A Pathe News video of Kent’s 37th Annual Hill climb championship on Brasted Hill.
Love the braces, woolly jumpers and billowing shirts. Some chaps really look like they are going so slow they are about to fall off. That’s a proper hill climb. The crowds are amazing. I suppose people didn’t have tv to watch or computers to stare at in those days.
Brasted Hill, 667 yards long. (average gradient 1-7)
W Hussey won in a time in 1 min 54 2/5 secs.
98 started!
National hill climb tomorrow on Bank Road. I have a cold, but still hope to turn up and ride.
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Excellent, really enjoyed watching that. The starter seemed to be giving the riders a good push off !
Thanks for posting it up.
C
The course from that year is on Strava: https://www.strava.com/segments/7173252 — Brasted – 1931 Hill Championship (EW Hussey 1:54)
The current KOM is 1:54! Although they did have the advantage in the 1930s that everything appeared to be speeded up ?
I think that push off sent you half way up the hill. No wonder they changed regs to disallow. People were fatigued.
Why does no one refer to national hill climb Champs before 1944. Did they exist but simply under a different organising/governance structure or was this not in fact a national championship but some kind of other championship?
Actually I see you’re reading this as the 37th Kent championships. Maybe that’s correct. Though Ernie wasn’t a Kent rider. Guess it could have been an event open to all.
E.W. Hussey was my uncle. He won the Hill Climb 9 times in a row during the 1930s just before the war curtailed this and other cycling events.