Hill-climb champ: ‘I just ride on feel'

Recently crowned women’s champion Bithja Jones tells Snowdon Sports how she only took up cycling two years ago

- Bithja Jones

Reigning hill-climb champion Bithja Jones has revealed that she has spent much of the last year training for the National Championships with no heart rate monitor or power meter, just riding on feel.

Jones won the hill-climb title last year with a new course record on the short sharp climb of Streatley near Reading. She rode 2.47.9, a good two seconds faster than her nearest rival, Mary Wilkinson (Yorkshire Road Club).

Jones told CW she doesn’t have a heart rate monitor, power meter, or coach.

“If you never ride with a Satnav you know your way around while if you ride with one you then get dependent on it,” Jones said. “I guess it’s similar because I haven’t got all these gadgets. I just have to listen to my body and you get better at that.

“I did slightly more targeted training for this season’s hill-climb season, making sure I did some efforts up hills and hill repeats.”

The single mother of two celebrated her 41st birthday the day after winning the National Hill-Climb Championships.

Originally from Hamburg in Germany, Jones only started cycling seriously two years ago after suffering a running injury and turning to the bike instead.

“I’ve always been passionate about cycling and always went on cycling holidays when I was younger and cycled my children to school,” Jones said, talking about her start in the sport.

“We lived on top of a hill so I always had to cycle a big heavy bike with the children in it.”