Dromara Cycling Club will be hosting the 10th annual Slieve Croob Hill Climb Challenge on Saturday 3 October 2026.
The event is doubling up as the National Hill Climb Championships!
This open hill climb competition offers entrants a chance to test themselves against one of the toughest road climbs in Ireland. The road climb follows the public road up Dree Hill then takes the private concrete path up to the summit of Slieve Croob. The distance is 5 km.
Fee: £14 for those age 18 and over, £10 for Junior and Under 16 (non championship).
Riders must have a competition licence from Cycling Ireland to participate (Limited competition or Full competition). One day licences will be available through the Eventmaster.ie registration site.
Prizes:
Fastest male and female riders will have their names engraved on the Hill Climb trophy.
There will be National medals for the following categories Junior men, Junior women, Senior open, Senior women, M40, M50, M60, M70, Masters women.
The event is open to non-Irish riders as well as Under 16s who can enter the Open (non-championship) event.
Registration:
Pre-registration is now open – link here
If you have any issues registering please email martin@dromaracc.co.uk
On the day:
Registration desk (for number collection) opens at 9:30 on event day at Peter Morgan cottage, Dree Hill, Finnis, Dromore (54.36236, -6.02360)
What3words location – hairstyle.empire.cheesy
First rider away at 10 am. One minute intervals. On the line the riders get a shoulder number. This gets removed at the summit on Slieve Croob.
Here is the full route of the course – https://www.strava.com/routes/6089526 and thanks to veloviewer you can see the gradient of the climb.
Names on the Slieve Croob Hill Climb Challenge Perpetual Award
| Date | Male | Time | Female | Time | Report |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10/09/2016 | Craig McAuley | 15:02 | Shalene McMurray | 20:18 | here |
| 16/09/2017 | Darnell Moore | 13:37 | Wannita Broome | 30:00 | here |
| 22/09/2018 | Darnell Moore | 13:55 | Helen Stack | 20:26 | here |
| 21/09/2019 | Cian May | 17:15 | Julie Rea | 25:03 | here |
| 19/09/2020 | cancelled | due | to | Covid 19 | |
| 18/09/2021 | Lindsay Watson | 15:04 | here | ||
| 17/09/2022 | Paul-Antoine Hagan | 14:20 | here | ||
| 23/09/2023 | Nathan Mullan | 16:46 | Caroline Daly | 22:11 | here |
| 21/09/2024 | Gareth O'Neill | 15:45 | Anna McArdle | 23:48 | here |
| 20/09/2025 | Gareth O'Neill | 14:42 | Rachel Newell | 21:36 | here |
