This is Malcolm Elliott on top of the Derbyshire hill he owns. His 1 minute 14.2 seconds record, set in 1981, remained the benchmark when the Monsal Hill Climb returned this year on Sunday 4 October. Forty-five years unbeaten; the longest-standing course record in British hill climbing.
For most of the year, Monsal Head belongs to walkers, sightseers and families buying ice creams. Below them, the River Wye winds through the limestone scenery of the Peak District. Once a year, though, this peaceful viewpoint becomes a coliseum, its banks packed with spectators urging cyclists through a brief, brutal examination of power and nerve.
First held in 1930, the event began with friends timing one another up what was an unmade road. C Newell of Sheffield Phoenix won that opening edition. The climb became an autumn institution, its record a prize coveted by generations of riders.
In 1957, a 19-year-old Tom Simpson clocked 1 minute 23.4 seconds. Within three years he was riding the Tour de France; in 1965 he became Britain’s first professional world road race champion. His Monsal time survived for 23 years, acquiring something of its owner’s mystique.
Then Elliott arrived. The Sheffield rider reduced Simpson’s mark to 1 minute 20.6 seconds in 1980, before taking another 6.4 seconds off the following year. Even Calum Brown’s exceptional 2018 ride fell three tenths short.
When I asked Elliott to revisit the hill, his explanation was disarmingly simple. He had used a fixed gear, making gear choice crucial, but there was no magic shortcut. “It’s easy to overdo it at the start or save too much, you’ve got to get it so you are all out at the end.”
Across 675 yards, the road steepens towards the finish, where the crowd’s roar meets legs already screaming. Elliott mastered that balance better than anyone. Bikes, equipment and training have changed; the time they are all chasing still belongs to him.
Words - Chris Sidwells
Photo Credit - Chris Auld
