The Cobble Wobble Returns!

Frome Cobble is a ‘World Famous’ bicycle hillclimb sprint up 179 yards of a steep, cobbled hill in the heart of Frome, Somerset. With the narrowness of the streets, the backdrop of 17th century buildings and a cheering crowd packed along the full length of the course, the Cobble Wobble is like nothing else.

Starting with modest ambitions, some stripy tape and a couple of radios in 2009, the cobbled hillclimb went professional in 2010 and up to its final running in 2012 saw some massive crowds and equally massive names – many from the world of mountain biking – take on the short, steep, slippery course. With the likes of Chris Akrigg, Dan Atherton, Martyn Ashton and Michal Prokopp racing, the depth of talent was impressive.

Prokop – sweaty determination from a reigning UCI 4X world champion in 2012

Not everyone was out for glory, though, as the many fancy dress robots, tandems, swimmers and santas showed. If you’ve never been to a proper hill climb event, imagine the crowds and enthusiasm of the last 300 yards of a World Cup downhill race.

The organiser of the series, Andrew Denham, stopped running the race after 2012 in order to concentrate on The Bicycle Academy frame building school. With the sad closure of TBA earlier this year, it did give Andrew the time and enthusiasm to get stuck in again.

Get yer robot on!

Attracting a wonderful mix of international pro elite athletes from multiple cycling disciplines, and members of the public of all ages, the event is no more about going fast than it is about getting involved and having fun.
The winner of each category along with the 20 fastest overall riders qualify for the prestigious evening spectacular to crown the ‘King & Queen of the Cobbles’, the overall winners of the event.

While the event date hasn’t been announced yet, the website is up at www.thecobblewobble.co.uk and reading between the lines, the date is going to be ‘scheduled to take place after the cycling world championships to give our elite riders a chance to warm up at that event‘ which would suggest a date around the middle of August 2023. And talking of the UCI, there are a genuine 210 UCI points available for the winner – on a par with a Tour de France stage win…

So, watch the website for details and either start perfecting your fancy dress costume, or drilling holes in your cranks, handlebars and frame for lighter weight…

Obviously trying too hard… no one likes a showoff 😉

“The Cobble Wobble is to Frome, what Cheese-Rolling is to Brockworth in Gloucester.”

Here’s the 2012 event:

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 23 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)