Wednesday 12 October 2011

A Good But Hard Weekend

So my second year running the Granville Sydney Memorial open hill climb. This is a classic climb and has been won by some of the greats of the sport. It's first winner was Graham Sydney a profilific hill climber of his day and brother of Granville so a fitting tribute who just happened to be our special guest on the day.

Trying to run an event is very stressful especially when you are also trying to compete. We had 41 entries for the open event which is a good number for a hill climb and 2 past winner were on the start sheet, Matt Clinton and James Dobbin. After the morning's event and not warming down after i wasn't expecting big things from my own performance but did have enough time for a warm up as i was going of near the end at number 39. Matt Clinton was off number 40 so i had hoped that this would spure me on a little. The weather had warmed up a touch from the morning and the rain had stopped so as i made my way to the start line i felt ok. I was riding fixed for the first time on this climb so i would see if i had got the gear right. The legs didn't feel to good and on the second 3rd of the climb i was struggling to keep the pedals turning. The encouragement on the climb was great and on the push for the line the crowd made all the differance. Until the last quater i had forgoten that Matt was chasing me until i herd the crowd shouting for him. I pushed as hard as i could as i didn't want to get caught.
Pushing for the line
   
On finishing i caught my breath as Matt crossed the line. I stopped my computer to save my data but didn't look at the clock as i knew it wasn't a good time as matt was closer to me than i had wanted. So i turned round and made my way back don the climb whilst thanking people for their surport. Matt caught me up and said that he thought i had gone under 5mins which is a good standard on this climb. Matt had done a 4:17 which is a very good time and would be the fastest of the day.

So my time was 4:59.8 which is my second fastest on this course but 11 seconds short of my best but as matt had gone about 11 seconds slower than his best which he did on the same day i surpose i shouldn't be to unhappy.

I hadn't got the gear right and on the few times i have used the fixed bike i now know where i have gone wrong but it will have to wait another 12 month's before i can put this right.



Matt on his way to the win


Andrew Askwith 1st Vet

Shaun Crowther all the way from Jersey

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