Socks4Watts Traditional British Hill Climb Announced

Fridays, 6:45PM UTC/1:45pm EST/10:45am PST

Are you familiar with a traditional British hill climb? It involves months of dedicated training for a few minutes of pain, as you try to set your best possible time up a short (but steep) hill.

Now you can Join Socks4Watts for a virtual take on the classic.

About Hill Climbing

Hill climb events typically (but not always) take place on a short climb with a steep gradient, with the effort range between 1 minute and 10 minutes in a time trial format. The first UK hill climb recorded took place in 1880, some 23 years before the first Tour de France.

One of the most unique aspects of hill climbing is the relentless pursuit of weight savings – competitors will go for the lightest possible setups, which sees some riders using a fixed gear so that they can forgo a rear brake, or take a saw to the handlebar drops to save a few grams!

British national hill climb championships have been won by big-name riders such as Chris Boardman and Malcolm Elliott. The Rake Hill Climb in Lancashire in the North of England is the self-titled richest race in cycling, with its 12% average (max 23%) over only 900 metres paying out some big prizes (reward versus distance traveled!)

For an in-depth history of hill climbing in the UK, check out this article from The Peloton Brief and a video from GCN:

About the Zwift Event

For the Socks4Watts Traditional British Hill Climbs on Zwift, drafting is turned off, so select your lightest bike and wheel combination (no sawing off your drops). Use the route until the climb as your warm up, and finish the route after the climb as you cool down. Only the time up the KOM counts on the final leaderboard.

Our first climb is the iconic Leith Hill on the Greatest London Loop circuit. The KOM is 1.95km at an average gradient of 6.9%.

Note that the route must be completed for your KOM time to count.

Results will be available on ZwiftPower shortly after the race. This format takes a bit of jiggery-pokery on ZwiftPower, so the event for now is a trial. If successful, we will look to host a full series of hill climbs.

About Socks4Watts

Socks4Watts is a small UK-based business selling aero socks with attitude. During lockdown, our TTT ladies team set record after record in our unicorn kit, and the team has expanded to now be an even mix of men and women taking part in most of the major Zwift racing series.

Check us out on Facebook or ZwiftPower if you would like to join, or for all of your aero socks needs, check out Socks4Watts.com.

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