We Entered A Hill Climb Race And This Is What Happened

It’s hill climb season in the UK, and we’re settling an age-old question at GCN: who is the best climber?
Dan, Ollie, and Conor are battling it out on the brutal hills of Bath in two back-to-back local races and
in a controversial move, Alex and Chloe have ditched the team to chase a bigger prize pot at a different event 30 miles away!
With bragging rights, pride, and maybe even a spot at the National Championships on the line, the trash-talking is as fierce as the gradients.
Who has the strategy, who has the strongest pain face, and who will be crowned the GCN “King of the Hill”?

00:00 Who Is The Best GCN Climber?
01:04 Meanwhile Alex & Si…
02:07 Bath CC Hill Climb & VC Walcott
02:42 Alex & Chloe’s “Brutal” Climb
03:42 Pre-Race Warm Up & Nerves
04:27 Race 1: Bath CC Hill Climb
06:44 Meanwhile on Zig Zag Hill
07:31 Race 1: The Results Are In!
10:16 Alex & Chloe’s Race Finish
11:04 Conor’s Pinarello Dogma F
11:41 Dan’s Canyon Endurace
12:49 Ollie’s Orbea Orca
13:39 A Presenter Down: getting ready for race 2!
15:28 Race 2: VC Walcot Hill Climb
17:15 Race 2: The Final Results!
18:44 Is This A Qualifier For The Nationals?

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[Music] Who at GCN is the best climber? We are about to find out. It is hill climb season now here in the UK and that can only mean one thing. Andrew Feather is about to win a million bike races. But for once, this isn’t a video about Andrew Feather. This is about us. We’ve entered some local hill climbs to find out once and for all who is the best GCN climber of all time. Not of all time, not once and for all. I mean, back in 2006, I won two UCI ranked races. One was Hilly and the other was mountainer. So, clearly back then, I was the best climber. I was only 14 back then. Well, this kind of proves my point, Connor. It’s not about the here and now. It’s about what we were and what we can be in the future, but it will prove it for today. Anyway, you might have noticed there are only three of us here. And that is because Alex Payton has chosen to race a different hill climb about 30 mi away in a place called Shbury. Why? Cuz he’s a loser. Not just because he’s a loser. He’s got more prize money and he thinks that he and Chloe are going to clean up. All right, guys. All right, guys. That’s so shallow. And even if Well, they’re not going to win. But even if they do win, they have to share the prize money with all of us. Oh, there’s company rules. Company rules. Well, that’s a good point. Actually, let’s hope they do win. They won’t. Well, what I’m saying is, let’s hope they do. Anyway, the other glaring emission from our lineup today is Sigh. Oh, yes. Sigh. In reality, Sai is quite fearful that viewers are going to find out he’s nowhere near as fit and strong as those heavily edited videos make him look. But what he’s saying is that he had to go to gymnastics. I’m on my way to gymnastics, I’m afraid. So, um, I would have been the fastest without doubt. All right, Sigh, get off your high pommel horse. Anyway, for the three of us who’ve actually made the effort to be in the same place at the same time, we’re actually competing in two hill climbs today, both very close to GCM Mega Base in Bath. So the first one uh this morning is Bath Cycling Club’s hill climb. It goes up North Road in Bath and finishes up at the University of Bath. It’s 1.2 km long with an average gradient of 8% and it’s the longer of the two ones we’re doing today. Yeah. Then this afternoon we’ll effectively be on the other side of the same hill taking part in the VC Walcott hill climb which is 800 meters at 10%. The hill climb we’re doing is absolutely brutal. Clearly, it’s going to be much tougher than the one you guys are doing. How long is it, Chloe? 3.8 km. Yeah, it’s 50% faces. So, clearly the toughest. Yeah. Brutal. It’s a 2 and 12% average gradient, you absolute muppet. You can barely even call that a climb. Yeah. Good luck in the National False Flat Championships, losers. Right. I think we should finish the trash talking, start warming up. Well, to be fair, Alex and Chloe don’t even need to warm up because they’ve got a short flat section before that false flat even starts. But for us, you’re right. We probably should get going. What time are you guys off? I’m off at 10 past 10. I think I’m last with you guys. 10 of 7. But why am I off first? You’d have thought they want to build up to a big crescendo rather than risk all the crowds dispersing after I’ve come to the finish line. Should you tell him or shall I? Maybe. Maybe you tell him. I’ve done a pretty bloody good job of that, even if I do say so myself. It’s been a long time ago, like I said, since I did a hill climb, but uh the fresh seems the pain the pain seems fresh in my mind. I know it’s going to be very very painful from about a minute to 4 minutes or however long it takes. Doesn’t matter how much pain I go through. If I beat the others, it’ll all be worth it. Morning. Morning. I think I’m looking forward to this. Thank you. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Right, [Music] Ben. I’m off. Try and stay seated on this first section. And around this bend, it gets steep. I’m just going to absolutely give it my best from here out the saddle. [Music] [Music] Oh, that was absolutely horrifically brutal. [Music] That last minute dragged hill climb. Let’s go. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Right, we’re just waiting for the official result. Got a fair idea of how we all got on. I have you not? I don’t have a clue. It’s in dark still. Really? Yeah. Yeah. All right. I thought we all knew roughly. Did you not start the lap time on your Wahoo? Well, no, I did. I didn’t. I got a bit confused so I didn’t know my time. But I’ve managed to get a photo of the provisional results. Oh, have you? Okay. So, we’re now we’re now going to find out. Well, I’ve got a good idea. Okay. We get in reverse order. You should do reverse order. Let’s do reverse order. Who is the best GCN presenter of all time? No. On the morning of Sunday the 5th of October 2025. Do you say so Dan? Last race today. Third place was was Dan in a time of 3 minutes and 39. 09. Okay, good job back. Yeah, solid time. In second place. Here we go. Why are you looking at me? Why is there only two of you left? He doesn’t want to look at himself, is he? He’s a mirror, Connor. In second place was me. Yeah, but it was close. So close. I was going through my wahoo and looking at the time and from what you said, I knew it was going to be close. So I did 3 minutes 1969 provisionally and you did 3 minutes 1653. Really? Gosh, it’s close. Like what? Like three seconds in a less. Three seconds. Three seconds. Well done. That’s impressive. What’s the course record on there? Um two 53 I believe. Cry. 20 seconds of the course record. Yeah, but there’s I think that’s a big 20. It’s like being being 20 seconds behind Usain Bolt. 20 seconds is nothing. That’s all you beat me by. Yeah, roughly a little bit more than that. I’m happy with my effort though. Happy my pacing. Yeah, but you how many watts did you do? So, I did 507. Wow. Average, right, Gon? I managed to pace it right. So, it dipped off in the middle and I brought it back a bit at the end. So, I’m not sure I did manage to pace it right because I’ve just looked at my power and for the first two minutes I averaged 474 watt and by the finish a minute and a half later it was just over 400 W. I didn’t I actually didn’t think it was quite as bad as it was the pacing because I caught my minute man towards the end. And I’m thinking absolutely flying here. You know, three and a half minute effort. Caught my minute, man. Could be on for course record and prize money for the win. Yeah, it’s such a hard effort there. I forgot how hard it was. A minute in I just all the lactic arms and legs. You know when you’re standing up and you’re actually worried whether you can still stand up on the bike. I just didn’t want to sit down. So you’re both forgetting this is a double header. We’ve got another one now. We’ve got round two. That’s the thing. Halfway up I thought let’s save it for this afternoon. Yeah, that’s what I thought as well. Yeah, good plan. Right. Well, we’re going to rest, wait for the official results. But whilst we do that, let’s find out how Alex got on. Okay, we finished. It’s like hurricane winds at the top. But the good news is the wind was behind us. I didn’t think I was going to catch you there. Uh, what time did you get? 8 minutes 9 seconds. Average power 236 W average. Max, 47. I did 405 by average and a max of one second. I don’t have my max. Oh, your max power 783. Oh, only you caught me towards the end. I thought I was going to catch you sooner. You just went blowing fast. Right over to those absolute jokers doing the bath hill climb. The easy one. See you in a bit. [Music] This is the bike I’ve opted for on today’s hill climb. My Pinerella Dogma F. Still with my 165 mil cranks as I’ve been using on most of my rides at the moment. Begrudgingly, I have had to leave my handlebar bag and my saddle bag at home to go as lightweight as possible. Give me the best chance. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t get any smaller light. So, Dan and Ollie were laughing me my my big boy at the front. But at least I’ll be seen. And with my Wahoo Track tracker radar at the back, I’ll know if anyone’s trying to catch me, but should farewell today. And hopefully the legs fare even better. That might be wishful thinking. Some of you may recognize my bike for today because it’s the same Canyon that I used for that 350k charity ride back in the summer. Now, the reason I chose their Endura CFSLX is because it’s very comfortable on long rides. I can already tell you after the first race this morning, it doesn’t mean you’re comfortable over a 3 and a half minute effort. Uh not many changes really over the bike I used back in the summer there. Uh the one thing really is that the lights are different. I decided unlike Connor, I didn’t need the Wahoo radar at the back and so I’ve swapped them out. The two lights that I thought would be slightly lighter than those other ones. Uh so full 105 electronic group set. I’ve got the lightweight elite drive wheels here and the Pirelli tires. Like I said, the same as I’ve been using out on the road over the last few months. I just thought I’m comfortable on this bike. No need to change it. Oh, one thing I have realized since my first race is that I did forget to take this tool pack out of the top tube. So, I’ve been going up with a canister, a multi-tool, and quite a lot of other stuff here as well, which I shall be taking out before the second one. Here’s my bike for the hill climbs. Orbea Orca. It’s a new one actually. I’ve just got and it’s got a bare carbon finish on it which saves a bit of weight. Um, which I think looks really smart with the uh the sort of copper metallic logos. Um, also no bar tape on there. Saves about 150 g. Carbon Celler Italia saddle. Uh, we’ve got Vision Metron RS wheels which despite being 45 mil deep are actually still pretty light about 1,250 g a pair cuz arrow still matters. TPU tubes. uh speed waxed chain and um titanium through axles. 6.3 kilos. Boom. That’s including the Wahoo and the pedals and the lights. Oh, and I forgot full ceramic speed bearings throughout. Beautiful. All right, let’s get on. So, we are just under an hour from hill climb two for the day. And you might have noticed that three has gone down to two. What’s Connor’s excuse? Well, irrespective of what Connor’s excuse is, the reality of the situation is that Connor has bonked and just was unable to take on a second hill climb in one day. Yeah. He said basically 4 hours was not long enough to replenish all the glycogen that he used in his 3 and 1/2 minute hill climb this morning. So, well, he was contemplating on taking a gel halfway up the 3minute climb this morning. Well, maybe he should have done maybe turned up to the second one had he actually done that. Right. So the second one you told us this morning but slightly shorter 7 or 800 m but steeper but still shorter by duration if the straa is anything to go by which I think should suit me more. Plus I’ve taken these tools out of the top tube O so I think you should be a little bit worried. Well yeah you well I mean yeah so it suits you this kind of short effort does it? Yeah I’m bit like a minute to minute 40 is like my peak sort of effort. Yeah. How long’s the gravel worlds? Yeah, that’s probably about 6 hours. It would be five and a half, but I’m not suited to the longer duration. Right. Okay. There we go. I mean, it is a good point. This is a I think I think it would be good. I mean, yeah, like your your Flanders pedigree. You’re a punchy rider. Did that K the other a few weeks back. Exactly. I mean, this is a mere warm up this morning for this afternoon. So, I think this afternoon is really the one that counts. Um, that’s what I’m saying in my head. Oh, yeah. Best of two. Um, well, yeah, a sort of two-minute effort. It does, I would say, does not suit me, but I’ll give it my best. Okay. All right. And um like I said, this one decides at all. Yeah. [Laughter] Take that as a no. [Music] [Applause] [Music] 3 2 1 go. [Music] [Music] Clear. Let’s try again. Heat. Heat. [Music] Okay. Yeah. Love you. All right. Could I start by saying Ollie, well done for turning up to both hill climbs today. I feel like that automatically puts us first and second overall. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Because one guy who came second in the hill climb/falls flat champions that Alex did earlier on today, he turned up to this afternoon’s hill climb. So, he did two. What’s Alex’s excuse? Yeah. Or Connors or size, frankly. Gymnastics. Right. We should probably go through the results from the uh VC Walcott Hill climb we’ve just done. Yeah. So, um I managed to make the podium of the veteran category. You did? Yeah. Second vet. Uh 17th overall, but second vet. So, that’s what that’s what matters. I did it in uh 2 minutes 27 seconds and I did 233. So closer, much much closer than this morning, but not close enough. And I wasn’t even on the vets podium. And they didn’t even have a vets podium. Actually, you weren’t called out, were you? You were gutted. They forgot. Yeah. Uh, but a thoroughly enjoyable day. I mean, I haven’t done a hill climb since 2008. I mentioned that earlier in the video. In some ways, for good reason, cuz they are quite painful, aren’t they? Yeah. But I enjoyed it. About an hour after the finish now, I think I can say I enjoyed it. The second one, the crowds as well today. It was great. And it was great to see, you know, lots of children doing it. Lots of women doing it, like people, you know, of all sort of ages and abilities. Fantastic. And um well, it’s made me excited for the national now. Oh, you’ve revealed it now. Well, should we do it? Well, yeah. We we didn’t say throughout this video, but the reason we came to these two is to find out if we might be able to qualify for the National Hill Climb Championships, which are in about 3 weeks time, aren’t they? So, we’ll find out in the next few days, and hopefully, fingers crossed, uh we’ll all be there, except for Sai, who thinks he’s got swimming on that particular day, isn’t he? Right. Thanks very much for watching this video. If you’ve enjoyed it, please give it a huge thumbs up just down below. I’d like to say thanks to Bath Road Club and to VC Walcott and all the volunteers actually, not just from today in this hill climb, but around the country. There’s so many volunteers that make these events and the time charge and the road races happen. So, thank you very much. Anything else to say, Ollie, before we finish? No, just what losers the other guys are. I know. Yeah, I’m happy with second from the GCM team. I I think so. I mean that’s you’re the second best climber at GCN of all time. Exactly. Yeah. And that might go to first at the National Hill Climb. See you then.