Clifton CC

CLIFTON CC HILL CLIMB 2011: Bishop Wilton, Worsendale

Big Thanks to my Team of helpers this morning, without whom the event could not have taken place. I felt distinctly under par today, but everyone around me helped to keep the event going and I am extremely grateful:

To Rob for coping with the early morning drama at home, timekeeping & then ensuring I had no packing away to do after the event, Ian H for stoically pushing off all the riders, Virginie for providing vital marshalling up at the top, my Dad for calling out rider numbers at the finish and my Mum & Siobhan for making & then selling the Flapjacks after the event. Tevez, take note, teamwork!

Well done to all the riders today, I’ve only really just digested the results. Jamie posted a very quick time, which ranks up there close to Kit’s course record (5-24) and Alistair Kaye & Mark Turrell who’ve also ridden around 5-30 & 5-40.

The Clifton rides of the day have to go to Richard & Heather for winning the Men’s & Women’s Club Events, respectively. Heather was taking things more seriously than usual (even seen warming up & taking off her watch!) – it paid off as she smashed her pb and Clifton record. Toby took 2nd Clifton rider overall and the 1st Junior. Strictly, Richard was 1st V40, but as he takes the Overall trophy, then Jon C picks up that honour, by virtue of turning 40 this week. Darren N posted the fastest time en MTB – admirable to drag the heavy MTB up that road climb – another trophy sorted for the Club Presentation Evening.

Well done to all riders, results below and thanks for your generous donations for the Flapjacks, we raised £27 for Cancer Research

Position Name Time
1 Jamie Sharp 5-36 1st FASTEST York Cycleworks
2 Richard Douthwaite 6-17 1st CLIFTON CC RIDER V42
3 Toby Everett 6-33 1st JUNIOR 17yrs
4 Will Stavely 6-35 16yrs
5 Sean Lawson 6-39
6 Nathan Veall 6-47 15yrs
7 Heather Tuffs 6-50 1st WOMAN
8 Greg Melia 6-57
9 Jon Cocker 6-58 V40
10 Jack Harrison 7-00 14yrs
11 Martin Seaman 7-17 new member
12 Mark Antrobus 7-28 V46
13 Matt Hardy 7-39
14 Nigel Lawson 7-45 V49
15 Jon Geldapp 7-48
16 Daniel Gran 7-48
17 Karl Midhuge (sp?) 7-49
18 Tim Richardson 7-59 V53
19 Andrew Thurman 8-18
20 Neil Swain 8-24 V40
21 Jai Sandhu 8-30 16yrs
22 John Clarke 8-31 V63
23 Darren N 10-05 1st MTB

Since I was lurking around at the start (flogging old club kit, still some to go, contact me if interested, etc) I'd note that Richard D rode with his left hand swathed in bandages, having fallen on last weekend's Easy Riders ride (!); prior to being pushed off he was eyeing it a bit anxiously and experimenting with different possible grips on the bars. 6-17 eh? Give that vets race licence some proper exercise next year, lad!

Firstly, I’d like to offer a big thank you to Claire on behalf of everyone present for putting on a grand show, as always, despite her feeling distinctly under the weather. Claire was full of smiles all morning and did the tough thing by putting in the hard yards while suffering in silence. Thank you very much from all of us.

My day started strangely. 62 of us turned up at the car park of Huggate Pub for the MTB club run incorporating the hill climb. The 62 comprised 47 sheep (I counted them, sadly), 12 ducks, 1 pigeon, 1 dog and myself. I must be going mad because I yelled to the sheep whether they wanted to join me on a club run; this prompted them all to run over to the fence and start bleating at me. I took that as a ‘no’. A “very select group” then rode out of Huggate on the club run. Steph had mapped out a superb route, it was both picturesque and challenging. Riding alongside two deer in Millington Wood was a real highlight. I’ve done some big MTB rides this year with the Club – eg. 10 @ Kirroughtree, 100km Moors Marathon, two long distance trailquests and the Hill climb – and too often for my liking have found myself on my own (…I can sense the avalanche of jokes coming my way as to the reason why )

Anyway, this very select MTB group turned up at Bishop Wilton just ahead of approx. 20 on the road club run led out from the Square by Rob. Strangely, I was the only one flying the Clifton MTB flag - where was everyone else? In the race itself, I struggled to get the mountain bike to flow on the tarmac, really could have done with some slicks! I also got lost in a million small gears. Half way up, someone yelled “Go cobber”…excellent! The Hill climb is a great event, except of course for the uphill bit. It was fantastic to see 5 teenagers in the race, 4 finishing in the top 10!

Thanks to all the marshals for their help and to Claire’s mum and Siobhan for the magnificent flapjacks! Afterwards, I hitched a ride on the back of the road club run to the café in Millington before continuing on to Huggate. The sheep, by this time, had lost interest.

Thanks for a great day.

D.

Thanks for doing the hillclimb Claire, you looked sunny even if you weren't feeling well. I was please with beating 7 minutes, especially after a year of chugging round endurance events

Talking of endurance events, James Cracknell and Jerone Walters are currently 750 miles into a Land's End - John O'Groats tandem record attempt. You can follow their tracker here, they started at 3am Saturday and they've currently got 92 miles to ride before 5.14 Monday morning. This is going to be close!

Me too really enjoyable hill climb. Thanks to Claire and crew for a well organised event as always.

As for the ride itself managed to match my time of 2 years before. Strange feeling, on one hand nice to know I haven't got worse but if I'd known it was that close I would have tried harder. Also a bit miffed I didn't turn up on my mtb I could have had a crack at that award withonly Darren to beat. No disrespect meant Darren. I must admit I thought there would have been a few more mtbers competing.

And thanks Greg for paying for my lunch at Millington. Not sure wether your planning on doing the Autumn audax next week but remind me I owe you lunch.

Jon

Thanks a lot for the event, Claire and Virginie and Ian and others.

I hope he won’t mind this being mentioned, but Daniel G's time of 7 mins 48 is remarkable considering that he only started cycling a few months ago after watching this year’s Tour de France!
Great stuff.

It looks like our younger riders are really raising the standards which is great to see, I really enjoy this event riding or helping as it's the end of the season for many combined with a shorter club ride for me and a good cafe stop with great company at the same time coming across 3 old running friends I havn't seen for years.

Heather just keeps getting better and better considering the contrast between this event and the 3 peaks cyclo cross the week before where despite setting off 20 minutes after everyone else due to a clash of bikes on the start line causing mechanical problems also a couple of punctures on route she battled round to win the under 23 category which won her a very lucrative cash prize.

Ian H

Hi folks, I had today 2 hours free, so I went after my flue again on my bike and went to Bishop Wilton trying to check out the hill, and what happend? Even though I had a look at the street a few day´s ago and I knew where it is, i took the big road A166 and wanted to compare my time... so the hill is the same and the meters also, but I wondered how is it possible to organize a safe Hill climb competition on such a road. Wondering a little bit that on the pictures it looked smaller... Afterwards home I realized that I was on the wrang way. Arghhhh, by the way, my time for 1,5km 7:45, but I can´t compare it to the Hill Climb, so i have to go another time, the RIGHT CLIMB!!! Good reason to go again, today was the weather fantastic, but my lungs wanted to come out! But i hade a nice ride...

I climbed today (9.11.) the "right" hill with 2km and a time of 9:20. So I would be last! I wonder how do you climb up sooo fast? Are all these guys lightweights? If I would do only the climb, I could come maybe under 9min, but that´s it... with my 0,1t! Respect guys!!! Great respect!