'It was a nice break' - Cycling sensation 'on holiday' breaks Zoncolan, Stelvio and Giau Strava records

Hill climber Illi Gardner added more iconic climbs to her trophy cabinet

Illi Gardner at the summit of the Monte Zoncolan
(Image credit: Illi Gardner)

British hill climbing sensation Illi Gardner spent her holiday in the Dolomites last week scooping up legendary Strava QOMs.

The 24-year-old became the fastest woman ever to ride Italy's Passo dello Stelvio, Passo Giau and Monte Zoncolan, beating a six-year-old record on the latter, set by former world champion Annemiek van Vleuten, by almost a minute and a half.

Gardner’s new Stelvio record is also almost two minutes faster than the previous, while she bettered the Giau benchmark by over four minutes.

“It was a bit crazy,” she told Cycling Weekly. “It was really good, obviously, an amazing week of riding.”

A seasoned QOM hunter, holding over 9,000 crowns on Strava, Gardner said her trip to the Dolomites was a late-summer holiday. “A hard holiday,” she clarified. “I didn’t plan the trip super far in advance. It was more of just a nice break, and I didn’t really know how my fitness would be either after a few months of being in the UK and not riding long climbs.

"[I went] mainly just to ride the climbs," Gardner continued, adding that taking the QOMs wasn't the purpose of the trip. "I always like giving it my best shot and riding hard. You can’t base everything off QOMs, because there’s more to riding than just that. I wanted to go as hard as I could basically up those climbs.”

“I did the Stelvio the first day we got there, which was definitely the right decision because the weather got a lot worse. It was freezing and snowing when we made it up there.

“I tried to do Zoncolan the next day, but I was pretty cooked from Stelvio. It was actually really hot that day and I set off way too hard. It just wasn’t a great experience. I was hoping to give it another shot later in the trip, if things worked out. I think I did Giau the next day, and then [Monte] Grappa, and was able to go back to Zoncolan.”

“I definitely had to dig the deepest on that one,” Gardner said. “The first time I rode it, I think I was about a minute and a bit slower than [Van Vleuten’s] time. I knew that if I did the best ride I could do, then I had a chance of getting it. That one was really difficult. Obviously comparing a race to just doing [the climb] is always a bit different, but I was pretty happy with that one.”

While she was in the Dolomites, Gardner also set a new QOM on the 18km-long Monte Grappa. But, she laughed, “someone keeps flagging it”.

The 24-year-old's next target is defending her National Hill Climb Championships title in Northumberland next month. This year’s course is short – 1.5km in length – which doesn’t play to Gardner's endurance strengths. “It’s a bit less of an exciting climb this year. I’m still planning on doing it, though,” she said.

“It’s hard to be too enthusiastic about it at the moment. But once the excitement of going to the Dolomites wears off, I’ll probably be looking for something to motivate me.”

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Tom Davidson
Senior News and Features Writer

Tom joined Cycling Weekly as a news and features writer in the summer of 2022, having previously contributed as a freelancer. He is fluent in French and Spanish, and holds a master's degree in International Journalism. Since 2020, he has been the host of The TT Podcast, offering race analysis and rider interviews.

An enthusiastic cyclist himself, Tom likes it most when the road goes uphill, and actively seeks out double-figure gradients on his rides. His best result is 28th in a hill-climb competition, albeit out of 40 entrants.