Hill Climbs 2010 by Nick Latimer

Hill Climbs 2010 

Each year I seem to get some quite good form towards the end of the summer, which encourages me to send off lots of entries for Hill Climb races.  As there are no shortage of events to ride in and around the Peak District where I’m now based, this takes up all of my spare time in October as an intense program of interval sessions and races kicks in.  Normally I’m sick of it after a few days as in the past I’ve done all my intervals on the turbo trainer, but this year I bought myself a good front light and took to ‘real’ hills in my quest to push myself a little higher up in the results… 

3rd October:  Pea Royd Lane 

First up was the Birdwell Wheelers open event on Pea Royd Lane, which was a shorter version of the National course from 2009.  The climb is just over half a mile, with a gradient of about 1-in-5, and on the day it resembled a waterfall as there had been torrential rain over night which persisted during the event.  There was a disappointing number of entries, and given the weather I’d briefly considered DNSing, but couldn’t bring myself not to turn up.  As it was some of the fastest riders chose not to ride, which left me to take the win in a field of just 11 riders (the weather really was quite bad).  Anyway, a win’s a win, and this one brought me a big silver trophy and my picture in the newspaper, so I was happy.  I was also 13 seconds quicker than I had been on my previous ride on the course 2 years earlier, which, given the conditions was a good sign. 

10th October:  Monsal Head 

Next was the famous hill climb up Monsal Head, now promoted by Sheffrec CC.  Sheffrec did a great job advertising the event, and as a result 120 riders competed.  The club had also managed to close the road, had a live commentator broadcasting over a PA, and had persuaded Team Sky’s Russell Downing to ride, which helped bring out hundreds of spectators.  The climb is only 600 metres, and at its steepest only reaches about 1-in-6, so is known as a ‘sprinters climb’.  Downing was aiming to challenge Malcolm Elliot’s course record of 1.14, which has stood for 19 years, but into a slight headwind he could only manage 1.20.  I finished 18th with 1.38 which was enough to win the Rutland CC (my Sheffield club) club championships which was incorporated within the event.  I was quite happy, but suspected that I had left a little too much in the tank by not going hard enough from the bottom of the climb.  

17th October:  Cat & Fiddle 

The following week was the Weaver Valley CC’s event on the Cat & Fiddle, a 6.5 mile climb from Macclesfield up to the highest pub in the Peak District.  With an average gradient of only about 4% this climb was quite different from the others I was taking on during October, but I’ve done the event a couple of times before and have always enjoyed it as it is well organised and attracts a big field.  This year was no different, with over 100 riders competing.  Two riders from Raleigh finished 1st and 2nd, but I got my first top 10 in the event, coming 7th in a time of 22:14.  Both previous times that I’d ridden the event I’d just scraped the top 20, so this was another big improvement. 

24th October:  Riber and Bank Road 

Richard Somerset set the precedent for North Roaders by riding both these hill climbs organised by Matlock CC, as well as the Beeley Moor hill climb, all in one day in 2007.  I did all 3 the following year in 2008, but only did Beeley Moor and Bank Road in 2009 as I’d decided all three was a bit too much.  Thankfully, this year the Beeley Moor event was on a different day, and so I could enter only the two Matlock events without feeling any guilt.  Riber is probably the hardest hill climb that I’ve done, incredibly steep with 5 very tight hairpin bends.  In a 50-strong high quality field I had a reasonable ride and finished 12th, although I was left with the feeling at the end that I was not completely dead, which is the worst feeling to have at the top of a hill climb.  Despite that I’d ridden the climb in 3.55, 35 seconds faster than in 2008 which was quite a significant improvement.  I had, however, been beaten by a Rutland club-mate which left me determined to properly kill myself up the shorter Bank Road climb in the afternoon.  This I duly did, this time finishing 7th in 2.04, a good 8 seconds quicker than in 2009, another big improvement on such a short climb.  Also, I was seeing stars and had to lie down at the top, so I was happy. 

1st November:  National Champs, Dovers Hill 

For the first time I’d decided to enter a national championships as I seemed to be going quite well and I was intrigued to see how I could do.  Unfortunately, unlike previous years, the hill being used for the national was a long way from the Peak District, so there was no chance of me riding it beforehand.  I knew it was about 1200 metres though, with an average gradient of about 10%, which I thought would take me about 4.30.  That was most similar in length to Riber, of the other hills that I’d ridden during my racing month, in which I’d been disappointed that I hadn’t gone hard enough.  Determined not to let that happen in the national I decided that I’d go out quite hard and try to hold on.  I managed that, and finished 32nd in a time of 4.25.  I was happy, but my halfway split was 20th fastest which showed that I’d died a little at the top, and perhaps I could have been a few seconds faster if I’d paced myself a little better.  A few seconds equates to quite a few places, so I’m hopeful that a top 25 position might be possible when the national comes back to the Peak District in 2011.