Wednesday 12 October 2011

Monsal Head

I wanted to get one hill climb in this year that had a large crowd and was one of the biggest field's in the country so i opted for the Sheffrec CC run event which takes place on Monsal Head in Derbyshire. It is run on a closed road so the spectators have full run of the course. I got there early so as i could have a look at the climb. I rode up it on the fixie and the start was fairly flat but thought that it wouldn't hinder me to much and i would make the time back and more on the climb itself.
trying to give it sum

I was there nearly 3 hours before my start time so the boredom started to set in. We had to park in a farmers field so the rollers were going to be a problem for warming up, then it would be a walk across the field in the cycling shoes to get to the start which is never good whilst dodging the cow dung.

I wasn't feeling to good after the previous days 2 hill climbs but thought i would still do ok. I had hoped for a time in the low 1:40s. I could hear the crowd cheering every rider up as the commentator did his best to give some info about each rider. As i was off 109 i would no prity soon just how well i had done.

I felt ok on the start line but as soon as i had set off i knew the fixie wasn't the right way to go for me. I could only get up to about 30kph and the big boyes would have been pushing 40. Then as soon as i hit the climb my legs just died on me until the final 80 meters as the crowd encouragement pushed me on to pick the speed up and finish ok. On crossing the line i knew that my time was poor as it took me all of about 20seconds to get my breath back. I did a 1:54 which was very poor. The winner Gunnar Gronlund won in 1:26. I finished in 49th place.

Top 4
1. Gunnar Gronlund 1:26
2. Chris Metcalf 1:27
3. Lee Baldwin 1:27.9
4. Matt Clinton 1.29.9

This climb is ideal for fixed if you can push a big enough gear for the flat section and keep it going on the climb. For me i just don't have the power so if i do it again it will have to be geared.

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