The grey skies overhanging the climb up Matlock’s Bank Road last Sunday was an explosion of colour – and noise. A sea of coloured coats and screaming spectators formed a 1000+ strong crowd along the 1.1 kilometre climb riders battled up at a gradient of 10.4% on the quest to become Britain’s fastest hill climber at the National Hill-Climb Championships.
On that Sunday in Derbyshire, new victors emerged, including women’s victor Rachel Galler, and reigning champions staked a claim to their titles. Amongst those were fourth-placed woman, Lucy Lee (DAS-Hutchinson), junior women’s victor, Ruby Isaac (Tofuati Everyone Active) and veteran champion, Lesley Fellows.
“I hadn’t done a hill climb for six years,” Lee told Cycling Weekly, reflecting on the challenge that faced her before Sunday’s race, as Isaac too contemplated a novel race – the first back after breaking both her wrists at the Watersley Nations Cup in July.
Lucy Lee tackles Bank Road
(Image credit: Getty Images)
But hill climbing was in Lee’s veins – she’d climbed before she really fell in love with the roads, before she won the Curlew Cup crown and took on the Tour of Britain Women parcours.
“I raced as a child and a teenager, and then took some time out, but hill climbing got me back into racing,” she said.
“You can perform at a really high level without the sort of time commitment required for road racing. So if you’re working full time or studying full time, you can still get that buzz of racing and be competitive without the 25 hour training weeks needed for road racing.”
Amidst a tightly packed road racing schedule and a part-time job as a civil engineer (not to mention dog-mum duties) the National Hill-Climb Championships marked the end of a busy season of road racing for the 27-year-old.
“I did a few practice attempts in a couple of weeks leading up to work out the pacing strategy, but in terms of training, I just relied on my road race fitness.
“I didn’t use my road racing bike. I used a bike that I’ve kept specifically for hill climbing. So it’s an old rim brake canyon with super lightweight wheels, no bar tapes – as light as possible. I only use it for hill climbing.”
Fellows’, on the other hand, uses her Trek Lexa for everything – and on Sunday’s race, it turned heads. Beneath her £150 Trek sat two Lightweight Meilenstein Obermayer CeramicSpeed rim-brake wheels her son, Dave, had sourced from a friend. Costing an estimated £4,799, and weighing just over a kilogram, they are – according to Lightweight – “made for the steepest climbs.”
“Watching the people who are getting very excited about the wheels on my bike on Sunday was quite phenomenal – really, it’s just a wheel,” Fellows laughed.
Fellows had got hooked on hill climbing after years as a triathlete, competing with her son’s David and Ali in races – Lesley swimming, David cycling and Ali running. 61-years-old, recently retired and on a mission to challenge herself on a bike (she’s already ticked off the ride from Land’s End to John o’ Groats she’d vowed to tackle in her 60th year), she set off on a practise ride in Matlock.
“It started off as a bit of a bet,” Fellows said, in a rich Scottish accent. “My son has been hill climbing for quite a while, and he started because he doesn’t like cycling downhill on a bike, so he started going uphill on a bike. And then one year, my husband went up to watch him, and I was ill so I didn’t go. And then we went out for a meal in town, and it was two for one cocktails – and I was quite drunk after that – And they were saying, oh, you know, we watched these women on the hill climb – you’re really strong, I bet you could do it.”
Fellows decided that when she turned 60, she would compete: “And by some absolute luck, I actually won my age group category!”
Lesley Fellows in Matlock
(Image credit: Getty Images)
But Sunday’s race proved a seemingly insurmountable challenge: “I went to see Bank Road, and I looked at and thought, oh my god, what have I done? I can’t get up this hill. That’s ridiculous.”
With a the help of a good talking to, the support of family and friends, and a last-minute swanky wheel swap, Fellows crossed the top of the course, proud and elated.
“I don’t actually remember going up the hill. I do remember hearing my son’s girlfriend shouting, I remember hearing David, and seeing my husband. But apart from that, it’s an absolute blur. It’s like somebody has wiped it from my mind. It was the most bizarre out of body experience ever.”
For junior champion (and national road champion) Ruby Isaac, taking the start line is becoming more and more natural, but the hill climb still surprises the 17-year-old: “it was mental, because you couldn’t see anything [as you raced] – I couldn’t see the corner. I was like, I don’t know where I am on this hill, but, yeah, it was amazing. I loved it.”
It was also Isaac’s first race back after serious injury. Three months of training and rehab, and she was back in the hot seat, another title under her belt.
“It was very good to test the legs, and obviously I was very happy to win, because it’s just nice to win when you didn’t have a nice end to the season. Now it’s been a much better end to it.
“And it was just mental going up the climb with people shouting at you, and then going up the hill about halfway up there was just the crowd was on both sides of the roads. I loved it.”
“The day before the hill climb, I found out that Anna Henderson had the course record at 3:26 – I managed to beat the course record by two seconds. So that was quite good. And then also that my coach was there. It was very nice to have him there, and then see him before and after, and then, yeah, I think it made him very happy as well.”
For both Isaac and Lee, their eyes are already on next year, where a more enjoyable, longer hill climb awaits. Fellows, on the other hand, will do it again for the sheer delight at having conquered something that feels impossible. “It’s a bloody hard sport, you know,” she reminded me, as I began to dream of Derbyshire’s hillsides. But that’s not going to put her off from lining up next year.
She’s recouping back in Solihull now, chickens clucking around her as she talks to me, all of them basking in the late-autumn sun. Isaac’s just pushed off for a training ride, hoping to dodge a forecasted downpour. And Lee is settling down next to her hyperactive labrador back in Bath, explaining to me what makes hill-climbing quite so special:
“You’re racing on the same day as all the different categories, the veterans, the juniors – it’s got more of a relaxed community feel. It’s just very friendly and just completely different to professional road racing,” she said.
“Where else can you line up on the start line and have the same race conditions as somebody as awesome as Andrew Feather?” said Fellows. “There’s no other competition that you can do that you are lining up with the people that are the best in Britain. Even in the London Marathon, you’re separated from the really good people. You don’t get that at a hill climb. It’s pretty much come one, come all.”
Lucy Lee finished in fourth place, in a time of 3:07.6, Ruby Isaac finished as the fastest Junior Woman in a time of 3:24.06, and Lesley Fellows finished in a time of 5:23.4.
