MINEHEAD CYCLING CLUB PRESENT

PORLOCK
HILL
CLIMBS
2023

Porlock Hill Climbs - September 14th/15th, 2024

New in 2023 and continued for 2024; 3 Hills Weekend in association with Bridgwater Cycling Club.

Saturday 14th September: Crowcombe Hill. Average gradient 14%, 25% at its steepest. 0.7miles long. For the sprinters!

9.00am Sunday 15th September: Porlock Hill Main Road. Average gradient 12% with 25% at its steepest, 1.25 miles. Followed by…

11.00am Sunday 15th September: Porlock Hill Toll Road. Closed for the day. About 4.2 miles and an average gradient of 5.5%. ‘A perfectly engineered Alpine climb’.

Porlock Hill Main Road is known as the steepest A-road in the country with many stories of cars overheating going up and burning brakes coming down. 2022 was the first time ever that there was a competitive hillclimb on the Porlock Hill Main Road.

This will be followed by the longer, gentler and most definitely more scenic 4.2 mile Porlock Hill Toll Road. Our thanks go to Porlock Manor Estate for allowing the use of this private road that is closed to a traffic for the duration of the events.

These are separate events, you may enter one, two or all three (there will be a combined prize).

Event Information 2024

The 3 Hills weekend is a combined event with Bridgwater Cycling club providing the opportunity to ride 3 classic climbs over the weekend of 15th/16th of September. Crowcombe Hill, the Porlock Hill Main Road and Toll Road climbs are an essential part of any south west riders route planning.

As a warm up Crowcombe Combe is a very steep climb of less than a mile. It climbs a crazy 188m in just 0.7 miles. For the hardnuts the Porlock Hill Main Road climb is short and sweet (!), about 1.25 miles including 1 in 4 bends and a stiff climb to the finish. For the connoisseur, Porlock Toll Road is fine wine offering a classic climb with 4.2 miles of constant 5-6% ascent. Add to that the glimpsed, spectacular views of the Bristol Channel and surrounding country and you’re in Hill Climber’s heaven.

There will be prizes for each event and also combined awards for undertaking all three climbs. Events can be entered individually through the CTT website, details below.

The Porlock Hill Climbs are not just races but a community event supported by the village. Minehead CC is indebted to the Porlock Porlock Manor Estate for vehicle free use of the Toll Road, and the community for their support on the day. Finally the Village Hall hosts the event headquarters with parking and changing facilities at Porlock Recreation Ground. The vocal support for the riders will come from Minehead Cycling Club friends and supporters, locals and holidaying visitors, so come and join in.

The event offers exciting racing where National Men’s Hill Climb Champion, Ed Laverack smashed the Toll Road course record in 2020. Over the years we have seen riders of similar quality battle it out. However this event is not just about the overall winners, a Hill Climb time trial is also an individual event where your real competition is yourself.

To help your preparation Past National Champion Tejvan Pettinger reviewed our first event in 2013 in his blog Cycling Uphill. Author of Greatest Cycling Climbs, Simon Warren, picks the Toll Road as one of his favourites and to get a taste of the 2020 action see KOM Hunter’s YouTube video.

Porlock offers a variety of overnight accommodation, restaurants, cafes and other facilities to look after riders and their families during the event weekend. Details can be found on the Porlock village website or simply phone Porlock Visitor Centre (Tel: 01643-863150) who offer a wealth of knowledge and will be only too pleased to help you. For more information about the Toll Road see the Porlock Manor Estate website.

The event is part of CTT West District Hard Riders series and we welcome participants in this challenge. Points are allocated to riders taking part in the series that include a number of hill climbs and time trial events during the season. For more information see the CTT West District Hard Riders website and their Facebook page.

How To Enter

For those of you that are regular time trial competitors please just go ahead and enter as normal. If you have not previously entered a time trial or hill climb through the Cycling Time Trials system before don’t worry, it’s quite straightforward, follow the guidance below.

TO ENTER ONLINE

Follow this direct link to the event page of the Cycling Time Trials website:

For the Bridgwater CC Crowcombe event

For the Main Road

For the Toll Road

Note that we are in the “West” area. The Porlock Hill Main Road and Toll Road are separate events so you can choose to enter one or both. Just to be clear, to enter both you need to enter each one.

You will need to be member of CTT affiliated club, and this can be checked on the CCT website. If you are not a affiliated club member don’t worry, Minehead CC offer a day membership at £10, go ahead and put Minehead CC on the entry form and pay the £10 on the day when you collect your number.

Entry is on a ‘first come first served’ basis. Please be aware that as part of the entry you will be asked for a 10 mile time trial time so that we can correctly place you in the start order, if no 10 mile time, you will be grouped with similar riders. There will be no entry on the day.

For riders local to Somerset, Wellington Wheelers run a 10 mile time trial series throughout the summer that provides the opportunity to obtain a qualifying time and is an opportunity to eye up the local opposition for the hill climb! For details of this series see the Wellington Wheelers website.

For entrants under 18 years of age parental consent to take part is needed, where a signed parental consent form must be provided on collection of your number at the start of the event. A copy of the parental consent form may be downloaded here: Parental Consent Form

Any problems please email us: ride@porlockhillclimb.co.uk

Here’s Phil of the Bike Racing Without Mercy YouTube channel riding the Toll road in Summer 2020.

Porlock Hill Climbs 2023 - RESULTS!

We can be heroes, just for one day.

Torrential rain, thunder and lightning didn't stop the event, although it was a close-run thing. Lucky that the Main Road start was next to the Ship Inn, at least there was a bit of shelter. They kept turning up so we kept sending them up the hill, into a river, into the gloom they went. Going up was one thing, the real hazard was getting back down again, several walked the steep bits, not trusting numb hands and wet brakes.

With a 2-hour gap until the Toll Road start it was a challenge to keep warm in the relentless rain. West Somerset was flooded. Skin suits? Wellies and full waterproofs more like.

Minehead CC would like to thank everyone who was there on the day, it was an epic show.

The Triple

This was the first of the 3-race weekends Minehead CC and Bridgwater CC promote. The Crowcombe climb on Saturday afternoon kicked off the weekend, followed by the two Porlocks on Sunday.

Ed Laverack took the men's overall, Illi Gardner the womens.