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Even national champions have bad days! We ask hill-climbing queen Illi Gardner about her best and worst rides.

Worst Ride

Something I realised when trying to pick out rides is that our personal opinions are often not in line with what the results look like on paper.

The two events I’ve chosen are both National Championship rides and very much related, as my experience of the 2021 edition at Winnats Pass, my worst ever ride, is largely what made the best so good.

I mention Winnats quite frequently, which is probably a testament to how much it knocked my confidence. I’m still not entirely sure what went wrong but I think it was a combination of different factors.

Being my first championship, I didn’t realise the scale of the event until the day; the level of organisation and number of participants makes it pretty incomparable to your typical weekend hill climb.

I’ve always struggled badly with nerves - even as a child, I’d often have flops in other sports when competing in ‘big’ events. Coupled with the weather - ten degrees, heavy rain - it made for a perfect storm of overthinking and bad decision-making.

For some reason I decided to race in full winter gear (leggings, massive thermal jacket) and even switched to my heavier training wheels because I was worried about wheel slip. This, of course, was ridiculous - the sort of wattage I was producing was nowhere near enough for that to be a risk!

The weather actually improved just before the start and as soon as I set off I knew it was going to be a terrible ride - a mindset which undoubtedly made things worse than they were. I just felt as though I couldn’t push out any power and was just willing the finish line to appear.

Another dampening factor was the sight of masses of spectators walking down the road. I suppose they’d just waited to see the top men battle it out before finding some shelter, but while I didn’t exactly want anyone to be cheering me on this occasion, it was disheartening to see a lack of interest in our race.

I was disappointed with myself because I knew I was capable of far more and it was a sour way to round off an otherwise enjoyable season. But it doesn’t matter what you’re supposedly capable of - being able to ride well on the day is what a championship event is about.

Best Ride

I’m rarely pleased with my performances as I usually feel I’ve messed something up and often find it difficult to produce an exceptional ‘on the day’ ride. I was very happy, however, with the 2022 National Championships on the Old Shoe.

While the ride wasn’t perfect, I crossed the line feeling I’d done all I could regardless of the result. It was the first nationals I’d won which made it really special -- and even more so because it felt like a bit of redemption following on from the previous year’s championship.

The Winnats experience made me extremely nervous for the Old Shoe because I was worried that it would be a repeat experience.

It’s a horrible feeling to prepare for something and then have it all go wrong, so I readied myself by racing as often as possible in an attempt to quell the nerves and get used to the race-day rhythm.

I was still full of doubts on the day, but managed to stay relaxed and knew within the first thirty seconds it wasn't going to be a total disaster. It was a huge relief and I was really pleased with my ride even before knowing the results.

I’ve had Winnats-esque experiences in the years since and will probably never shake the pre-race doubts, but hopefully I’ve learnt something from it. You certainly won’t catch me doing a hill climb in full leggings again! 

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* Photos by Andy Smith and Dave Horrobin.