UK hill climb season is approaching its frantic crescendo this weekend in the small town of Matlock, Derbyshire. Over 400 competitors will tackle the truly formidable Bank Road, an 834 metre blast at an average gradient of 11%, but that includes a flatter final section that goes some way to disguising the maximum slopes of 22% that exist at the tail end of the main drag. It’s a brute.
UK hill climbs are not governed by the UCI, but rather by CTT (Cycling Time Trials) and as such the rules governing everything from sock height to tube depths go totally out of the window, as does the usually ever-present 6.8kg weight limit. As long as you’ve got a helmet and lights you’re basically good to go and can ride whatever you like, which means we get to see some truly mad weight weenie builds that, if I’m being honest, scare me a little.
Perhaps none are more sketchy than the new race rig of defending champion Harry MacFarlane. Last year he stormed to victory aboard a 16 year old bike – a 2008 Cervélo RS covered in paint pens – overturning the incumbent Andrew Feather in the process.
This year he’s aboard something newer, and dare I say much more sketchy. A rim brake Trek Emonda, stripped of paint and decked out in some mad frankenparts, but perhaps the most terrifying thing is the logos on the downtube, which have been physically cut out from the downtube and inlaid with a single layer of carbon weave to create an ultralight ‘MAC’. I shouldn’t have to say this, but don’t try this at home. Why did he do this, I had to ask, given as it will only save a handful of grams at most?
“Why not”, was the simple answer.
I’ll be bringing you a full tech gallery from the event shortly, but this build is worth poring over in detail as a wonderful amuse-bouche.
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