00:00Oh Jesus!
00:02Oh shut my mouth!
00:04I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
00:13Hill climbing is probably the toughest discipline in cycling that you've never heard of.
00:17In the months of September and October every year in the UK
00:20you can always find a group of cyclists racing up the most hellish gradient they can find
00:24in what can only be described as second degree fun.
00:27And the format for these events is pretty simple actually.
00:30Basically it's rider against the clock up the steepest piece of tarmac that the organisers can realistically find.
00:36Which is why today we are here at Swains Lane in London for the nichest of niches, an urban hill climb.
00:43Sam has dragged me here today to Swains Lane which is arguably one of the toughest climbs in the capital.
00:48900 metres, an 8% average gradient might not sound like much but this one is going to hurt.
00:5420% maximum gradients, full gas racing and Sam's even got a little trick up his sleeve which is going to make my day even more painful.
01:02That's absolutely right. As an ex-junior hill climb champ I think that you've already got enough of an advantage over pretty much everybody here.
01:09So I've brought along this.
01:18This is the Rally Chopper. Now it was created back in 1972 and then it went on to become really popular in the 80s.
01:25Thanks to films like ET, The Goonies and then more recently Stranger Things.
01:29So this bike really does have a proper cult following which is why you're going to be riding it today.
01:36So Joe, how are you actually feeling about this challenge?
01:38Well, as much as I'm not looking forward to lugging all 18 kilograms of this bike up Swains Lane today, I think it does fit the ethos of the event quite well.
01:47There's Brompton categories today, there's two categories for cargo bikes.
01:51So I think actually I'm not going to be quite as out of place as I might be in a traditional hill climb.
01:57You're going to fit right in to be honest. So if you had a goal for today though, what would you like to achieve?
02:02Well, to put things into perspective, I think the course record for this climb is around just over the one minute mark.
02:08I had a look at what the best Brompton time was last year and that was about 2 minutes 12.
02:12I will genuinely be over the moon with anything less than three and a half minutes.
02:16Three and a half minutes. Okay, I reckon we make that the target for the day.
02:20And if you can get under three and a half, I'd be very impressed.
02:23And actually, to be honest, I'll be impressed if this bike makes it to the top in one piece.
02:50Come on! Come on, Jimmy! Come on, Jimmy! Come on!
02:59Oh, Jesus. Come on, Giampa Val!
03:02Yeah!
03:03Yeah!
03:08Boxer! Boxer! Boxer!
04:03I don't know whether to laugh or cry how you feeling Joe yeah it's been a while since I felt
04:15like this to be honest yeah it was really good fun though I chucked it into gear two to like
04:21start on the less steep bit and it pinged into gear three sat back down knocked into one sort
04:30of measured my effort on the less steep section and then when it kicked up just
04:34yeah yeah yeah it was good
04:37so Joe how'd you get on you know what all in all not too bad um I think pacing as I mentioned
04:48early on camel was pretty good with hindsight actually I think the pacing was better than
04:53I realized initially I thought maybe I went out a little bit too easy but with hindsight I think
04:58I got it pretty much spot on so happy with how I rode and pretty happy with the time as well
05:02so put us out of our misery what was your time two minutes 21 is the the official time but the thing
05:09is I think we need to put some of that into context because I think the winning time of the day um or
05:13the fastest time of the day was 1 17 or 1 18 it was about that so essentially you were you were a minute
05:19off the quickest of the day and we know people have gone slower as well yeah and in fairness I'd be
05:24really interested to see how that compares to the Bromptons as well because as I said last year
05:27I think what two I think it was two minutes 12 or something was the quickest Brompton time but
05:32yeah we'd have to see I'd be really chuffed with that as well to be honest I'm pretty glad I made
05:36you come up on this bike because the amount of love that the rally chopper has had today has been
05:39phenomenal absolutely people have been throwing it back to their past kids have been loving it so
05:44all in all a fantastic day at the urban hill climb if you guys enjoyed the video then please do drop
05:50it a like subscribe to the channel for more content and we will see you again very soon
Comments