Who is fastest on a hill climb a cyclist or a runner?

Since the dawn of the bicycling age, cyclists and runners have always wondered: who is the fittest, strongest and fastest? It's a question we've tackled ourselves many times. Recently, we found out who is better at transitioning from their native sport to the other. In that case, it was the runner who clinched victory.

In search of redemption, we came up with a new challenge. One that we thought would swings the advantage in favour of the cyclist. The challenge was to see who could scale the punchy hill climb of Fox Hill in Bath the fastest. Drafted in to retake the crown was Conor Dunne from GCN. The runners were represented by triathlete Mark Threlfall from our sister channel GTN, who had just completed seven marathons in seven days.

• Read more: Cyclist vs runner: Who's the better athlete?

Fox Hill averages 16% with pitches hitting a vomit-inducing 30% in places, meaning not only was gearing going to be an issue, but so too was traction. With the climb only short it was going to be a full gas anaerobic effort from both contenders.

Mark thought the terrain should mean that the bike had the upper hand and would clean the floor with him. However, as he was quick to point out, this would mean that a loss for Conor would be an embarrassment that would be hard to live down.

With the niceties underway the pair lined up at the base of the climb ready to take on the steep slopes that lay ahead. At the flag drop, Mark got a blistering start – no need to waste time clipping into pedals when you're on foot. From there the gap never seemed to close, with Conor struggling at points just to keep the bike moving on the testing gradients.

• Read more: David Gaudu finishes second in icy trail running epic

As the climb flattened off Mark had pulled out an unassailable lead over Conor that saw him seal the victory. Only a handful of seconds later Conor crossed the line head in hands and breathing heavily. We aren’t sure if he collapsed over his bike as a result of the effort he put in or with the shame of letting us down and handing another victory to the runners.

If you have any ideas for what we could do next in the battle between runners and riders make sure to let us know in the comments below. Ideally something that us cyclists have a good chance of winning if you could!