Harlech Hell Climb

Last weekend the Welsh road celebrated its ‘world's steepest’ status with a gruelling hill-climb race

- Simon Richardson

Driving 265 miles to ride a 310-metre race may not seem like the most sensible idea, but when the race is straight up the newly crowned steepest road in the world, it seems a shame not to.

Ffordd Pen Llech in Harlech, North West Wales, was awarded that honour by the Guinness Book of Records on July 16. The 950-year-old road took the title from Baldwin Street in Dunedin, New Zealand, after Gwynedd council-appointed surveyors measured it according to the strict conditions earlier this year.

Race organiser Rhys James had his eye on it months before. “The first I heard was last September. Then it popped up again in December or January, as someone had gone out to measure it,” he explained.

“We pencilled in a summer-time date, and had it in [the calendar] from the end of January. If it didn’t get the status we knew it had that advertisement, so regardless we’d have an event anyway.”