National Hill Climb Championships, Haytor, 27 Oct 2019
One of my season goals was to enter some hill climbs, and having done a few since the end of the time trial season, I noticed that the National Champs was on Haytor this year. This is a hill I know very well and also, being a longer climb, suits me better in theory (being more like a time trial) than the short 2-3 minute climbs that I have competed on so far. So I thought “what the hell, I probably won’t get a place anyway” and entered. I had effectively already finished my season and my form had dropped off significantly, while my weight had done the opposite, so sure enough a place on the event was mine, and I really wasn’t in a good position for it, so my only goal was to try and enjoy the experience and not come last!
The day before was horrendously wet and windy, so I didn’t bother to do a pre-race ride, but race day was forecast to be nice and with a helpful wind (not usual on Haytor). All the event talk was of course records being broken (which indeed they were) but my own race focussed on beating my previous best time on the hill, which was set earlier this summer. Despite not being under any pressure to get a result, the atmosphere of the day got to me, and I was very nervous during my warmup, just wanting to get on with it.
Starting off up the hill, I had a power and time target based on my previous ride. The key to this hill is not to go off too hard, as there is a steep ramp at the finish which will find you out if you don’t save something (and this is also where most of the spectators were!). The tone was very much set for the ride when my minute man came past me a third of the way up the hill, and by then I already knew that it wasn’t going to be a good day for me. I had to back off significantly in the middle section where it flattens out in order to leave something for the end. On the final ramp I gave it everything I had, with the noise of the spectators (and the tailwind!) helping a lot and making up for my very tired legs. I finished feeling that I had given everything I could on the day, and not disgraced myself, and I had also beaten my previous time. On later analysis this in fact was only by a few seconds, and the tailwind would have given significantly more than this, so it certainly wasn’t my best ride ever. But I didn’t come last!
Tim Phillips
