The iconic University of Bristol Hill climb is back on Belmont Hill for another year! As with the past few years, we will be closing the road again to allow youth entrants, safer racing and a great atmosphere with spectators and a commentator up the climb.
The climb itself is a true classic of Bristol, its fairly short (1.28 km @ 7.8 %) with some variation in the gradient, but is very accessible and a great climb for all levels of ability. As always, we encourage you to bring your family and friends along to make some noise on the climb and witness some top quality pain faces.
This year our HQ has changed to Failand Village Hall, just 1km from the finish line. Riders are not permitted to descend the hill when the course is live, meaning that the route to the start line will be 6.5km via Wraxhill Hill. The only exception is this is for Youth Riders, for which there will be a break in the competition to allow them to descend. Routes will be included in the race manual.
Although this event commonly attracts a high quality field with multiple national champions racing in previous years, as a closed road event so close to Bristol, we really encourage riders of all abilities to give it a go. With this in mind, alongside equal prizes for mens/womens podium (some polka dot jerseys up for grabs!) and team prizes, we will be offering a prize for the fastest man and women who have not ridden a hill climb before (please highlight in the comments when entering if this applies to you!). For the youth riders, we will give out medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd for male and female for each age. Any questions, feel free to email me at evanvdavies@gmail.com. See you on the hill!