Peter Ansell writes … Yesterday afternoon’s humid conditions gave way to a barmy evening and was ideal for the latest edition of the club’s Hill Climb for the Les Black Cup. A good crowd was on the hairpin bend, about 250m before the finish, encouraging the 17 club riders and guests.
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Photo Gallery – click an image to close it. Photos are by Dave Hayward
Stephen Roach was first to face assistant timekeeper Dave Adams as Stephen wanted to take some pictures of the others ascending the hill to Ranmore Common. M Brannan, Redhill CC set the standard with 2m 49.09s. Next came two friends of Patrick Trainor from Reading CC trying a hill climb for the first time. They were followed by a majestic Simon Richardson who had not ridden a bike for 2 weeks whilst covering Le Tour. The bar was lowered when young Chris Wallis (La Fuga RT) produced an excellent 2:44.09. Paul McGuigan looked disappointed with his 2:54.
Photo: Dave Hayward
Club competition started to hot up with the arrival of James Stuart 2:42.92 followed just over 2 mins later by Marcus Brueton 2:44.32 and sandwiched between was John Storms Kingston Whlrs 2:36.89. James Humphries and Ralph de Kanter riding their first hill climbs were separated by tenths of sec. Simon Hazeldine out to support the event but decided at the last minute to ride, this isn’t his kind of event and faded on the steepest part of the hill.
The arrival of the next three riders was eagerly anticipated. In-form and newly promoted 2nd cat was Ben Moores trying emulate brother Chris by winning the event, followed closely by past winner Simon Warren and last year’s winner Dan Sullivan. Ben just failed to beat Dan’s 2:29 club record for the short hill but was quick enough to beat Dan by 2 secs. It needed timekeeper Peter Ansell to use the memory function on the watch to separate Simon from Marcus with Marcus getting the better by 6/10th sec.
It was good to see Chris Moores back on the bike again after 18 months of knee problems and recorded a very creditable time of 3:07. An excellent evenings racing was followed by a social drink in the Stepping Stones Pub where tales of woe were exchanged and Dan was heard to be muttering something about 2 seconds! It’s been a pleasure timekeeping.
1. B Moores 2:31.20 1
2. D Sullivan 2:33.86 2
3. J Storms (Guest) 2:36.89
4. J Stuart 2:42.92 3
5. L Wallis (Guest) 2:44.00
6. M Brueton 2:44.32 4
7. S Warren 2:44.92 5
8. M Brannan (Guest) 2:49.09
9. P McGuigan 2:53.57 6
10. J Humphries 3:01.51 7
11. R de Kanter 3:01.73 8
12. C Moores 3:06.13 9
13. S Richardson 3:10.92 10
14. G Woodford (Guest) 3:15.57
15. S Roach 3:22.09 11
16. C Jubb (Guest) 3:26.67
17. S Hazeldine 3:27.67 12
