Competitive Hill Climbs

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Seems wrong to me that a junior who is fastest up the climb can't become the open national champ.

Absolutely ridiculous to me, its the National Hill Climb Champion. Whomever is fastest on the day is the winner, by all means have category winners but also one overall champion regardless of category. Imagine if in the years when a rider won the white and yellow jersey at the Tour that they were ineligible to win the overall GC because they were in the U26 category!

 

[matticus]

The conditions COULD have changed - especially given UK weather this week!

But also, rules are rules. You can't change them after the event just because " ... optics".

[there's a further quirk here, which is that clearly uphill racing tends to give the Juniors less of a disadvantage. Tricky to quantify ... ]

 

[Ming the Merciless]

You cannot win an event if you did not enter it.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

But also, rules are rules. You can't change them after the event just because " ... optics".

Very true and I don't think they should change things in this instance, I am just very surprised that this was ever a rule in the first place. Will be interesting to see if this does prompt a rule change in future, as such an occurrence does complicate things. Thinking of Ed Laverack, this is not his problem at all, but will a competitive guy like him really be satisfied with the result? My guess is probably not.

 

[ColinJ]

Yes - 'fastest' = fastest!

This just popped up on my YouTube feed...



That looks like a great climb - apart from the crappy road surface! I might have a go at it on one of my Devon visits. (Yes, I know that it is in Somerset, but it is within my range if I were to catch the train to Barnstaple and do my ride from there.)

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Yes - 'fastest' = fastest!

This just popped up on my YouTube feed...

That looks like a great climb - apart from the crappy road surface! I might have a go at it on one of my Devon visits. (Yes, I know that it is in Somerset, but it is within my range if I were to catch the train to Barnstaple and do my ride from there.)

For some reason I never expected Porlock toll road to be in a tree tunnel, at least early on, thought it would be like the rugged moors near top of Road To Hell!

 

[ColinJ]

For some reason I never expected Porlock toll road to be in a tree tunnel, at least early on, thought it would be like the rugged moors near top of Road To Hell!

Same here!

I wonder how much traffic normally takes the toll road? I would be less inclined to ride it if it gets really busy.