2011 Hillclimb Results

Round 4 : All's well that ends well on Gamswell

The final Hospice hillclimb of the year, on 1st September, attracted 18 riders on a perfect evening and produced some seriously quick times.

Kiddies: Youth shone through with the overall win taken by BCW's Connor Furness clocking a lightning 5-27 and shaving over 40 seconds off his first go. Next junior in, at 4th overall and a sub 6 minutes was local speed merchant Henry 'Stirling' Moss at 5-59. LRC's Jamie Bryson was 3rd junior & got up in 6-54, knocking a whopping 58 seconds off his previous effort. Well done to all the juniors for a great display.

Honeys: In the women's category the win was taken by recently crowned (for a 9th time!) world masters champion Anne Plant, with 6-52. Next in was BCW's Pat Hercberg taking over 40 seconds off her last attempt. Next in was hillclimb newbie Amanda Spedding and Hazel Sankey, who managed to shave over 1½ minutes off her previous race.

Wrinklies: The vets category was hotly contested, top oldie being LRC's Eammon Quinn, taking over 30 seconds off his previous time, followed by Neil Akitt, Paul McKenny and VCC's Neil Hercberg. Also competing was an interesting effort by local triathlete George Ambrose, who ditched the bike & ran the course - good effort. I'm hoping to attract Stannah stairlifts to sponsor this category next year so fingers crossed Gents!

Full Results

Uglies: The men's category was taken by Super skinny Scotty Smith, just missing out on the overall. I was next, then BCW's double act Sean Casson & Glenn Rhodes just over 6 minutes. Next up were Roger Lindsay & Tom Holland, only a second apart.

Trophies: Congratulations and much gnashing of teeth has to go to the Barrow Central Wheelers (BCW), who completed a clean sweep in the interclub event. Well done to the yellow menace for a comprehensive win and big turn out to all the races. I hope that everyone has enjoyed a bit of healthy rivalry and competition. Thanks to all BCW's who competed, assisted and generally kept me on the straight and narrow - Hope you all enjoyed it.

Breweries: A huge thank you goes to the Ulverston Brewing Company for sponsoring the race. Four £10 vouchers were handed out to the winners of each category, plus four spot prizes kindly supplied by the brewery. I recommend taking time to get in to the brewery and test out the beers on offer at the Ulverston site. Alternatively the beer festival is on this weekend so get down to the Coro and sample some seriously strong 'Bongo juice'.

Thankies: (I'm struggling now!) None of the races would have taken place without the help of volunteers who gave up their free time to marshal, time keep, take photos, update websites, and give assistance, so deep breath and THANK YOU to Steve, Ian, Wils, Andy, Miss Jenkinson, Zoe, Chadders, Ivor, Brenda & George, Tony, Mike, Claire, Allan, Pete, Charis, the Furness's, Roz & Flumps, the oldies & Martyn. Sorry to anybody I have forgotten, feel free to slap me next time we meet!

Charities: We raised another £26 from entrants plus some in the collection tin - I'll put a total on the web soon.

I hope everyone has enjoyed a chance to have a go throughout the summer at what is usually an autumn sport. Good luck to Lynn Hamel in her National's bid and the Biketreks lads in their racing plans. Thanks to everyone that had a go this year. I want to improve the series for next year so any comments, suggestions, grief is gratefully accepted.

Cheers & see you next season. Hopefully I will have stopped coughing by then. Howie

Round 3 : Grizebeck : 4th August

27 riders turned out to race the 3rd round of the hospice hillclimb series, up Grizebeck hill. 5 LRC riders were joined by new recruit Sam Greenall who had a go at his first ever race and clocked a decent 10 minutes dead. For his efforts Sam won a spot prize worth £10 of cycling booty. Well done Mate - we look forward to seeing you out with the club.

The overall win was flying Super Skinny Scotty Smith with an impressive 7:46, setting the tone for a BCW whitewash. Of the first 5 places 4 were occupied by the 'yellow train', gaining a further 56 seconds in the interclub competition. I reckon we ONLY have to win the final round by 2 minutes 11 seconds to seal overall victory - Im hoping someone has the phone number for Dr Ferrari.!

First female was again the smiling Lynn Hammel who sealed 4th place with 7:58. Winner of the 45+ cat was 15th placed Patrick Elliott with 9:10. On the home front Adam Pickthall was the fastest LRC rider, just missing out on the 8 minute mark with 8:06 which was 6th overall. Asked the key to his success Adam admitted that he has been 'altitude training'; Im pretty sure Michael Rasmussen said something similar in 2007 so we will say no more. I wandered in next with 8:23 closely followed by human torpedo Jared on 8:27. Jamie Bryson was 46 seconds faster than his last race up Grizebeck with 9:12. And Martyn Uttley came in well under 10 minutes with 9:36.

The race was generously sponsored by Gill Cycles, who provided 4 £10 vouchers for the winners of each cat and also 4 spot prizes for 4 randomly chosen riders on the night - 1st race, youngest rider, 2nd female and lantern rouge. Dave & Claire Watson were at the race, with Dave clocking 11:32 and turning green whilst Claire took the sensible option assisting with the marshaling. A big Thank You to the Gill crew and hopefully next time we will see that BMX racing!

The push off was by Ian 'Iron arms' Saunders, and marshalling by Ivor Robinson, Wils Jenkinson & his daughter (sorry - didnt get a name) and the four young Lindow ladies. Timelord was again Steve Jenkins who clocked the finishers as they mumbled their number: "Thir-cough-splutter-teen"!

Full Results

We raised another £34.50 for the hospice, which takes our total to £144.50. With Martyn taking a few hospice quid for his photos and a few coins in the collection tin the idea is to really try and grab some cash on the last race. With this in mind please, and as a great man once squawked "IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN, du du du derr, da da da da da derrrr!" - the final round is on 1st September up Gamswell hill. And note that for this final round racing starts early at 1830, so sign-on is 1800, and to avoid any traffic problems this time sign-on will be at the pay and display car park at the bottom of Stockbridge Lane.

If you haven't raced yet, please turn up and have a go. The more riders the better and as it's a LRC race let's see some club jerseys. The race is sponsored by Ulverston Brewing Company and the Ulverston Beer Festival starts that evening. And to close the curtain on the Hillclimb & TT season there is a night out the following evening - Friday 2nd September - so if you fancy a night out in Ulverston, get that 'old spice' ready. If you are interested in a meal before the mayhem begins then please let Howie know ASAP so we can book tables etc. Probably a curry!

Thanks again to everyone involved so far and hope to see you at round 4. Howard Lindow

Round 2 : Gamswell : 30th June

Second round of Furness masochist society/Hospice hillclimb series took place Thursday 30th June. It was a sprint from John Bettinsons road gaining 456 feet up Gamswell hill in 1.1 mile. That may not sound too bad but this includes a plateau and descent in the middle just to make sure you are in completely wrong gear to tackle the final 25%+ drag for the finish.

On the positive side the 33 riders had good weather and a fantastic view from the top. The overall win was again taken by flying Biketreks racer John Dodgin, who burst the 6 minute barrier with 5:53. Next were local wunderkid Connor Furness & Dutch Demon Eelco Docter, equal on 6-09.

The female category was won by smiling National champ Lynn Hamil, followed by local star Anne Plant, BCW's Pat Hercberg, and a dogged effort from Hazel Sankey. The 45+ category was taken by our own greying grimpeur Eamonn Quinn, just pipping BCW's Chris Burrow.

The interclub competition was strongly contested with 9 Wheelers and 7 Lakes going head to head. Unfortunately we took another pasting, this time at the hands of Connor and Sean Casson who managed a fantastic combined time of 12-38. We came in at 13-10 with times from Adam Pickthall and myself (well done Adam). The other Lakes RC riders came in well with good times including Colin 'coming through' McKenna, J 'new spokes please' B, Richie 'pimp' Dixon & pocket rocket Jamie Bryson.

Several new riders turned up to have a go and a few were interested in joining up a local club - so that bodes well.

The race was sponsored by Ulverston-based bike shop DC Cycles with owner Dave Drysdale giving the hill a good go. For those of you who don't know, DC is situated On Upper Brook St in Ulverston, opposite the Chippy Bank. The proprietors are the fantastically hairy Dave and his 'BBB' Charis. Dave had a go at the ride before doling out the prizes at the finish.

As always the race would not have gone ahead without several people giving up their time to support and assist - so a massive thank you to BCW's Steve Jenkin who like Dr Who is in charge of time. His assistant in the Tardis was Wils Jenkinson. Andy Woods kept an eye on the marshalling and Ian Saunders hoyed everyone off the start line.

Most importantly several people again put in more than the required £2 entry fee (£1 going to the CTT) and we raised another £50 for the hospice. Thank you to everyone who rode, shouted, assisted and chipped in. See you at round 3.

Howard Lindow

Full Results

Round 1 : Grizebeck : 26th May

Round 1 of the Hospice Hillclimb series took place on Thursday 26th May up Grizebeck hill. There was a fantastic turnout of 37 riders including the female national hill climb champion Lynn Hamel.

The fastest time was set by John Dodgin of Biketreks with an impressive 7:21, followed closely by BCW rider Scott Smith at 7:31. Lynn Hammel was 1st lady with 7:48 & Connor Furness of the BCW was 1st junior with 8:51. Lakes RC's Steve Williams took 1st place in the 45+ category with 8:25.

The race was sponsored by Topmark cycles of Barrow, and Paul Nixon raced and presented the winners' prizes.

Other Lakes RC riders included Howard Lindow, Adam Pickthall, Eamonn Quinn, Colin McKenna, John Lever, Neil Akitt, and a flying performance from lil' Jamie Bryson.

Lakes/BCW team event:

In the interclub competition between the Wheelers and Lakes RC, the BCW took round one with their fastest 2 times beating us by 43 seconds. SO dust off the lightweight bike, strip off the bottle cages and prepare for battle in the DC cycles sponsored round 2 - Gamswell hill in a month's time. And if we can't win fairly then we will send out Jamie on a Suzuki 900cc, disguised as a Trek.

Photos

Martyn Uttley was present taking photographs of the rather ashen-coloured riders as they crested the hill, and he'll be making these available through his website www.martynuttleyphotography.co.uk. All profits going to the Hospice.

Speaking of charity the 1st race managed to raise £60 for the Hospice, with many riders opting to pay more than the requested £2.

On a personal note I can honestly say that I have never ever felt so bad so quickly on a bike in my life. It felt like I had sandpapered my lungs & looking at some people at the finish I think its fair to say we all made a 'good effort'.

Thanks for everyone involved in helping and racing and see you at round 2.

Howard Lindow

Full Results