The Weird World Of Hill Climb Racing

[@RudiDwiHartanto]

Next year task for GCN : Make a bike building series for the hill climb season (ignore all the UCI rules) and get someone from the GCN HQ to ride the course trying to beat the KOM.

[@JogBird]

Bikeradar has been doing that for years

[@svenrill123]

There is no presenter that would succeed.

[@peterstokes8631]

Checkout Ollie’s videos from before he joined GCN

[@anotherscandinavian]

Like the Bikeradar guys then.

[@c3pigpig]

Oscar maybe?

[@philaevans]

When you finally make it onto GCN, only for them to show your pain face while being overtaken 🙈

[@thomasoei7089]

Highly inspirational piece Jon! Great effort by Haley who went "Old School" and won. It seemed that her training bred instincts to overcome adversity. Bravo!

[@jonpoon3896]

No need to name a specific presenter. It should be a presenters challenge

[@trevorhayes5414]

Yes! That would be awesome. Do a whole build up to it with training, bike tech, sandbagging & banter!!

[@75supercourse]

Get power curve for all presenters, find estimated power at typical time of the ride. Now ballast bikes to a fixed W/kg (lowest in group), then have at it.

[@criggie]

add some of the other groups too - the MTB and triathlon presenters. And a special appearance by Matt and Emma !

[@jonpoon3896]

criggie now I’m thinking relay

[@umaxi96]

They already did one before

[@leeghathaway]

Surely it can only be Lasty who gets to enter next year's event!

[@brianantnssn5177]

We need the Brick for this one, no doubt.

[@tommccafferty5591]

Some of the landscape shots were like fine works of art. Beautiful location. Your enthusiasm was contagious Jon. Well done.

[@bruhbruh6102]

From the first seconds, you can already tell the great effort put in this video. Nice work, as always!!!!

[@WaechterDerNacht]

Im only gonna mention one name for next years Hill Climb Champs: Lasty

[@DRANVR4]

BRICK BRICK BRCIK!!!

[@derrickdaniels9947]

Inspirational for preparing for one of the hill climbing challenging events in Worcester, Mass. George Street Bike Challenge - Major Taylor Association

[@fahering]

Great video. Please, make more of these with even more details of the british cycling scene. Chears!

[@paulobrien4794]

It would be genuinely interesting to get all of GCN and GMBN to go head to head.

[@Radiokot42]

Director: there's a lack of footage! Editor: **applyigng "Time stretch"** say no more

[@beeble2003]

Has to be Lasty who does next year's. He's the only one with the proper pain face.

[@douglaspate9314]

Awesome video Jon. I love your enthusoism. Here in Andorra this is our bread and butter. Our open championships is a mass start inline 16km UP! The finishing line at the Arcalís ski station (yep you'll recognise that name) is at 2200m. And we regularly organise hill climbs and don't call them hill climbs, just time trials. How about the 13km Fontaneda side of the Gallina as an example? It is a climb even the pros who live here only do if they really have to! So a 6.2% average, 5km climb... well Jon, it is a merely a gentle warm up!

[@rohanmccoy5424]

Well impressed with the Airedale Terrier in the background of John’s summing up. Can we get an interview with the Terrier too? Great video BTW

[@daleschwenning8156]

Ollie can do it and Jon can ring the bell as he rides past!

[@brucevelo1]

I remember reading about these in British cycling mags 30 years ago. It was great to see some coverage.

[@chrisbaum998]

How about tackling the Mount Evan' Hill Climb Race in Colorado - 28mile, 7000ft of climbing to 14,100ft with a 5.5 -6.0% average grade with a max of 10% over the distance - Jon Cannings!!! You are the man for this task!!!

[@david131092]

Chris Baum it’s just not 6% though is it?

[@chrisbaum998]

@@david131092 Yes, It averages 6%. There are a few section that are higher than 6%. It's probably more about the thinner air ridding at altitude is more of the issue.

[@choprn]

For next year i will like to see Ollie and Tom. They really know how to suffer.

[@2409markus]

That is a job for gcns very own epic-climb-specialist Tom Last!

[@Drzhounder]

Of all the presenters, nothing beats Jon's excitement.

[@stefancameron]

Let's see Óscar from GCN en Espagnol have a go at it!

[@davidbodahchristiansen4561]

Definitely Simon for the climb. I am inspired by this charming bit of bicycle greatness and if there are two things we have here in Boulder Colorado it's cyclists of all stripes up for a challenge and hills to climb. I love the idea of it appealing to individual effort and the opportunity that it affords to many who's team days are behind them or maybe not so glory filled perhaps. I think this might work well as a fundraising event for charity. SanFrancisco and Seattle would be great cities for this kind of competition as well. Once again GCN and the British cycling tradition an inspiration to cycing across the pond. I'll kEep you posted on my progress. Once again great production quality on your packages for KZbin. Great stuff!💁🏻‍♂️😉

[@tams805]

Jon should do it! He didn't deserve that Mr. Whippy.

[@moralrevival]

It would actually be awesome to see a Mediterranean GCN member tackle the hills and the British weather!

[@AyBee9725]

Idk why but climbing hills on a bicycle gives me a high that’s unmatched by any other narcotic or activity. Specifically hill sprinting. The feeling of your lungs burning from the swathes of air rushing in and out, the ever increasing cramps in your quads as you push up relentlessly on a 15% incline and work your way up to above 22%.... there’s something about it that gives me an adrenalin rush. Cycling on flats seems very boring to me now.

[@durianriders]

secret to hill climb is firstly have proper gear ratios for the climb you trying to do. If you can't hold 90rpm you need easier gears. Secondly just do the climb at 50% perceived effort. Then 55%, then 60% etc. Now you have learned how to ride a climb easy you can add in more intensity over the weeks/months and this way you learn how climb slower or faster.

[@jlhinsk]

Make it a presenter challenge. Spread the pain around:)

[@sundinare]

jlhinsk yes, that is my thought to. A competition with in the competition. A full staff competition. And do so by starting with “road to the national climb....”. That will show each presenters training before and how they choose a bike or even if someone choose to modify it like Si did for his KOM-challenge.

[@jlhinsk]

I mainly want to see the "old men" do it! To bad Matt is not around any more.

[@lisapet160]

Participate both in British HC event and in some community weekend event in Italy. The latter also have a long history and usually have uphill course.

[@KellyPettit]

I've been doing these in Japan for 10 years. They're super popular. I like them because it's hard to crash! However, I've actually grown less interested in them because of what someone said on this video - "They're incredibly hard". And I can't beat my best time in the circuit of 2 years ago so that's another reason why I'm kind of frustrated. Plus, I'm not a 58kg guy. The lightweight peeps have the advantage of these races. I'm very lean but I'm muscular with a sprinters body. Anyways, for me, a very painful race with heaps of satisfaction at the end.

[@davidide1525]

I love the British Hill scene ! Thanks for the great video, and Jon don’t delete this. WE WANT JON TO RIDE NEXT YEARS HILL CLIMB NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS !

[@GQ08]

Shoutout to Hayley for winning without riding to a power #! I wish more races were run just on feel by the riders

[@vernaburgess4796]

The Cervelo test team star rider surely is the only presenter worthy of this challenge, go Lloydy!

[@chazpilks]

Everyone should do one & the winner continues for the rest of the season. Once on the start line, you’ll all want to win

[@jimjr4432]

Thanks John, great show, loved it.

[@lewisbeck5239]

Definitely Dan Lloyd!

[@jeskli11]

I'd love to see on the hill climbs Mr. Brick a. k. a. Lasty. Otherwise it could be interesting presenter challenge: everyone will be given some amount of money to upgrade their bikes to be as light as possible and then points will be given for final weight of the bike, money left and position or time in the race.

[@odin2823]

Bike Radar, Cycling weekly, and GCN should enter 3 individuals each and all times combined for KZbin National Championship!!

[@chrisko6439]

I wish we had this in Germany. We had a hill climb competition at our town's local "mountain" a few years ago, but the event wasn't held the last 2 seasons.

[@chrisbee5317]

The first hill climb was in 1869 near Fountains Abbey (N Yorks) on boneshakers

[@pierssamson4069]

In vancouver we have a race called the triple crown which is up to the parking lot of 3 ski hills.. cypress Seymour and grouse

[@swites]

Get Dan Loyd to do it. With a goal and a reason to suffer his competitive nature would come out again and be rekindled, and they'd be no stopping him..

[@gcn]

He does need to ride a LOT of KM in December

[@singlespeedchronicles7640]

Jon, Oscar and Emma.... Jon would have a fabulous series on bike tech and threw himself fully under the bus, and Oscar and Emma are phenomenal climbers, and we miss seeing them!

[@ChinaCycling]

Didn't Dan Lloyd win this once back in the day?

[@ChinaCycling]

The story I heard was that back in the day before anyone really fully understood 'peaking' and 'form' that Dan Lloyd came off a regular pro season feeling super strong and had his eye on the hill climb championship. He was convinced he had to go out and train and smash himself up hills in preparation. However, at the time he was being coached by a guy who was starting to understand 'peak'ing - Hunter Allen. His coach told him that with the hill climb championships just a week or so away and with a hard domestique pro season behind him, he should be doing nothing other than sitting on his couch and watching TV. This was contrary to what everyone else around him was doing which was smashing themselves up hills. Anyway, LLoydy took the advice and with an 'opener' up the climb a few days before he was prep'd and ready to go and went on to take the title. It's a pretty cool story, and I'd love to know if this story is true.

[@BMD8]

I'm afraid Mr Cannings will have to be the choice for the hill climb.

[@roye2479]

I liked the vid, but would have liked it way more if jon had raced

[@MichaelRyan91]

Like a cactus in the desert, I wait for each and every frame of Jon on a bike.

[@DaanHoogland]

exotic, no hill-climbing competition in the Netherlands, just tegenwindfietsen.

[@chiefrocker12]

Dan should saddle up for the hill climb.... Only because that beer afterwards would be so well deserved.

[@richaw6689]

Great stuff JC! Brilliantly brutal.. Please can GCN make a real effort to cover more Hillclimb events in future? We should champion this amazing British phenomena.. Hank would win if he entered I reckon! ACE 🚴🚴👍👍

[@LittleMissDesmo]

Yeah I agree next year this should be a presenter challenge. You should have to build the bike you ride for the season. But no matter what I want to see Hank and Chris tackle the hills.

[@frazergoodwin4945]

GCN presenter to try hill climbs: Mr. Tom "painface" Last!!!!

[@Kansloos]

I don't know if Emily is still around doing work for GCN. But she should compete in the hill climbing championships!

[@jackhammer40k_]

I think it'd be great to both Si and Ollie have a go at a few events!

[@OllieBridgewood]

EatRideGrow I did!

[@OllieBridgewood]

Will be back next year too

[@jackhammer40k_]

@@OllieBridgewood Oh I know! Really enjoyed the series... baying for mOAR!

[@jackhammer40k_]

Plus inter-presenter rivalry is always fun!

[@chrisko6439]

Oh, please build a superlight hill climb bike and get EMMA to ride!

[@hawkrider88]

Yes, EMMA!

[@user-iq8nh7ok3m]

Definitely bring back Emma as a guest for this.

[@ltu42]

Why would someone living in Switzerland come to dreary autumn England on their weekends? Besides, isn't Emma a slow-twitcher, and hillclimbs largely anaerobic efforts?

[@tychoMX]

@@ltu42 5 km at 6.2%, aerobic enough for her, I'd say.

[@chrisko6439]

@@ltu42 You are right, I thought about this fact, too. But there are longer hill climbs available. Also GCN could make a trip to Switzerland!

[@brauljo]

Hmm finally catching up to BikeRadar in this regard

[@denisspratt926]

Remember back when i was a teenager about 20 years ago. I used to race back then, now i just ride for fun. But we had one hillclimb every season. It was 3,5 km long and had a average about 11%. But that was quite fun, and i did quite well in that race. And here in Norway we don't have that many hillclimb races.

[@martinmouat8321]

Time for the return of the brick!

[@rickgoodwin6765]

Oh this is a Chris Opie Challenge for sure.

[@rickgoodwin6765]

@@StopTheRot Hahaha, yeah your probably right. Still would be fun to watch. I am starting to believe it should be a presenter challenge. The whole crew.

[@donaldrieger381]

Presenter Challenge: Si, Jeremy & Mark. Let each choose bike specs, and have Jon build the bikes

[@wolfeb99]

I think safety bicycles were pretty common by the 1880s when the first hill climb you mentioned was happening

[@moetarded7757]

I won state title for hill climb as a junior. I remember my heart rate a average was 202 bpm 2007 Mt. Hood. I think it is time to go back up.

[@MarioFavini]

Well guys, it's so strange to hear that hillclimb races are considered so wierd in the Uk! In Italy we have a lot of CTT events, and are like the "basic step" for italian cyclists... Usually we have two kind of CTT races: the classic ones, like the one you described in the video, and the "Mediofondo" or "Cicloturistiche" "con salita cronometrata": like a classic road bike race, from 70 to 100 km, but with only one competitive segment, that is a climb TT. Funny, cheep and good for every kind of cyclist!

[@curtisf.r6233]

07:33 was no pain face from the guy in the helmet ;) the guy next to him had a 'pain face' 👍😎

[@gregbowles7133]

Love to see chris take on the challenge

[@johnbouttell5827]

I'd like to see all the GCN presenters have a go

[@budycelyn]

you should do a combined hill climb video with jack and joe from bike radar, john or chris for next year race season

[@palmer3977]

Well done Ed, Cymru am byth mate.

[@johnmoss2582]

All of the GCM presenters should challenge each other

[@kakarot2430]

Please make Lasty enter the race, it's gonna be incredibly relaxing watching him suffer.

[@01FozzyS]

Do it,Jon!!!!

[@sasha371]

James please! He's up for it! Can we have series? Like all hill climbs next year done by James? 😂😁😇

[@peterscuba]

I love hill climbs, sorts out the real fit people

[@prestachuck2867]

Peter Scuba Sorts out the fittest climbing specialists. There are some really fit people who will destroy any of the climbing specialists at a flat and technical crit on any day of the week.

[@stevedouglas3975]

Well a bit of info on the bikes, weight and gearing would help!

[@MarcoP70]

I think Jon, Olie and Lasty. 😁👍🤘🚴‍♂️

[@richardvanderwesten7302]

Fun to see. Maybe next time a report on the Dutch National Headwind Championships?

[@gcn]

Only when we can get a mic with a muffler strong enough to hide the ind noise ;) No but seriously its a great competition and one we'r interested in

[@richardvanderwesten7302]

Stay tuned to nederlandskampioenschaptegenwindfietsen.pr.co/ for the announcement. It needs to be a minimum windforce of 7 at the coast. So stay tuned to the Dutch weather report.

[@nowave7]

It's a shame that Lasty is no longer serving as a presenter. I think he would have been an amazing candidate!

[@gcn]

Lasty is still around don't worry

[@nowave7]

@@gcn Then, would love to see him doing something like this! ;)

[@Ystadcop]

Hayley Simmonds. Potential GCN presenter?

[@pauloosterhout]

Let's enter ALL of the GCN presenters (including John Cannings)! It could be a GCN presenters challenge within the British National Championships. You could even tie the entire event into a series of videos about training for hill climbs and bicycle preparation. Best of all , any GCN presenter that fails to qualify will be kidded and derided for an entire year. Sounds like great fun - especially since I will not be competing. I don't know who will win but my money is on Lasty to win the best pain-face expression.

[@phil3038]

Would love to hill race. Reverse course though as im 5ft 8inches and thats pushing the truth somewhat and 80kg!!! I can beat most if the climb is under 1 minute, but behond that I progressively get slower and slower. Have minimal bodyfat so doesn't matter how hard I train I cant seem to loose any more weight. If anything my legs get bigger and I get heavier. Im just not designed for the hills. But I keep donning the spandex and find a decent hill to embarrass myself on

[@RichardMigneron]

Ollie should enter the 2020 hill climb championship, he did it with his previous job...

[@brauljo]

8:56 lol he doesn't even have to change his accent to get into character.

[@chrisrnz]

Didn't know Gee Milner from Dream Build was a hillclimb racer. Interesting.

[@oldsquashmonkey]

You need to get Ollie & Mannon to do the 2022 season 😁

[@astro61362]

This was very interesting! I love climbing hills!

[@neuspur]

what a positive atmosphere coming through!

[@londonheathrow2233]

great video I nominate GCN TECH TEAM yourself and Ollie get climbing !!!! keep up the great videos cheers clive

[@caillou450]

4:40... love those cows. Woah!

[@robinlarner9325]

Belted Galloway's.

[@caillou450]

Well, well then. All is clear. Loving these cows is in my blood. My great, great grand mother Margaret was a Galloway!! ;-) -true!

[@olivierhiroz346]

How about a challenges like Ollie Bridgewood vs Alan from GCN Italia or Chris Oppie vs Si?

[@DanTuber]

All the gcn guys should do it.

[@jondashun]

Love videos about the British hill climb season. Love if there’d be a similar scene here in Germany.

[@ctrivera3000]

Everyone knows James Lowsley is the designated GCN torturee for these kind of events. I say we do a video series of him properly trying to do get the best results he can during next year's hill climb season.

[@SteffanHarries]

Jon introduces "the hill climb specialist..." and the pictures show 3 Welsh cyclists. Almost as if us Welsh have plenty of experience up hilly terrain 😉💪

[@leedorney]

I would pay DEARLY to see Mr Jon Cannings in lycra bustin his ass on something like this lol, BUT i dont think that would happen so its got to be Ollie, he's soo great in an effort - like a regular guy having a dam good go !

[@skyjuiceification]

People that love bikes and having a bit of tea and biscuits (cookies) after a nut-busting ride. what's not to like about this?

[@mnbv5555cxz]

wow, nice weather you're having

[@ajchaskar]

I'd love to watch Ollie's pain face on that hill climb next year XD

[@WylieCoyote45]

Think you should get EMBN's Streve to do a hillclimb with Dan Ev's

[@endcensorship874]

This video does a great job, quite by accident, of advocating for removing power meters from races.

[@GNARGNARHEAD]

casual hill climbs are bloody good fun though xD an get that bloke with the puffy legs to give it a whirl lol

[@geyster97531]

Presenters challenge of course, or maybe Si !

[@heytreacle]

Jeees GCN. I didn’t think I needed any other bikes 😧