National Hill Climb Champs
With the absence of local events at the weekend, Rossendale’s cyclists had to travel outside of the region for competition, with both on and off road riders heading to the North East of England.
The National Hill Climb championships took place on the 0.7 mile Dipton Mill Rd climb out of the centre of Hexham town and it was Harry Macfarlane of the TAAP Kalaas team who took the win in a lung-bursting time of 3min 09.43 secs. Recent winner of Rossendale’s Rake and Crowne Point events, Kieran Wynne-Cattanach finished 3rd in 3:18.34. Best valley club rider was Daniel Herterick in 70th place at 3:58.71 followed by Luke Dabbs in 122nd (4:18.82), both excellent results against the 247 finishers of the country’s best climbing cyclists.
Just a few miles up the road., the 2nd round of the National Trophy CX series was taking place at the coastal setting of the Gypsies Stadium in South Shields. The well-draining course and fine weather on the day resulted in fast times for all riders, with only the 25m long sand pit proving to be any real obstacle. As proving currently in the local leagues, the Men’s V50 race was the most heavily subscribed with Nick Craig of Scott Racing making his break with one lap to go for a clear win from Stuart Marshall of Rose Racing. Helmshore’s Dave Haygarth continued with his season’s fine form to take 11th place with Ramsbottom’s JMC Phil Simcock in 14th.
Rossendale appears to be good at providing several father/daughter teams in CX racing as Iona Simcock took an excellent 11th place finish in the Women’s Junior category, although Elsie Haygarth pulled out after one lap, still suffering from illness that has plagued her racing on and off all season.
In the Men’s Senior race, spectators were treated to the sight of World Cup series rider Thomas Mein of Hope Factory Racing taking the win by over a minute from Toby Barnes of Spectra Racing, Mein being the only rider to complete the 10 laps in under an hour.
There is no Men’s V70 category in this series but in the V60 race Rossendale’s Derek Schofield had a race long battle with fellow 70 year old Lynn Lines of Gateway Racing, taking the final sprint to the line in 29th place overall, both having passed the current National V70 champion Martin Eadon in the closing stages of the race.
CX racing returns to the North West this weekend, with the 6th round of league series taking place at Stadt Moors, St. Helens on Saturday, with Haygarth looking to take his first win of the season after several near misses.
Photo:
Luke Dabbs showing the effort put in at the National Hill Climb
