching everyone in front of me to see if they were out or in the saddle. All were out so I was also which was fine until about 200 yards in my rear wheel started spinning. I pretty much had to stop do a track stand and start again losing a bit of time. Even so I wasn’t last so happy days.

PM –  it was over to the North of Otley at Norwood Edge which is a pretty much continuous 18% incline that twists and turns for about 1440 yards so you really need to stay strong. Happily, I got up and wasn’t last again so hopefully I was getting some points for the National. I had the dubious privilege of being blasted past by Kieron Middlebrooke a top youngster who finished 7^th in the National. He was so quick, he won the whole thing. We also had the privilege of local lady Lizzie Deignon presenting the prizes.

Somehow, I was lucky to get a place on Sunday which I can confirm was a superb day taking part with all the other Wellies, the support was superb. I saw Stuart Haycox going mental screaming at me, Judith jumping up and down and heard a few of the others including Tim and Ros and Anne. I missed the chalked-up names further up the course that Stuart informed me about, but I may have been a bit busy at the time. Thanks to all from the club who came up to support us, it meant a lot. Anyone else I missed, you were fab out there.

Pre-race day, I’d had my bike serviced and prepped and it was looking superb. If you check out Bike Radar etc, you can see some of the rigs, people put together to save weight. I didn’t do much but took my bottle cages off, put my ultra-light carbon saddle on, and as my rear hub was a bit shot on my beloved 15-year-old Fulcrum Zero’s (Fab Red Bladed spokes too) with the rim a bit worn, got some lush and very light wheels with new tyres for extra grip. After I had ridden and met the chaps, Chris Dainty noticed that I’d kept my valve caps on which he says is extra weight. I always keep them on now just for Chris, especially the lush shiny ones.

After picking the bike up on the Saturday pre-race, I had a practice and planned to start in the big ring but on practice de-chained and so on the day stayed in the little ring but was then in a bit of pickle as to what gear to go in, all I could think of as I started was Thelma Barlow saying, “I just don’t know”.

After my previous Hill Climbs with awful conditions, it felt almost tropical. I say that, but it was a bit nippy, so I kept my warmup tights on for my ride.

As for my ride, it wasn’t quite as quick as I would have liked, but I wasn’t sure if I’d run out of puff lower down so was a little bit conservative early doors. It was a seriously fantastic venue that I think all who attended would confirm whether watching or taking part.

Lydia Baxter and I had actually gone up and had a practice the week before and on our second go, got passed by this blur which turned out to be Andrew Feather the ex-national champion many times over and we can confirm that he is super-fast. Lydia was a bit disappointed that he didn’t keep doing repeats until I informed her that he was doing the Riber Hill climb the day after.

From the videos I have seen, Lydia looked very smooth which contributed to her very good time, Jason looked like a wild man, somewhat like Animal from the Muppets, but very quick. He did a very good ride indeed. I saw Kamila and she looked like she had the biggest grin on her face, Gregg, her other half was great on the saucepans. Ruby looked superb, as you will have seen from her results. She’s like the Post Mistress as she always delivers. Special mention to Wayne who I saw keeping a very good rhythm near the top, where it was absolutely mental, and produced a top time.

I’d recommend having a go as it is hard, but it’s really satisfying getting up stuff that looks hard. Everyone cheers you on and the slowest people seem to get the biggest cheers. Every rider feels the love. No one cares where you come, just you’re having a punt. There are loads of them put on so have a go.

Special shout out also to the Welly Bobble hats as we all seemed to find each other and the jerseys stand out in a really good way.