2009 Kilmashogue Hill Climb

For many years there has been an off-road hill climb race up Kilmashogue as part of early and late season training. At the start of the year it's a trial to see where you are at, and at the end, see if you have improved. This year, like the last few years, Team Worc had it as part of their club race.

This year the course has changed a little from when I set the unofficial record (I guess to make it official it has to be in a race) up the climb in 2007. It is pretty much the same with the same start and end points but a slightly more direct run in the middle of the fireroad section meaning that it is about 70 meters shorter. Personally, I preferred the old route – but you gotta work with what you got.




It had been a while since I had used the Schwalbe Furious Fred tires and as the climb is not technical, they were the perfect choice to get a bit of extra speed up the hill. At an astonishing 300 grams each they dropped the weight of my S-Works Epic down to 9kg. The Epic really did feel like my road bike with the setup.


My warmup to the race was not exactly conducive to giving me a fast time. The Shay Elliot Memorial road race on Sunday, a 3.5 hour endurance/tempo MTB ride on Monday and some tired legs when I rolled up to the start line on Tuesday. I didn't feel too bad warming up and the evening was nice (no strong winds) so I thought a fast time was still possible.

The climb profile

Despite being a mass start climb, my strategy was no different than it would have been if it was an individual TT – start easier than you think you should, push hard on the flatter sections (because it is so easy to ease off the power when you are not climbing), and pin it for the last few minutes.

As we started off, I went to the front and for the first minute or two heard a few bikes behind me. As I turned off the tarred road onto the fireroad a few minutes in, I only had Robin Seymour for company. We stayed together for the next minute or two until I increased my tempo on the flatter section – from there on out I just pushed hard to the finish line rolling over in lots of oxygen dept.



At 11:47, I set a pretty good time up the climb that will be pretty tough to beat. When the new section up the climb beds in a little more it should get a little faster and at the end of the season I might just turn up fresh :)

Thanks Team Worc for inviting me along and running the race.

Results are below and there was a report about the race on the Team Worc website.

1 Ryan 11:47
2 Robin 12:37
3 Evan 13:34
4 Joe 14:15
5 Dave 14:34
6 Robert 14:42
7 Ian 14:58
8 Paddy 15:10
9 Andy 15:12
10 Stu 15:20
11 Paddy M 15:37
12 Gordon 15:40
13 Vinnie 16:24
14 Mark 16:39
15 Ray 17:37
16 Rachel 17:55
16 John 17:55
18 Paul H 19:24
19 Owen 19:45