In a characteristic dominant display lending credence to the contention that she is quite possibly the best pure climber of her generation, Illi Gardner added one of North America’s legendary jewels to her heavy QOM crown.
On Saturday, August 16, 2025, Gardner became the fastest woman ever to ascend the Mt. Washington Auto Road on a bike, crossing the line in 0:58:07, a time that placed her sixth overall in the storied race’s 52nd edition.
So the 25-year-old Cardiff, Wales-based visual effects artist packed her bags and flew across the pond to add a few more records to her collection of more than 10,000 Strava climbing QOMs.
Ahead of the race, the multi-time British Hillclimb champion said she was motivated not only by the event’s prestige and reputation, but also by its exclusivity. The Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb is one of the only chances cyclists ever get to ride the mountain, which is otherwise closed to bikes.
Fierce weather levels up the challenge
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Since 1973, a ‘who’s who’ of Tour de France veterans, U.S. national road race champions, and Olympians have measured themselves against the New Hampshire rockpile. The Mt. Washington Auto Road opened in August 1861, over a century before the first official Mt. Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb (MWARBH) was held in 1973. Constructed by hand, the road ascends more than 4,000 feet (1219m) in elevation, traversing 7.6 miles from the base, with an average gradient of 11.8%, peaking at 22% in the final switchbacks.
The epic hill climb’s intimidating pitch and iconic stature highlight the competitive climber’s calendar in mid-August each year, and had earned its reputation of the toughest hillclimb in the US, if not the world. However, it’s the unpredictability of the elements that cements its notoriety, making it truly a box-of-chocolates bike race—a rider never knows what they will face from one mile to the next.
In the U.S.,…