RTTC National Hill Climb Championships – Course Preview

It is somehow already October which means only one thing, it is National Hill Climb Championships. At the time of writing, the race is 11 days away which is a bit far for an accurate forecast but close enough for a detailed course review. This year the champs course is on Porlock Toll Road in Somerset

This image, from the Porlock Weir tourist board’s website, shows a portion of the bottom of the climb. It’s a scenic climb with panoramic views across the Bristol Channel – though we can’t imagine riders will spend much time taking them in during the race.

Porlock toll road is a 4.1 mile climb – one for the long climb specialists. It’s a relatively shallow climb with a decent range of gradients that we’ll go into later, but our best guess (though it’s heavily wind dependent) is that the men’s race will be won in a time around 13:45 and the women’s in a time of around 17:00 (or, wind adjusted equivalent times). All the fastest climbs have been set on days with a strong tailwind. The shallow gradients mean the wind can impact times up here, but this is offset by the shelter most of the way up.

The map

With more than 10 corners and two hairpins, this is a twisty climb. Gabe Dellar, hill climb hitter and friend of myWindsock, told us there’s two points where he had to stop pedalling while riding up the climb when he did his course recon.

In the 1960s it was actually used as an RAC Rally stage, one of the fastest drivers at the time being the late Pat Moss, sister of Stirling Moss, who completed the 4.1 miles in 3 minutes and 56 seconds which is an average speed of over 100kph.

With more than 10 corners, some quite severe, it’s amazing the speed anyone can drive up. As the gradient is very shallow, some riders will have to stop pedalling on their way up.

The profile

This road is a shallow climb. The speeds will be high and it’s one for the lightweight aerodynamic enthusiasts. The sharp corners are sharp enough that a second or two can be gained or lost from bike handling. Tyre choice will be uniquely interesting if it’s wet on the morning of race day – which is looking possible.

A smooth climb that’s relatively sheltered. We can see from the topological elevation being extremely close to the geographical elevation the shelter along the side of the route protects riders effectively from the wind.
The red line here represents the power expended due to gravity, the white line – power due to aerodynamics. Obviously, as this is an up hill race, gravity is the primary resistive force but aerodynamics matters a lot – enough to be the difference at the end of the day.

The road surface

One report we heard back from Gabe was that the road surface on the climb is not perfect. This isn’t a surprise for a small lane in the South West of England but it’s worth bearing in mind. There is also a cattle grid on route. Our tip here is to ride a recon, of course – but with this being a toll road it will cost you a quid if you want to ride up. If you’ve spent all your money on drills to save weight on your hill climb bike but are concerned about the road surface, you can check it out on Street View.

We’ll post a detailed forecast late next week, with predicted times and pacing advice as well as physical wind features.

You can check out the course on myWindsock here.