road to gold
Hannah Clough, BUCS Hill Climb champion
Joe Wakelin | December 22nd, 2025
how structured training delivered a gold medal with just 7-9 hours per week
A Switchback Performance case study
Hannah Clough is a Category 2 road racer and hill climb specialist who has been coached by Switchback Performance since March 2025. Her main goal for the 2025 season was competing for a top 10 result in October’s National Hill Climb Championships, and winning BUCS (British Universities College Sport) Hill Climb the following week. Not only did she succeed in both goals, she did so whilst balancing her training with an intense workload as a medical student at the University of Nottingham. Achieving these goals required strategic, targeted planning which made the most of the limited time she had available – just 7-9 hours per week. This article will explain the rationale behind this planning and how she executed it.
Instilling her motivation to commit 100% to training was the vital first step to envisioning a clear path to success. Therefore, we sat down and analysed the data from her hill climb results from 2024; we quickly realised that she had the physiological capacity to improve on her podium (finishing time of 3:10) at BUCS and achieve a top result at nationals.
Whilst the hill climb season was Hannah’s primary goal, this was still 6 months away at the time she began her coaching programme. We decided to set some secondary goals to keep her motivation high; road racing on the national circuit fulfilled these criteria perfectly. With this in mind, we set about creating a plan that took both her short-term and long-term goals into account, whilst managing her time effectively; as a busy medical student, it was essential that we maximised every pedal stroke of her training.
As a hill climb specialist, it was clear that Hannah had the punch to achieve some top-class results in road races – the UK domestic scene generally consists of circuit races containing multiple short climbs below 5 minutes in length. It was evident that this perfectly suits her in her first race as a Switchback athlete – the Capernwray Northern Road Race, a prestigious National B. Following a stellar top 30 at CiCLE 2 weeks prior, and a strong performance at Peaks 2 day before that, Hannah carried her form, managing a brilliant 7th place, and with it 27 points.
“We maximised every pedal stroke”
We decided that the best course of action would be to build on Hannah’s already exceptional punch and explosivity, whilst simultaneously improving her threshold power to a level which would make a huge difference to her ability to perform in hard one-day races. Following a tough, high-volume week-long training camp in Mallorca with the University of Nottingham Cycling Club, she began a structured programme consisting of 7-9 hours of training per week. The key session every week was 40/20s, in ~8-minute blocks – a classic VO2 Max workout which also brings enormous benefits to threshold power. Coupling this with aerobic endurance rides (60-65% of her FTP) and frequent weekend racing proved to be an optimal combination; her form improved dramatically, yet she was sufficiently recovered for every key session and race.
The results speak for themselves. Through consistent execution of the structured workouts, Hannah was able to accumulate 128 points over the course of the road racing season, with highlights being a 6th place in the East and West Midlands Road Race Championship (North West regional champion), 5th place at BUCS Road Race, a top-25 at the Lincoln GP – arguably the most prestigious road race on the UK domestic calendar – and a particularly hard-fought 11th place on GC in the newly-founded Ronde van Wymeswold. She ended her road racing season in August and enjoyed a holiday before switching focus to the main goal of the year – the hill climb season.
To achieve a top 10 at nationals and win BUCS, Hannah needed to increase her power over a VO2 Max (maximal aerobic capacity) effort of 2-3 minutes. There were a few key sessions which were used to effectuate this. In the first month of her hill climb preparation, the prescribed intervals were the popular 4x8 minutes, 4x3 minute hill reps and 30/15s. When the hill climb season started, this became more intense; we introduced 1-minute all-out efforts to really push her neuromuscular capacity and simulate the maximal effort required to perform in hill climbs. We also decided to remove the 3-minute reps; whilst effective, it is possible to accumulate more time at a VO2-max intensity when broken down into shorter intervals such as 30/15s and 40/20s, in 6-8 minute blocks.
“Hannah needed to increase her power over a VO2-Max effort”
Hannah’s hill climb season was stellar; she kicked things off with a win at the Hollingbourne Hill Climb in Kent, and a strong 2nd place finish at the Monsal Head HC soon after. High on her list of goals was defending her titles at the Riber/Bank Road Hill Climb double header, which she did with ease. Her win at Bank Road provided a confidence boost; nationals would take place on this climb the next week. And she was right to be confident, achieving a sublime 6th place amongst a strong field at National Championships – this was also enough to win the unofficial Under-23 category.
“Her win at Bank Road provided a confidence boost”
Coming into BUCS Hill Climb, the pressure was mounting. Hannah was undoubtedly the strong favourite to take home the win on Terrace Hill after her impressive performances in the preceding weeks. Not only did she win, she did so emphatically with an advantage of nearly 10 seconds, something almost unheard of in hill climbs of such a short duration. This was enough for Hannah to take the course record (02:51.21) in front of the same 2 competitors who got the better of her in last year’s event; a clear reflection of her improvement during the 2025 season. This improvement was also evident in the 23-watt increase between the respective 2024 and 2025 efforts on Terrace Hill.
Hannah’s story serves as irrefutable evidence of what can be achieved through structured training, consistency and dedication. She broke power PBs across the board, won gold medals and performed at her best level on the domestic road racing circuit.
The only question remaining is: what will next season hold?