Club Hill Climb 15-Aug-19

The Club Hill Climb is the last club event of the season, the summer is coming to an end and the evenings start to draw in. First rider off at 7:11.

Quite a mild evening, and much better that the last few years of the Hill Climb when it was colder and damp.  The only thing missing was the fish and chips afterwards! Call me a cynic, but you could see the result of this with many fewer supporters, just the usual hardy fellows that had been out during the rest of the evening events.  Eight riders tonight, four Redmon.

Hill Climbs are a strange form of racing, very specialist.  I never know which tactics to use: to go as fast as you can from the bottom of the hill, or save yourself for the lumpy bits halfway up?  I chose the former this year, and by going too slowly at first achieved my worst result ever, I even rode it faster the previous weekend on a training ride!  The fastest overall rider and fastest club member, and our Hill Climb Champ for 2019, was Eddie Allen with 3:02, not quite cracking the 3 minute barrier this year.  I was obviously not a good enough target for him, being so slow.

A very BIG thank you to Derek for organising the club racing series this year, and to the other club members that help run the events.  The helpers this year were presented with multiple bottles of wine after the event from both Derek and Richard as a thank you for their help, including the timekeepers (Roger/Clive), pusher off (Malcolm) and main marshal (Geoff).  And afterwards, we all had a cup of tea or coffee from flasks brought along, and David Eccles arrived later with biscuits!