Queen of the Mountains
Of the around 40 million women on Strava, Illi Gardner has the most QOM trophies. The current British hill-climb champion, she was coincidentally brought up in the app’s home state of California.
At just 24 years old, Gardner boasts the best female time on over 9,000 segments, including legendary Tour de France climbs including Alpe d’huez, Mont Ventoux and the Col du Tourmalet. For her, QOM hunting is a lifestyle. Why does she like it so much? “It’s just fun,” she tells Cycling Weekly with a chuckle. After six years of road racing, Gardner was tired of feeling “terrified the whole time” jostling inside the peloton, and switched to a life of solo climbing. “I think I’ve always liked doing things quietly, just because it kind of takes the pressure o,” she says. “It’s just you and the hill. Strava provides a good platform to compare yourself with others, and when I started actually being able to get QOMS, that definitely provided a lot of motivation.” Still, she says, “you also have to take it with a pinch of salt.”
Indeed, Gardner has heard stories of women getting men to pace them up climbs in search of QOM trophies, a ploy that’s very much against the hunting spirit. The only help she’s ever had, she explains, is from her dad, who sprayed water on her when she took the crown on Mont Ventoux.