Dondra Head I'M A HILL CLIMBER

Ghat me out of here

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What happens when a British hill-climb legend relocates to the mountains of western India? Trevor Ward finds out

The Western Ghats, a tropical mountain range in India, are home to tigers, leopards, elephants and monkeys. Fortunately, it was only the monkeys that made an appearance when Jim Henderson crashed during a gruelling road race in February. The Sahyadri Classic, one of India’s most prestigious races, saw nearly 200 riders from all over the subcontinent competing on a course that included six ghats - mountain passes - and 3,460m of climbing.

Five-time UK national hill-climb champion and veteran of the Premier Calendar road race series, Henderson was a marked man as he lined up for the start in the pre-dawn light. The 53-year-old had finished second the previous year, winning 50,000 rupees (£500), his biggest cash prize in 30 years of racing. For most of the first 19km climb, Henderson managed to stay on the wheel of eventual winner Athokpam Singh, a member of the Indian national track team who, Henderson notes, “was in nappies when I won my first UK hill-climb in 1998.” “The first climb had an excellent surface with big sweeping bends, like the Alps except with the occasional monkey in the road, and I was sixth over the top,” he says. “I was third on the second climb after grinding out a steady 250 watts for 13 kilometres. At the top, I refilled my bottles - it was 10 o'clock and 25°C, and I'd already drunk two. Then I started my descent to the foot of the next climb. Unfortunately, I never got there.”