Full Gas at the Hill Climb

As Autumn approaches, the end of road cycling competition nears completion with the traditional hill climbs, and on Saturday morning an excellent field of 37 riders tackled the Rossendale Road Club’s event on the climb of Woodplumpton Road alongside Burnley Golf Club to it’s junction with Crowne Point Rd.

Only 5 seconds separated the top 3 riders with Kieran Wynne-Cattanach of the Lifting Gear Products team taking the win in a lung-bursting 2min 38secs. 2nd was Jude Taylor of team PB Peformance in 2:42 and 3rd Marcus Cram of Muckle Cycle Club in 2:43.

Rachel Galler of the FTTP Team was 11thg overall and 1st lady in a time of 3:33. First Rossendale club member was Daniel Herterick in 12th place with 3:34.

Off road, several valley competitors took the long journey South to ride in the first round of National Cyclo-Cross Trophy series in Derby. The event was held at the magnificent Moorways Leisure Centre and featured the top CX riders from across the four domestic nations.

Recovering from illness and in only her 2nd race of the season, Helmshore’s Elsie Haygarth scored an excellent 14th place in the Junior Ladies’ catageroy, which should bode well for the rest of the series. Father Dave seemed to have recovered from the previous week’s 3 Peaks effort and finished 11th in the open V50 race, 4 places in front of Ramsbottom’s Phil Simcock, in an event won by Nick Craig of the Scott Pioneer team.

Ramsbottom also provided another top finisher with Lewis Craven of the Wheelbase Castelli in 2nd in the Open V40 race behind Pedalon’s Adrian Tinsley.

British Cycling don’t provide an Open V70 category in this series, and Rossendale’s Derek Schoifield took a creditable 28th place in the Open V60 race.

Cyclo-cross continues this weekend with the North West league’s event at Beacon Fell, Skelmersdale on Sunday.