(upbeat pop music)
(slow dramatic music)
- The hill climb!
The lung-busting eccentric genre
of competitive bicycle racing.
Largely un-talked about really,
outside of this little circle that sticks with it.
So I thought to myself,
let's tell the GCN viewers all about it.
I want to know exactly what's so appealing about it.
After all,
this doesn't look that appealing.
Does it?
Hill climbs then.
They are traditionally a very British thing,
but more and more countries are taking some inspiration
and having their own events.
They're run in a very similar way
to that of a traditional timed trial.
So riders are set off at regular intervals
and timed over the duration of the course,
and the fastest is the winner.
It's as simple as that,
a very individual event.
Now the people who are timing them
are a pair of timekeepers,
some at the start and some at the finish who
calibrate their watches beforehand so that everybody
is measured equally.
Apparently as well,
the first ever hill climb competition was actually held
way back in 1880 at Reigate in Surrey
which is just to the south of London
which means that those events
would have actually been taking place
onboard the Penny-farthing
and they're hardly known for their climbing prowess
or ability let's face it,
so I reckon rather than being an actual timed event
it was probably who could get the furthest up that hill.
Fast forward 140 years and we're here at Hatal Vale
in Devon in the UK,
and while we've now got modern training methods,
modern equipment,
and even hill climb specialists,
a buzzing scene believe me.
Since the first British national hill climb championships
way back in 1944,
we've had top road racers who've won them,
we've had top timed trialers who've won them,
and also we've had the hill climb specialist.
Now the hill climb specialist is a really rare breed,
and it's not me just joking or anything like that,
you don't tend to see them outiside of September and October
I don't know what they do the rest of the year,
they must be a little bit like hedgehogs,
they hibernate that sort of thing,
but they specialize in these events
and they do everything to try and win them,
and there's no better place to try and find them
than national champs!
(upbeat pop music)
What more can I tell you then about the hill climb scene?
Well it can be a lung-busting, blood-tasting,
lactic-acid building, bomber inducing effort,
or a slightly more drawn out affair.
So here in the UK that means that an event could be one
with a time as little as one minute,
or up to 15 minutes there too.
And well the season itself is actually really short,
it's condensed into just two months
September and October and of course,
the national champs is the highlight of that.
And the scene despite being relatively small
is very very popular in the pockets of riders travel
around these events,
and each weekend there's at least 10 events
for the riders to pick and choose from.
It's great.
(bouncy pop music)
This year's event takes place on the climb of Hatal Vale,
which is just on the edge
of the beautiful Dartmoor National Park.
Let's look then at the details
of today's championship course.
Firstly, the distance.
It's 5.14 kilometers with 310 meters of gain and elevation,
which equates to in old-fashioned money,
or imperial measurements,
3.2 miles and 1,017 feet of climbing.
And well the average gradient,
that's 6 percent
and that doesn't vary of course
across the two types of measurements.
It's the day before the race
and there are a few brave riders
having a quick reccie of the course,
so let's go have a quick chat with them.
Right, Kerry we're stood almost near the finish line,
actually checking it out,
what's your motivation to do hill climbs?
- Well I think firstly you've got to be a bit weird
to like them,
so maybe I have to come under the weird category.
But I kind of like pushing my limits,
quite ambitious
and so I like
seeing how much I can hurt myself really.
- For me a hill climb's really raw you know,
it's a brutal effort,
it's man against the gradient
and whoever's the fittest guy wins basically.
There's not much arrow, there's not much
sort of science behind it,
it's just smash the pedals hard.
- Well look at it, it's wet, cold it's miserable.
(both laugh)
No it's a weird one, it's a little community,
it's an end of the season thing
and I don't know it's nice
you see the same people every year.
It's good to get out there,
it's raw, tough
put the hammer down and just see how you get on.
- Do you have any tactics involved,
I mean tomorrow is a totally different hill climb,
some of them, some of them are just over a minute
tomorrow's going to be what?
12-13 minutes.
- Well for this climb I've particularly broken it down
into three sections.
So the first section I'm treating it as it's own hill climb,
and the first 3.5 kilo until the flat section
which is in the second phase,
and the third phase is just the last like two minutes
or the last 800 meters
because it gets really steep at the end.
But yeah I'm aiming to go very hard early on
I've got some power numbers to stick to
I'm aiming for 430-440 watts
and at my weight they're at 50-59 kilos
I hope to get that section done within nine minutes
and then recover on the flat section
and then finish it off at the top then.
- And finally what's your motivation to go out in this
because to be honest
I don't think I would go out, what's yours?
- Well I've got a bit of a support crew
which helped me today
so we went and had a cream tea in Bobby Tracy
and then yeah so that helped get up the climb today.
- Brilliant.
Course Devon is famous for its cream teas.
I've had a look at the weather forecast and I have seen
that tomorrow is set to be a much nicer day.
I really hope that it's going to be
because I don't have anymore clothes with me
and I'd hate for the event to be a total washout.
Right, on that note I'm going to go and get warm
and importantly get dry.
- [Announcer] 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Go!
- So today is race day and as you can see
the weather conditions are very different,
it's still pretty cold,
but it's nice clear blue skies
and nowhere near as windy too.
Now I could go on and on and on
and try and tell you
how tough and difficult hill climbs are,
but instead right now I think we should show you
a montage of some pained faces of riders
battling it out at Hatal Vale today.
(jingling music)
Some of you may also be wondering
why riders aren't wearing helmets too.
Well events held under the rules of the CTT
or the cycling timed trials organization,
you don't actually have to wear them.
And that's not the only bit of tech
which is sometimes missing
because riders have been known to chop down their handlebars
and all sorts of stuff,
and there's going to be a completely different video
about that coming up very soon.
Let's look at those pained faces then.
(bouncy pop music)
Of course an event this scale can't be done
without plenty of help,
so the organizers actually roped in a 107
of its finest volunteers to make sure it runs seamlessly.
And we also got a load of spectators here too,
literally hundreds,
including Mr. Boom!
- Boom!
- Steve O!
(low chatter)
- Well you've literally just crossed the line,
and I've grabbed you through exhaustion so
I'm really sorry,
but how was it?
- Yeah it went really well.
Paced it really well but I lost a bit really.
Definitely bided at the end
- Yeah
- Not even crossed kink
- Now were you riding into a pace the whole way up?
Just looking at the numbers and
- Yeah I tried to hold it to the numbers the whole way
so I didn't overcook it in the first bit
so that went pretty well really and then just at the end
whatever was left.
- Yeah I guess the crowd helps to try and empty the tank
- Try to yeah,
get it to the top and then go
- Brilliant you go get warm,
well done.
- Thank you.
- Great ride.
(jazzy upbeat music)
(horn blows)
- Now I have the pleasure to introduce to you
the presentation party.
- [Announcer] For the 2019 national men's hill climb
champion with a time of 11:37.8
from Swift Carbon Pro Cycling,
Ed Laverack.
(cheers and whistling)
- All right we just had the presentation and luckily
for the first time ever the GCN curse has not struck
because congratulations Ed,
you've just won national hill climbs.
You nearly left me hanging there as well,
that would be real good,
but firstly did everything go to plan?
I mean obviously you won,
but did everything go as you'd hoped?
- Yes.
Everything went pretty much perfect to be honest,
like I wanted to treat that first section of the climb
as a stand as its own hill climb,
so I went off really hard, sustained it
pressed on when it got really steep,
and when it flattened off took advantage
of kind of the free speed
and then the crowd at the finish.
Like you didn't need to look down at your powermeter
didn't need to do anything.
You just needed to go as hard as you could to the finish.
The crowd was just incredible in that last section.
- Yeah.
Now right if you could offer like
if you were out there thinking to themselves
"Oh should I give it a go or not?"
I think the beauty of it compared,
for me, compared to a road race
you know if you're not in the group
you're not going to get left behind are you?
Because you're just on your own out there.
- Yeah It's your own individual effort,
it's very personal,
there's a lot of personal satisfaction
to come from hill climbing
but to be honest, any local cycling club wil help you
and point you in the right direction,
it's where I started,
they'll find local hill climbers too,
they'll help you enter local hill climbs,
give you encouragement as well which is a big part of it,
but yeah personal satisfaction is a big part
of the hill climbing scene,
and I'm getting around that community atmosphere
and having a tea, coffee and a cake after
it's so
- It's so open,
I think that's the beauty
of this aspect of the sport isn't it
- Yeah
- Brilliant
- [Announcer] And the 2019 national women's hill climb
champion with a time of 14:17.8 from Aerocoach,
Hayley Simmonds!
(cheers and applause)
- Now I'm here with Hayley Simmonds who has won
the women's event today in quite contrasting conditions
from yesterday where you rode up there
and nearly got blown off I think
because it was pretty treacherous.
- Yeah it was a really brutal headwind yesterday,
it was obviously really wet as well.
Yeah and when I turned around
with my big rain jacket it caught the wind
and I thought I was going to come a crumple
but no I luckily stayed on and today was beautiful
actually, bit chilly first thing
but actually I would say pretty perfect conditions
for national hill climb.
- And did everything go to plan for you?
I mean obviously you won,
but doesn't mean everything necessarily went to plan.
- Yeah well to be fair,
on the start line,
so I tested my
well I had two bikes with me,
I had my race bike
and then I had my bike that I was going to use
for warming up because I didn't want to risk my race tires
- Yeah
- And so I tested my race bike and it was all fine,
went onto my kind of warmup bike next to that powermeter,
did my warmup, got to the start,
reconnected to the powermeter on my race bike
and it wasn't showing me any power
said it was connected, no power
so I rode the whole thing on feel
I had no numbers
so in terms of going to plan,
I had a power plan,
but have absolutely no idea whether I went
you know did my correct power plan.
You know, I did enough to win.
- Right so I arrived here yesterday,
was actually checking down,
was probably 15 years since I did a hill climb
and I thought to myself,
"Why would I ever want to do this?"
What bit of advice or you know,
how could you encourage someone to do it?
Everyone there at the finish is like
"Oh this is great!"
But crossing that finish line,
the looks on people's faces
I think in that moment all they're thinking is
"Never again!"
(both laugh)
- The atmoshpere is really good,
is really friendly,
everyone in the HQ afterwards is encouraging you
and you know yeah it hurts
but you've got to test yourself
and it's a really friendly environment in which to do so.
- Brilliant, there we are.
If you are keen to get involved and punish your body,
you know what to do.
There we are, an insight into the world of hill climbing,
and I loved it because everyone has been so welcoming
and they've also been trying to sway me to take part in one.
It's not going to happen anytime soon,
but I've really enjoyed seeing
the scientific approach of some people
and the eyeballs-out approach of others,
not to mention some of that cheeky little bits of bike tech
that have been used too.
Let me know in the comments section down below
which GCN presenter you would like to see tackle next year's
national hill climb champs,
get involved down there,
and if anyone mentions me,
don't worry those comments will be deleted.
But huge thanks actually to the organizers of the event
for welcoming us here.
Remember as ever to like and share this video
with your friends too.
Don't forget to check out the GCN shop
at shop.globalcyclingnetwork.com
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how about clicking just down here and just down here
and me, I'm going to go get myself a Mr. Whippy.