Yorks hill climb

A few of us will be doing Catford's yorks hill climb on Sunday, and I note group 3 will be cheering us on!

Even some of the pros can mess it up on the 25% gradient. Here is Dean Downing last year going off too hard and wobbling all over the road. He finished 20 secs off the winner at 2:10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGp8ov1X9TY

Here was the winner Robert Gough showing how it should be done, doing a 1:49.2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AXNirkDklc

Myself, the hope is to try to creep into the top 50 by doing around 2:30. That's the plan anyway.

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Permalink Reply by Doug Gray on October 9, 2011 at 14:02

When I opened the curtains this morning it looked like armageddon, but it turned out all right. There was a good turn out of supporters to cheer the riders, including the boys and girls from group 3 who got to see me pull a very funny face. The wet surface took the edge of some of the times but it wasn't too bad. I think Robert Cough's winning time was 1:54, five seconds off last year.

I felt pretty good and enjoyed it, the cheers of the crowd really pull you along and there is a bloke shouting on a PA system. Though after the finish I almost chucked. I did 2:22, which was well within my target. This was a relief because they initially wrote down 2:32 on the big board, which didn't compute with my Garmin. So at the end I asked the official timer guy to check it and yes, a mistake had been made. I think he got confused with my start number 32.

Dave Marshell, Rob Robbins and Dan did fantastic efforts. Dan was also noting events and wants our hill climb to be as big as this next year.

All good fun!

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cottingham on October 9, 2011 at 15:24

I did a 2.45, felt stronger as i went further up the hill. will do it again next year i im still around.

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Permalink Reply by rob on October 9, 2011 at 18:57

Well played Doug - 10 seconds was the difference between top-50 and top-60 riders last year (not to mention top-bragging rights)! and it was wet.....

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Permalink Reply by Rob G on October 9, 2011 at 19:52

A couple of pics here http://goo.gl/yOcKG an http://goo.gl/gP4bC

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Permalink Reply by rob on October 9, 2011 at 19:59

Wouldn't like to meet that on a dark night!

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Permalink Reply by Doug Gray on October 9, 2011 at 20:51

Was focused on that 1.4 seconds you reminded me about!

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Permalink Reply by Doug Gray on October 9, 2011 at 20:45

Lol. Well done for finding that, Rob! Shame it doesn't copy and paste.

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Permalink Reply by Frankie Hobbins on October 11, 2011 at 16:08

Nice one everyone! Doug if you want the picture on your computer you can right click and choose the size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fizban_of_ad_gefrin/6226801155/sizes/o...

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fizban_of_ad_gefrin/6226684985/sizes/o...

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Permalink Reply by Doug Gray on October 12, 2011 at 0:18

Yeah did work out out to do it in the end. Thanks anyway!

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Permalink Reply by David Howard smith on October 9, 2011 at 15:46

I managed to get to the hill in time to watch the last 20 riders unfortunatly I missed the Avanti riders, but as usual met up with old friends. This is a timeless event there are not vast differences in times over the years, todays result could have been that of a ride in the 1960's when I did my best ride on that day the winners time was 1.54 as today.