Week in Training: How Tom Bell prepared for the National Hill-Climb Champs

The reigning champion talks us through his final week of training ahead of the main event

Tom Bell competing in the 2021 National Hill-Climb Championships
(Image credit: Andy Jones)

Want to know how the best riders in the world train? For each article in this long-running MY WEEK IN TRAINING series from Cycling Weekly's print edition, we sit down with an elite rider who talks us through a recent week of training in granular detail. This month's subject is reigning national hill climb champion Tom Bell...

Former mtb marathon national champion Tom Bell turned his attention to hillclimbing in 2020 and has since become a force to be reckoned with in the discipline. The 31-year-old is a full-time performance consultant, working alongside his wife Dr Emma Wilkins as High North Performance. Having finished second in the National Championships in 2020, Bell upped the ante for this year’s event on Winnats Pass. Here, he tells us how he made his final preparations in the week of the race.

Thank you for reading 20 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

David Bradford
Fitness editor

David Bradford is fitness editor of Cycling Weekly (print edition). He has been writing and editing professionally for more than 15 years, and has published work in national newspapers and magazines including the Independent, the Guardian, the Times, the Irish Times, Vice.com and Runner’s World. Alongside his love of cycling, David is a long-distance runner with a marathon PB of two hours 28 minutes. Having been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in 2006, he also writes about sight loss and hosts the podcast Ways of Not Seeing.