Hill Climbs

Anyone entered any of the south London hill climbs this year?

I'll be at Brasted, Yorks and White Lane attempting to drag myself up and not come last

Not yet, are entries still open - when are they? I have done Yorks a couple of times, never the others.

I've hardly cycled this year so prob not the best idea mind!

Yes entries still open!

Brasted entry closes next Tuesday and is on 24th September. The other two are both on 8th October

I've basically only rode long slow rides passed couple years with next to no short efforts so I'm sure you can't be any worse than me

Maybe I'll have another pop... I should really do the white lane / Yorks double, I've always been a softy and just done yorks

Great weather for this years Catford Hill Climb and this year as the road surface was so bad last week we persuaded Sevenoaks Council to run a road sweeper up and down it midweek, the surface was the best I have seen it in the twenty years I have been going along to it.

As such we had a fast day and Andy Nichols of Team Lifting Gear Products smashed the forty year old record of 1:47.6 set in 1983 by Phil Mason with an astonishing time of 1:45.2

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyIlv1PM7D83b4eQK58aDgv3Gm4rvRXW6Dr2Tg0/

Yes!
At last!

Kerpowwww!!!!

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Love that shot, excellent

Finally our 40 year old record of 1:47.6 set in 1983 by Phil Mason has been smashed by Andy Nichols from Sheffield with a blistering 1:45.2, and he reckons he could have gone faster pacing it better :)

Amazing the record lasted that long, wasn't there some conjecture about how the hill was bare of trees / had a huge tailwind / had a different start line to explain why it stood for 40 years?

No just rumours, the trees were not blown down until the storm in 1987 when there was no event.

1983 Phil Mason was having a perfect season winning road races and Hill Climbs alike and it was a dry day which is the major factor on Yorks Hill, it only needs to be damp to cause wheelspin and that causes riders to lose momentum.

We thought the record might go with the dry day and the fact that Sevenoaks Council swept the hill for us on Wednesday but not by that margin.

National Hill Climb Championships on The Struggle today. Perhaps the best National yet

📸 @cadence_images

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Good work!

It even got a shout out on R6 Music yesterday for the ultimate LFGSS crossover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfVXNYrVloM

And you and Tom W smashed it!

Well the time went faster than expected and I'm way undercooked. Month-long cold didn't help. Reckon endure rather than enjoy will be how it pans out. Looked at the profile and the last few km are brutal. On the plus side, I'm 5kg lighter than I was. Fingers crossed the hire bike has a 32t on the back.

Well, I did it. Not about to threaten any KOMs, but aside from a couple of photo stops and to replenish water supplies, I just about hauled my arse to the top.

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A few more...

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Does anyone know of any records for a vertical hour? Is it a thing? I'm thinking either on a single climb or reps of a smaller one, like an everesting challenge.

Edit:
https://cyclinguphill.com/hour-record-cycling-uphill/

Did you do anything on this front?
1000m on a rep was about the “standard” when I did something similar.
I’ve been thinking about this again lately.

I’m be also been working on my time up Brasted, currently at 2:41 for 416th out of nearly 20,000.
@dbr or others opinions on best way to ride it?

https://strava.app.link/PB9INoVoVKb

Haven’t ridden Brasted in ages!

For short ones in general, I’ll look at power for the first 30 or 45 seconds, just to keep things in check, then ride on feel. Under two mins is largely a mind game I reckon. You should be absolutely ruined by the effort if you do it right.

Also, save some for the finish. A wise hill climber once said you probably won’t win a HC in the last 100m, but you can definitely lose it.

My memories of Brasted was always riding the full hill from Brasted village as an effort, so by the top you're just trying to hold on desperately. I think it'd be hard to have enough momentum for a great time if you turned onto that segment from Pilgrims Way.

If you want to focus on that shorter segment, though, maybe you could ride the start of the full hill fairly easy, hit the gas a bit before the segment starts to give yourself a cheeky flying start, try and stay seated until the gradient hits double digits and as dbr says, save some for the end.

From memory, I think I used to try and avoid standing up before you hit the tree lined bit. You then shouldn't be too horribly exhausted through the corners, which feel evil. Having some energy for the part after the corners which actually mellows out a bit will buy you some time.

Everyone is different, but I'd try and ride a hill like that to power until I feel I have to get out of the saddle. With something this steep I also try to stay in slightly harder gears for longer than usual so that I've got something decent to push against. Often my mind tells me to shift right down but then I can't make the power I could if I were in a harder gear. I find this particularly true when I get out of the saddle. I'll generally shift down 2 cogs just before I stand up out the saddle.

On a motorbike.

I squeaked under 4 minutes yesterday. 9 years ago I did 2:50.
Don't have kids.

Those tyres are costing you a minute.