It’s a new Dom, it’s a new day, and there’s a new king of the world’s most competitive Strava segment, Box Hill.
On Monday, we reported that the former Irish champion Rory Townsend had rocked up to the famous Surrey climb and taken the crown from Conor McGoldrick, knocking seven seconds off the previous record which had stood for two years, with a 4:13 effort including an average power of 550w and an average speed of 32.7km/h up the five per cent slopes.
Now, with Townsend away racing at the Tour of Britain for Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team, his time has been already been beaten in less than a week, with riders from the Foran Cycling Team embarking on an audacious KOM-hunting mission. Dom Jackson succeeded in knocking eight seconds off Townsend’s effort on the ‘Box Hill 2.2k’ segment, one which according to Strava has been completed 1,394,319 times by 154,270 people.
Like a never-ending tennis match, the Box Hill Strava KOM has been traded back and forth for years now. The iconic climb in the south of England was used by the 2012 Olympic Games road races and the London-Surrey Classic that followed for several years after, with thousands of riders from across the south of England flocking to its hairpins every week.
> World’s most competitive Strava KOM Box Hill smashed by pro cyclist Rory Townsend
Hundreds of top-tier cyclists capable of churning out hundreds of watts like it’s nothing have tried, with the list of elite pros and seasoned climbers who’ve tackled the climb including Oliver Naesen, Daryl Impey, Nathan Van Hooydonck, Arnaud Démare, Thomas De Gendt, Ethan Hayter, Connor Swift, Stefan Küng, Yves Lampaert, Simon Yates, Andrew Feather, Dan Bigham… the list goes on.
For this latest quad-annihilating 4:05 ride, Jackson rode at an average speed of 33.7km/h with his max speed reaching 40.7km/h. His average power output was 518W, with a 911W surge.
Jackson told road.cc: “I guess it starts about a week ago when we (Foran CT) went for it originally, but without too much of a plan, and did like a traditional ’Sky train’ style leadout. At this point Rory Townsend hadn’t done his effort, so we were thinking that getting the KOM was a maybe. When we actually got to the top I knew that I hadn’t got the popular ‘Box Hill 2.2km’ segment, but after uploading the ride I realised that we had managed to take almost all the other full length segments, so we were still pretty pleased.
“Then Rory put heaps of time into that original attempt a day later, and I was a bit sulky about it for a day. But then I was thinking about what it would take to actually get it back!
“After a lot of looking for the perfect weather conditions for it, it seemed that another day was coming up! This time I wanted to control as much as possible about the effort as the algorithm I use to predict my times was saying it was possible with only 510W. I made a little WhatsApp chat which included everyone I thought was needed to make the second attempt a success, and made an instruction document the night before.
“We went and swept the corners about 30 minutes before the start of the effort, and a few tweaks I made to my equipment to ensure that it was the quickest I could possibly make it.”
While having a document prepped for a Strava KOM might get some purists scoffing, there’s no denying the fact that Jackson and Foran CT planned this to perfection. The document, seen by road.cc, even shows that they had four spotters on the blind corners on Zig Zag Road, with Robin Mould acting as ‘Chief corner officer’, his job description being: “Making sure I don’t die around the first corner.”
Foran CT shared the achievement on Instagram and wrote: “Had to go back to give it another go. Executed the plan with Dom Jackson doing what he does best, full send. Proper team effort all round.”
Townsend also commented on the team’s post, giving his stamp of approval for the KOM: “Full km/h quicker… mad.”
Stuart Coleman wrote: “What a team and what an individual effort – great season and a coveted digital trophy from the most ridden Strava segment.”
Just last week, Jackson and co. had already tried to cement their name on top of the Strava leaderboard, with the 2024 Rás Tailteann winner, who also finished 13th in this year’s British National Championships road race, setting a 4:37 on the marginally longer ‘Box Hill (Zig Zag Road)’ segment that finishes at the cafe.
However, Townsend showed up a day later and took the KOM for that segment as well, along with the more popular shorter segment. Speaking to road.cc, Townsend called the effort “a nice confidence booster”, especially having “not been well the last few weeks”.
“I’ve been up there nearly 200 times on Strava alone, so just to get up there with a PR felt significant,” he said. “I had the segment on my Garmin for the ‘2.2k’ sector, but I didn’t realise the ‘official 100 climbs’ segment finished at the cafe, thankfully had a some time in hand to nab that too.
“It was a clean run and a warm day too, which is always better when setting a time. I always go out hard on those kind of efforts, but that works well as it’s a bit steeper at the bottom, then I knocked it off a bit before the final switchback to have something for the sprint at the end.”
9 thoughts on “Box Hill Strava KOM smashed (again) as cyclist conquers iconic climb at 33.7km/h”
All very good but missing the
All very good but missing the crucial information about whether he had an ice cream or the curried cauliflower pasty at the NT cafe and how long that took. As any Box Hill regular knows, queue length and server efficiency is the critical element in the time achieved on a Box Hill cycle.
I had one of the NT Oat and
I had one of the NT Oat and Blueberry Scones on Sunday. Insanely good. cannot reccomend enough
Iconic climb, really? A shoe
Iconic climb, really? A shoe box has a steeper gradient.
dubwise wrote:
Iconic can simply mean well known and popular, both of which indisputably apply to Box Hill. Of course with an average gradient of 3.9% it’s hardly Ventoux, but with a steepest hundred metres of 10.9% and extended sections of 8% to 9% at the bottom it ain’t nothing…as with many climbs, it’s as hard as you make it, as you can see from Townsend’s power numbers.
The gradient of a shoebox presumably depends on whether you’re riding across the top or up the sides…
Dammit, I was all prepared to
Dammit, I was all prepared to go knock a couple of seconds off Rory Townsend’s time this weekend – but I don’t think I’ll bother now.
Meh. Anyone who’s anyone
Meh. Anyone who’s anyone knows that the only time that counts up Boxhill for the KOM/QOM is a solo ride.
maryka wrote:
Hard to police – for my (frankly pathetic 7m+) best time up there I was technically on my own, but I jumped on the back of a cycle club chain for the bottom part and then halfway up got behind a Transit that happened to be going at just the right pace for me so got an aero tow to the top.
Enter a real race if you want
Enter a real race if you want to take it seriously (as Maryka has done in the past). Strava is just a recording tool, I don’t get why anyone would care too much.
Simon E wrote:
I don’t take it seriously and I don’t care too much, indeed I was just pointing out a reason not to take it too seriously because you never know how the times against which you are comparing yourself were achieved.