The 2011 edition of the Otley CC hill climb was run under unseasonally warm temperatures. The hill climb season usually means wind, rain and cold (2 years ago, the first climb had to be shortened after 50mph winds). But, despite being October, it felt like it could have been the south of France. I do like the heat, though I was surprised at how much I was drinking during the two stage event. Not often you feel in danger of being dehydrated in UK in October.
Guise Hill
The first climb is Guise Edge. A short and mostly steep effort of about 0.8 miles. The first section is the steepest before going around a hairpin bend and levelling off a little for the finish.
view from the top before the race. Great views of Nidderdale.
I finished in a time of 3.25. Just ahead of Matt Clinton and Gunar Gronlund. I think it was a course record.
A great day to be on the bike – whether a great day to be racing up hills depends on your point of view
After descending Guise Hill, it was off to Norwood Edge for final climb of the day. The course record is 4.42 set by Jeff Wright in 1994. Although the course record has stood for a long time. The balmy conditions meant I thought it could be close. There was a light tailwind, but the high temperature seems to help.
I rode both climbs on gears. Norwood Edge has a steep section at the start before levelling off a little.
Climbing Norwood Edge.
Because the course record was on my mind, I kept looking at my time elapsed on my speedomer, which probably wasn’t a good idea. When I saw the line, I sprinted and finished with a time of 4.46 - 4 seconds off. Gunar Gronlund was also quite close behind with 4.52.
The race was generously sponsored by MAS Consultants, Chevin Cycles and Shutt Velo Rapide. It was a very nice pay check - £115 for 9 minutes work. I will also be getting a pair of shutt velo rapide shorts to test. It was also good to see a big turnout for a hill climb and even a fair few spectators on the climbs. If only all hill climbs could be run under these weather conditions maybe they would be much more popular ….
Interestingly, Chris Boardman once did this event when it was run on East Chevin. I don’t know if he ever raced Norwood Edge, but would be interesting to find out.
A welcome sight – the Finish Sign
Fighting the hill
It’s hard work this hill climb
Ilkley CC beat GS Metro to team prize by one second.
Overall 2011
| 1 | 50 | Tejvan | Pettinger | Sri Chinmoy Racing Team | 08:11.5 | |
| 2 | 10 | Gunner | Gronland | RST Racing Team-Trigon | 08:24.8 | |
| 3 | 40 | Matt | Clinton | MikeVaughan.co.uk | 08:32.6 | |
| 4 | 20 | Rob | Watkinson | Doncaster Wh | 08:58.3 | |
| 5 | 18 | Alastair | Kay | Herblife WheelbaseWheelbase | 09:49.0 | |
| 6 | 25 | Andrew | Pearson | Huddersfield Star Wh | 10:06.1 | |
| 7 | 14 | Ben | Hallworth | Ilkley CC | 10:06.5 |
- 1st Juv Tom Cullen Otley CC 16-06-2
- 2nd Juv Ryan Wakefield Otley CC 17-50-8
- 1st Lady Victoria Annis VC Bradford 12-52-5
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Top man Tejvan. Great report and a great ride. I held you up on the first climb and had a chat with you at the HQ. Good luck in the Nationals.
Well done. So close to beating that course record. Maybe next year. From what I’ve read here you seem to have set a few course records yourself.
Well done Tejvan, you looked super-strong when you came past us on Norwood Edge. Photo of you in action at http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150304185739856&set=oa.173518359396392&type=1&theater – hope you can see – I will send you a higher res copy if you want for your collection.
Good write up Tejvan – I think if we call keep publicising the climbs on the social media sites then hopefully field sizes will increase year on year. Numbers are up a little in the NE climbs so far this year. Good ride today also.
Thanks Ben. Definitely nice to see a few more entering hill climbs. I thought Claire and Otley did a great job
It was a really good event this year – Well done to Claire. Boardman did ride Norwood – his time was inside 5 minutes, but not as quick as marks subsequently set by Jeff Wright, or Jim Henderson (according to Jim), so slower than your time. I’ve no idea of the conditions though. From the data from my warm up ride, your effort should have been in excess of 7.3 w/kg – good going by any standard.