British National Hillclimb up Winnat's Pass - Sunday 31st October

[DCLane]

When the women's winner shaves her head just to save weight you know it's serious

You've time to get ready for next year's @ColinJ - you too could be shouted/screamed/rang at to ride so hard you throw up &/or pass out at the top I'll be in North Wales either competing and/or supporting riders depending upon whether myself, son no. 2 or his team-mates get places.

 

[matticus]

When the women's winner shaves her head just to save weight you know it's serious

Ha ha!

She's always had short hair - works at Pankhurst Cycles (her team), who are my 2nd nearest, and favourite proper bike shop. They'll fix ye ancient tourers OR setup your race rig 👍

 

[MartinQ]

Advance notice for 2022: it's rumoured to be up The Old Shoe in Llangollen near Wrexham. You've time to get practising

At least there is the cafe at the top :-). It is a fairly constant grind up there, though the bit after the cattle grid always gets me.

 

[ColinJ]

You've time to get ready for next year's @ColinJ - you too could be shouted/screamed/rang at to ride so hard you throw up &/or pass out at the top I'll be in North Wales either competing and/or supporting riders depending upon whether myself, son no. 2 or his team-mates get places.

I was actually feeling a bit sad watching those videos because I realised that I will never be able to push myself that hard again.

I have never been super-fit, but I used to be very sturdy and could take a lot of punishment so I just used to ride as hard as I could on steep hills and let the fitness (or lack of it) determine my speed.

After my serious health problems of 2012/2013 though my body can no longer take the stress. I can cope with (say) a controlled 85-90% effort, but if I get too close to 100% effort my heart rhythm goes out of whack and that scary problem can sometimes last 12-24 hours. The other problem is that my left lung feels like it now has only has about 50% of its original function so whatever training I do, I will effectively be limited to about 75% of my natural limit. That could still be a pretty good level fitness, but not a superb level.

I will be with you in spirit in Wales, but I definitely will NOT be competing!

 

[Ridgeway]

Haven't ridden Winnat's since i was a lad, used to do it quite often in my late teens and seeing those videos has made my mind up to do it next time when we're back over (fingers crossed next summer).

I'm targeting 2mins and 59secs but anything under 10mins will do

Used to remember that whilst riding up it's certainly a killer, but when riding down the chance of actually getting killed was probably higher not a hill you can descend fast on and hoping over that lower cattle grid was iffy to say the least if there was a car coming up

 

[Hacienda71]

There were a couple of deaths there in the last few years. I think one rider hit the wall at the bottom near the cattle grid. I rode down it a couple of days after one of the deaths. Made sure I didn't go too fast.

 

[nomisp]

Supprised and pleased seeing so many not wearing helmets , I thought almost every organised event insisted on helmet wearing .

 

[DCLane]

Supprised and pleased seeing so many not wearing helmets , I thought almost every organised event insisted on helmet wearing .

CTT don't insist on helmets except for under 18's.

 

[Dogtrousers]

17 year old Sannah Zaman, who won the Junior Women's event is from Bigfoot CC in Bromley, a club that is famous for having me as a former member.

 

[matticus]

CTT don't insist on helmets except for under 18's.

Yup.
Audax don't require them either. It's kinda interesting the correlation between helmet rules and high entry fees ...

 

[Legs]

Men's highlights video...

My bro from 2:36 to 2:41