Box Hill Strava KOM smashed (again) as cyclist conquers iconic climb at 33.7km/h

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

"Proper team effort"... Foran Cycling's Dom Jackson smashes Box Hill Strava KOM

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.”

Spotter locations for Box Hill Strava KOM effort by Foran CT

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.”

> There's a new fastest time up Box Hill — but what's the world's hardest Strava KOM to add to your collection?

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.”