Varsity Hill Climb, 23 Oct 2022

First Hill Climb of the season (and a first ever for me) and it was safe to say that I was nervous. It was a 6:30 am start to pack the bikes into the van before the drive down to Oxford for the inaugural Varsity Hill Climb competition. The conditions on the way over were less than ideal (I think my heart rate may have been higher when we aquaplaned than on the climb itself) but we manged to get to Oxford in one piece.

Torrential rain and leafy slippery roads were leaving me feeling quite anxious about the climb after doing the recce. I wouldn’t classify myself as a strong hill climber by any means so a race that was already out of my comfort zone became a real challenge in terms of nerves. After a brief warm up - pot-hole riddled and water-logged roads that had started to resemble a lake made the prospect of warming up quite a mental battle - I was at the start line. Nerves somewhat calmed I was ready to race. After a less than ideal start, as all the debris from the roads had got lodged in my cleat making clipping in a bit of an ordeal, I was off.

The course was 2km with an average gradient 5.4% - a mound by most people’s standards but a hill for Oxford, and practically a mountain for a Cambridge cyclist. Punctuated by speed bumps, the focus for the first half of the climb was just to pace well and not burn my matches too quickly. Successfully up the first steep section it was onto the flat middle part (an irony for a hill climb I know). This section was a challenge as it was tempting to use it as a section to recover but having the whole team spectating kept me pushing through and attempting to get up some good pace. The final drag was a real trial. Primarily this was because during the recce I had been focusing more on the debris on the road rather than markers for the top of the climb and therefore had slightly forgotten quite where the hill ended. But up round the final corner I saw the timekeeper huddled under an umbrella so attempted to dump the watts for a faster finish.

After being incredibly nervous and somewhat reluctant to race I actually really enjoyed it despite the conditions and was pleased to come away with 4th. Lessons (primarily remember where the course finishes!) were learnt and I look forward to racing it again next year.

Maddie Angwin